Scientists Clone Sheep With 'Good' Fat 233
redletterdave writes "Chinese scientists have cloned a genetically modified sheep containing a 'good' type of fat found naturally in nuts, seeds, fish and leafy greens that helps reduce the risk of heart attacks and cardiovascular disease. The gene, which is linked to the production of polyunsaturated fatty acids, was inserted into a donor cell taken from the ear of a Chinese Merino sheep. The cell was then inserted into an unfertilized egg and implanted into the womb of a surrogate sheep. With any luck, this process could be replicated in the future to clone more animals for safe and healthy consumption."
Re:Healthy (Score:5, Insightful)
Here in America, we also have processed grains in everything.
We also have a very high percentage of our diets consist of processed GMO grains (corn, wheat). If you're having 2 hamburgers with a handful of corn chips and two white wheat buns, the meat isn't going to be the primary component of the meal.
It seems that every couple months there's a news article about some old guy or gal who died after a fairly insignificant (not particularly active or sedentary, nothing really marked to note) life who spent their entire life having pork (ham/bacon) and eggs for breakfast every day. It wasn't until the inclusion of excess grains that Americans started to have issues in the late 1800s.
Re:Genetically Modified Hogs next? (Score:5, Insightful)
Worth pointing out that the same applies to vegetables and fruits. Winter tomatoes grown in the sandy soils of Florida can't really be compared nutritionally [npr.org] to what someone can get out of their own garden.
Ultimately, it's all about the "ingredients". That's long been considered a truism for chefs in the kitchen as it is for someone involved in raising animals. That this is routinely overlooked, glossed over or otherwise dismissed in the pursuit of economic interests and efficiencies is both funny and tragic. Funny in the sense of "What the hell did you expect?", and tragic in the sense of engaging in (and wasting time and effort with) tortured discussions of good/bad ideas and practices which, ultimately, are workaround to workarounds.
Re:Ethics of GMO animals? (Score:3, Insightful)
We've been doing GMO for centuries, many of them. The difference is now we're able to make specific, targeted changes much more rapidly, whereas before we had to breed features in and out of our food species over very (very very in some cases) long periods with only a partial ability to control the outcomes well. This whole argument is kinda like hearing someone say "You genetically modified a housecat to not have claws? That's so unnatural!" .. as if housecats are at all natural. We created what they are today over a long period (well, and some more modern breeds/features over a shorter period when we understood breeding properly). If you want a "natural" pet, trying having a cougar sit in your lap and purr every day (insert cougar dating joke here).
All of the modern major food supply species: Cows, Pigs, Chickens, etc... are all incredibly unnatural species already, even before the advent of proper GMO. They'd go extinct in a heartbeat without us growing/farming/protecting them until we eat them. We engineered them as food sources, they're not natural!
Re:Disgusting (Score:2, Insightful)
Chickens eat bugs and grass, not feed.
We domesticated chickens about 5000 years ago. They haven't been eating bugs and grass for a long time. (Actually I'm pretty certain birds don't eat grass at all, so you might want to brush up on your livestock knowledge). Chickens are entirely dependent on humans, and wouldn't survive a week without humans.
If you really want to stop eating anything humans have created and changed, you should stop eating almost everything in the food supply. About the only food in your average supermarket that hasn't been completely created by human beings through selective breeding is fish and seafood.
or, just eat "nuts, seeds, fish and leafy greens" (Score:5, Insightful)
Re:First clone of first post! (Score:4, Insightful)
I would dispute 'very good'.
Re:Genetically Modified Hogs next? (Score:4, Insightful)
When chickens are raised on a diet or worms that grow in fresh cow dung, the consistency, flavor, and overall health of their eggs is substantially higher than what is generally available in the supermarket.
For some reason, the more you talk up animal products, the more I want to become a vegan.
Funny you would say that. Have you seen the crap that vegetables are grown in? As someone who grows his own vegetables, let me tell you how to make the most healthy soil available.
1) Start with fresh manure from a herbivore. That's crap from a vegetarian to you city folk. Bunny crap works the best when mixed with urine soaked saw dust. Horse manure mixed with urine soaked bedding, cow, goat,llama or other large, herbivore mammal will also work.
2) Allow it to rot for a few months. (This is a good additive as is, but we can make it better)
3) Feed the rotted manure it to worms. Red Wigglers are the most common.
4) Separate the live worms from the worm crap.
5) The crap that is left is the best soil you will ever run across and it will produce the greatest vegetables on the planet.
That's right. Crap from crap fed worms is the best soil imaginable. Of course, that re-crapped crap is what is absorbed into the plants, mixed with water, CO2 and sunlight to make the vegetables you eat. And they are delicious!
Of course, some animal products can be beneficial as well. Bone meal (ground up animal bones), blood meal and fish emulsion are also beneficial, but nothing compares to good old worm shit.
Don't think that just because you are vegetarian that you are not eating crap. Manure is the most important product in agriculture behind sunlight and water.