Homogony and Health
Now we can clone animals for food. This is a natural outgrowth of decades of selective inbreeding meeting new science. It has been a long time since the sheep, cows, chickens, turkeys and other animals bred for eating have resembled their ancestors. The same can be said for corn. One risk that comes to mind is that of homogany and susceptibility to illness.
We know the stories. Europeans come to the New World bringing Smallpox and other diseases the native population has never been exposed to and kill off huge portions of that vulnerable population. Europeans travel deep into jungles and die of Malaria, Dengue Fever and other endemic diseases. HIV makes the jump from chimpanzees to people...rumors of Avian Flu potentially making the same leap.
Inbreeding brings vulnerability. Like the royal families carrying Hemophilia, or other families inbreeding and developing more offspring with whatever weakness lies in wait in the genes; causing our food supply to be "same" means one virus/blight could easily devastate food supplies.
I certainly think that food should be labeled to include all ingredients, origin of the product, whether genetically altered or not, organic or not (and organic needs to be defined), kosher or not...etc---it just makes sense to give us a fair degree of control over what goes into our bodies and the bodies of our children. I am not sure what the fear is that prevents the food industry from just doing this. Some people read labels, some don't; comfort levels with various foods varies, tastes change over time, the market should be consumer driven when it comes to food and other commodities essential to life and health.
Jesse Gelsinger
I believe is the young man you refer to. He had OTC deficiency which is a genetic disease that prevents the liver from getting rid of toxic amonia. Prior to this a very successful treatment had been done on a young woman named Ashi DeSilva who suffered from an immunodeficiency disease (SCID).
When Jesse died, he lapsed into a coma within hours of treatment and soon died ; there was a moratorium on vector gene therapy and the investigation into the death lasted more than a year.
I like your solution for genetically engineered food. It'l like, well, let's put nuclear power plants in places where only the true believers live...or, better yet, dump the waste there and make enclosures for CO2 for "it's not a pollutant" people to live and raise their families in. Impractical but certainly an "ideal" trial.
So many things happen that almost anything, from one human tradegy with broader implications to genocide become, unfortunately a blip on the news screens of our lives.
I ENJOYED YOUR BLOG. THE LAST TIME I LOOKED INTO IT, WHICH WAS PROBABLY IN 1999, THE FEDERAL GOVERNMENT HAD SPENT OVER ONE BILLION TAX DOLLARS FOR THE PURPOSE OF MAPPING THE GNOME. PRIVATE INDUSTRY HAD SPENT MORE THAN THAT AT THAT TIME. THE SCIENTIST INVOLVED STATED THAT IF SCIENCE CAN MANIPULATE GENES THEN ALL KINDS OF GREAT AND MARVELOUS THINGS CAN HAPPEN TO PROLONG OUR LIVES, PLAN OUR CHILDREN'S APPEARANCE, AND MAKE SURE THAT THEY DON'T HAVE ANY GENETICALLY CAUSED PROBLEMS. THEN, THERE WAS THE CASE WHERE SOME GENETICIST WANTED TO CURE A YOUNG MAN OF HIS GENETICALLY CAUSED URINARY PROBLEM. I FORGET THE NAME OF HIS CONDITION, BUT HE WAS TAKING MEDICATIONS TO HELP HIM HAVE A "NORMAL" LIFE. THE GENETICIST TOLD HIM THAT IF THEY INJECTED SOME GENETICALLY ALTERED DNA INTO THE AFFECTED ORGAN, I THINK IT WAS HIS KIDNEY, THEN HE WOULD BE CURED AND HE WOULD NOT HAVE TO TAKE MEDICATIONS ANYMORE. HE AGREED WITH THE PROCEDURE. THEY PLACED THE CORRECTIVE GENES INTO AN INERT FLU VIRUS AND INJECTED THE CONCOCTION INTO HIS KIDNEY. HE DIED FOUR DAYS LATER OF CATASTROPHIC ORGAN FAILURE! OOPS! I THOUGHT AT THE TIME THAT THIS WOULD BE A BIG NEWS FLASH ACROSS AMERICA. THIS EVENT CAUSED LITTLE MORE THAN A HICCUP IN THE MEDIA AND WAS SOON FORGOTTEN. WONDER WHY?
MOST OF US EAT GENETICALLY ALTERED VEGETABLES EVERY DAY. AS ONE GOES INTO THE GROCERY STORE, IT IS A PRETTY SAFE BET THAT THE VEGETABLES THAT YOU BUY HAVE ALREADY BEEN ALTERED IN SOME WAY. SOME VEGETABLES HAVE HAD DIFFERENT VEGETABLE GENES ALTERING THEM, AND SOME HAVE ANIMAL GENES ALTERING THEM. THE PURPOSE IS TO HAVE BETTER CROPS... AND... OF COURSE... MAKE MORE MONEY. AMERICANS AND OTHERS EAT THESE FOODS EVERY DAY. I KNOW THE INFORMATION AND I STILL EAT THEM. SO FAR, I SEEM TO BE ALRIGHT. OR AM I?
