Genertically modifying cows to make people fatter
Discussion
Coz we are so underweight
http://news.bbc.co.uk/1/hi/sci/tech/8014598.stm
"We can use natural methods - simply selecting the best animals - to produce livestock that make more meat or more milk.Using this bovine "HapMap", researchers can track the differences between the breeds that affect the quality of meat and milk yields.[This map] will transform how dairy and beef cattle are bred, said Richard Gibbs.Genetic tools are already being developed and proving useful to the dairy industry, and we predict they will be applied to improve the beef industry."
How about leaving the poor cows alone and us peeps eating normal cows and normal fruit, veg and fish as well, just like the old days? We might even be able to stop buying larger and larger size trousers then as well ...
Regards
Andy
http://news.bbc.co.uk/1/hi/sci/tech/8014598.stm
"We can use natural methods - simply selecting the best animals - to produce livestock that make more meat or more milk.Using this bovine "HapMap", researchers can track the differences between the breeds that affect the quality of meat and milk yields.[This map] will transform how dairy and beef cattle are bred, said Richard Gibbs.Genetic tools are already being developed and proving useful to the dairy industry, and we predict they will be applied to improve the beef industry."
How about leaving the poor cows alone and us peeps eating normal cows and normal fruit, veg and fish as well, just like the old days? We might even be able to stop buying larger and larger size trousers then as well ...
Regards
Andy
Because it's more efficient.
It isn't genetic modification, it's selective breeding, using the genome to identify and quantify charactistics.
Having a cow produce more beef or milk won't make a quarter pounder (or a royale for that matter) any bigger. If anything, they'd be looking at leaner meat too.
It isn't genetic modification, it's selective breeding, using the genome to identify and quantify charactistics.
Having a cow produce more beef or milk won't make a quarter pounder (or a royale for that matter) any bigger. If anything, they'd be looking at leaner meat too.
TheEnd said:
Because it's more efficient.
It isn't genetic modification, it's selective breeding, using the genome to identify and quantify charactistics.
Having a cow produce more beef or milk won't make a quarter pounder (or a royale for that matter) any bigger. If anything, they'd be looking at leaner meat too.
By your own admission it will make more quarter pounders ( "more beef or milk") . Does the world need that? It isn't genetic modification, it's selective breeding, using the genome to identify and quantify charactistics.
Having a cow produce more beef or milk won't make a quarter pounder (or a royale for that matter) any bigger. If anything, they'd be looking at leaner meat too.
Regards
Andy
My dad designed a feeder that fed certain cows a certain amound each day which made them produce more milk than usual. He didnt have to genectically modify any cows... Leave the poor things alone.
He won a few awards for it too... But was also told to cease from imidiate effect sell it by a representative of the equilivent back in the day of DEFRA at a trade stand at an Agg show because more milk was being produced than needed, was at the time of the intrducion of milk quotas...Case of right product wrong time... but that is another story for another time
He won a few awards for it too... But was also told to cease from imidiate effect sell it by a representative of the equilivent back in the day of DEFRA at a trade stand at an Agg show because more milk was being produced than needed, was at the time of the intrducion of milk quotas...Case of right product wrong time... but that is another story for another time
Genetically modifying cattle to produce more is not automatically a problem for us, we've been selectively breeding them for centuries for exactly the same reason. How fat we get is a function of how much we eat.
Far more dangerous to us are the side effects of these endeavours. Once we discovered that a cereal diet made cattle bigger (and fatter) a huge industry developed to grow cereal crops. More than was needed, in the end. So they are fed to us. And we get...
Far more dangerous to us are the side effects of these endeavours. Once we discovered that a cereal diet made cattle bigger (and fatter) a huge industry developed to grow cereal crops. More than was needed, in the end. So they are fed to us. And we get...
(Beef Farmer Hat On) Nothing to get flustered about - been going on for hundreds of years - now scientists can prove on a piece of paper what good stockmen have been able to do with their eyes for generations.
Supposedly more meat will be consumed as the third world gets more prosperous - climatologists will get their knickers in a twist about the Methane produced, feedstuffs will be changed to combat the problem and bulls
t will smell like roses.
Meantime Beef Herd numbers in the UK will continue to decline as more and more people have less and less of a clue where the tasteless lean red stuff they stick in a frying pan comes from.
Plus ca change, plus c'est la meme chose.
Supposedly more meat will be consumed as the third world gets more prosperous - climatologists will get their knickers in a twist about the Methane produced, feedstuffs will be changed to combat the problem and bulls
t will smell like roses.Meantime Beef Herd numbers in the UK will continue to decline as more and more people have less and less of a clue where the tasteless lean red stuff they stick in a frying pan comes from.
Plus ca change, plus c'est la meme chose.
zakelwe said:
TheEnd said:
Because it's more efficient.
It isn't genetic modification, it's selective breeding, using the genome to identify and quantify charactistics.
Having a cow produce more beef or milk won't make a quarter pounder (or a royale for that matter) any bigger. If anything, they'd be looking at leaner meat too.
By your own admission it will make more quarter pounders ( "more beef or milk") . Does the world need that? It isn't genetic modification, it's selective breeding, using the genome to identify and quantify charactistics.
Having a cow produce more beef or milk won't make a quarter pounder (or a royale for that matter) any bigger. If anything, they'd be looking at leaner meat too.
Regards
Andy
if genetic modification is considered upsetting, i'm sure the usual breeding tactics of siblings breeding and father daughter breeding which is the old fashioned way resulting in deformed and disabled offspring as well as the trait you're going for, is much better.
Breeding is genetic modification, the only difference is now we have the user manual rather then trusting to chance
What if fat in your steak could be changed so it was as healthy as the fat from oily fish, what if the cow was made more disease resistance undoing the damage we've done through selected breeding, or the rate of calcium absorption increased so milking cows didn't get osteoporsis
zakelwe said:
TheEnd said:
Because it's more efficient.
It isn't genetic modification, it's selective breeding, using the genome to identify and quantify charactistics.
Having a cow produce more beef or milk won't make a quarter pounder (or a royale for that matter) any bigger. If anything, they'd be looking at leaner meat too.
By your own admission it will make more quarter pounders ( "more beef or milk") . Does the world need that? It isn't genetic modification, it's selective breeding, using the genome to identify and quantify charactistics.
Having a cow produce more beef or milk won't make a quarter pounder (or a royale for that matter) any bigger. If anything, they'd be looking at leaner meat too.
Regards
Andy
The efficiency gains in agriculture have kept pace with population growth over the next four or five decades. Unless you ascribe to the reduce-world-population-to-1-billion view, advances like this (in all branches of agriculture) are entirely necessary.
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