ARE THE AILMENTS THAT I HAVE SOMEHOW CONNECTED TO ALTERED GENETIC FOODS THAT I HAVE EATEN IN THE PAST? HAS GENETIC ALTERATION AFFECTED MY BRAIN CHEMISTRY SO THAT MY ABILITY TO HANDLE STRESS, WORRY, AND ANXIETY ARE DIMINISHED? WHAT IF WE REALLY ARE WHAT WE EAT? CAN WE BECOME LESS BECAUSE OF WHAT WE EAT?
SO WHAT'S IN IT FOR THE COW CLONERS? WITH SO MANY COWS IN THE WORLD, I AM UNAWARE OF ANY NEED OR SHORTAGE OF BULLS THAT ARE USED TO MAKE NEW COWS. WHY IS THERE A NEED TO CLONE? WHY DO WE HAVE TO DO THIS? JUST BECAUSE WE CAN DO SOMETHING, DOESN'T MEAN WE SHOULD!!
WHAT IF WE, AS HUMANS, BECOME SUSCEPTIBLE TO SOME BOVINE ILLNESSES THAT ARE PANDEMIC FOR US. THE KNOWLEDGE THAT CLONED ANIMALS DIE EARLIER THAN NORMAL IS COMMON KNOWLEDGE. MAYBE SOMEONE KNOWS THE REASON WHY, BUT THEY HAVEN'T BEEN ABLE TO CORRECT IT YET. IF ALCOHOL AND DRUGS CAN AFFECT AN UNBORN FETUS, HOW DO WE KNOW THAT CLONED GENES CANNOT DO SOMETHING SIMILAR. THE NUMBER OF QUESTIONS IN THIS FIELD ARE OVERWHELMING. ARE WE KNOWLEDGEABLE ENOUGH TO KNOW ALL THE QUESTIONS THAT SHOULD BE ASKED. REMEMBER THALIDIMIDE? THAT WAS GIVEN THE SEAL OF APPROVAL AND LOOKED WHAT HAPPENED TO ALL THOSE POOR BABIES! OOPS!!! WHAT ABOUT THE MOTHERS AND FAMILIES! OOPS! IN AFRICA, NOT TOO LONG AGO, HIV INFECTED AFRICANS WERE GIVEN POLIO VACCINE THAT CONTAINED LIVE POLIO VIRUS. OOPS!!! A WHOLE BUNCH OF AFRICANS CAME DOWN WITH POLIO. OOPS!!!
DO I HAVE TRUST THAT THE FDA AND FEDERAL GOVERNMENT REGULATORS ARE ONLY LOOKING AFTER OUR BEST INTEREST? DOES THEIR HISTORY SHOW THAT THEY HAVE ALWAYS BEEN ON TOP OF THINGS? HAVE THEY MADE ANY COSTLY MISTAKES THAT HAVE COST US NOTHING? NO NO NO NO! I WISH I COULD SAY IT, BUT I HAVE NO TRUST FOR THEM. JUST TAKE A WALK THROUGH A PACKING PLANT SOMETIME. INVESTIGATE HOW CHICKENS AND PIGS ARE PROCESSED? HAVE YOU EATEN ANY ECOLI LADEN SPINACH AND LETTUCE YESTURDAY? EVEN IF THEY LOCATE THA "BAD" COWS, CHANCES ARE WE WILL EAT THEM ANYWAY. CAN THE FDA FOLLOW EVERY COW, PIG, OR CHICKEN TO MAKE SURE IT IS DETROYED? NO!!
THIS IS WHAT THIS CLONING IS ABOUT-- HUGE CHANCES. IT MIGHT BE ONE THING IF THE WORLD WERE RUNNING OUT OF BEEF? BUT WE ARE NOT. IT IS ONE THING FOR THE GETICIST TO EXPERIMENT IN THEIR LABORATORIES; IT IS QUITE ANOTHER FOR US TO EAT THE UNKNOWN. I BELIEVE THE POTENTIAL FOR CATASTROPHE AND THE LOSS OF HUMAN LIFE IS TOO HIGH A RISK.
I DO HAVE AN ANSWER THOUGH. JUST A SUGGESTION REALLY. LETS LET THE GENETICIST AND THE CLONERS AND THE FDA EAT NOTHING BUT CLONED ANIMALS FOR THE NEXT TWENTY YEARS. IF THEY AND THEIR FAMILIES ARE ALRIGHT IN THAT TIME, THEN MAYBE IT IS SAFE TO EAT.
DAN