should farm animals be bioengineered for food production systems?

Answer 1

I think it is just too early to get an informed answer to your question. A lot of scientific research is being done on this question. The experts will eventually answer your question. It is not an answer that should be determined by amateurs, activists groups like Greenpeace or PETA, and not by politicians.

Answer 2

bohemian garnet makes a very good point. Genetic diversity is lost with bioengineered animals, and that is a disaster waiting to happen.
The other problem with bioengineering animals is that the companies responsible will have patents on them and anyone with these animals will have to pay whatever is charged or be put out of business. This eliminates competition in farming.
Would you want to buy from the only store in town?

Answer 3

By my definition of an animal being bio-engineered that has been happening since man invented farming. If you take a look at pictures of early cattle (skinny nasty long horned beasts) versus cattle of today (docile overfed marbled beef on four legs) and think what brought out those more-desirable-to-farmers characteristics you would realize it was selective breeding of animals with desired traits. Look also at horse breeds since they were an early farm worker. There are ones to run and ones to pull heavy loads. Each is from a breed selected to have specific characteristics while the less desirable ones were not bred.

Look at any modern farm animal and you will see that they have been "bioengineered." Today the techniques are more clever but they are just alternative ways of reaching the same long term goals of having animals that meet people's needs. If no one complained for the last ten thousand years why are they complaining now?

Answer 4

Right now it isn't really needed, and presently costs too much and always will unless you want to double up the ribs or grow some 10 winged chickens. They should not be bio engineered for food as it isn't needed and the cost would be too high, but we should still work on it because of the benefits to understand threw the research, a whole lot about genetics and manipulation at that level of all forms of life. So much will be able to be used in medicine as well as food production and saving species that are threatened. As far as food production, people need to understand that animals are really not a good thing to eat, especially in such huge quantities. In this day and age we need to start getting away from eating meat. Also, the demand encourages supply and that relates to the growth of factory farms and that whole awful horrible animal abuse thing. What a big dark black blot on our species to do such an awful thing. To raise some animals in a nice open farm with fresh food and water and sun and grazing and space for some products can be somewhat acceptable, but the other side, that whole factory farm and I won't repeat all that we all know that goes on there and close a blind eye to, that is a terrible shame and it surprises me that nothing is done about it. If I raised my dogs or cats like that I would fined and jailed and even live in fear of vigilantes. But because someone does it to grow food animals that is different, so they can do it by the thousands. I can just see bio-engineering an animal to live like that.

PS Ms. Bo Garnet below makes a great case for genetic diversity, very far sighted in scope.

Answer 5

I STONGLY disagree with the idea of, and trend toward bio-engineering livestock.

Mike already made a good posting about the cruelty of it, so I'll not go on about that.

My main concern would be how that would set America up for a massive famine, and greatly weaken our strength as a Nation.

Let's say we bio-engineer our dairy cows. Within a few years almost every dairy cow is now decendant from only three really outstanding cows. Milk production has gone up, and feed cost have gone down for the farmers...everyone is happy. Now a disease comes along, and hits the dairy cows.

Nobody catches onto it at first, as it's just a problem at a few farms, so the milk trucks keep rolling in and out of farms picking up the milk, and going onto the next farm for the next pickup....all the while unknowingly spreading the diease.

Suddenly dairy cows accross the U.S. are dropping like flies. With such a close genetic pool, and almost no genetic varriation in the cows the diease is swift and kills 100% of the cows.

It also hits the farm of a very small dairy. That farmer is an odd duck. He has 5 Jersey cows, and 20 Dexter's a heritage breed, and 10 Jersey, Dexter cross cows he milks. Three of his Jersey cows die, one lives but is so sickly, she has to be destroyed, the last Jersey does not get sick. 10 of his Dexter's get pretty sick, but all recover, 5 get only slightly ill, the other 5 Dexter's do not get sick at all. The 10 Jersey/Dexter crosses do not get ill at all.

This farmer had major genetic diversity. His cows had some natural immunity to the disease. The ones who had no immunity died. Loosing four cows to disease is a pretty major finacial loss for such a small dairy.

However the commercial dairy farmers, with their bio enginieered Holsteins have suffered 100% loss, since there was almost no genetic diversity amoung their cattle.

There is NO milk for school lunch programs. What milk their is, is suddenly rationed ONLY for baby formula, by the Government. Ice cream, yogurt, and butter become a thing of the past at grocery stores.

The price of bread SKYROCKETS for lack of butter and milk.

Pizza parlors, and many other resteranants accross the U.S. close by the thousands, since they can no longer get cheese, butter or milk. They cannot afford the imported stuff.

Wallstreet is going into a tailspin, as stocks loose major value.

Farmers who normally grew hay and grain for the millions of dairy cattle are sitting on rotting crops, with nobody buying, because their is simply too much. Prices are so low, they cannot even afford to harvest the crops, so they rot in the field.

Baskin Robbins, and Ben & Jerry's go out of business, forever, unable to take the financial hit.

Thousands of people are now unempoyed. The Governement has no more cheese, milk or butter to distibute to the poor.

There's been a sharp rise in health problems in babies, as they were suddenly switched from a cow milk based formula, to a soy milk formula.

Hershies candy company annouces the closing of 5 plants, since they have no milk to make candybars with. More uneployment, more chaos on Wallstreet.

I think I'll stop right here. I didn't even talk about the food supplies we wouldn't be able to ship to third world contries, and how this affected millions of people in other countries. Nor have I talked about the long term health effects for a generation of children as the nation tries to rebuild it's dairy herds.

I also picked dairy cows. The ramifications could be even worse, if I picked beef cattle, or pigs.

If we allow our livestock ( and crops!) to be bio-engineered and made almost all genetically the same we are setting ourselves up for a major disaster. It will not be a matter of "if" a disease will hit the livestock, but rather a matter of "WHEN" will the disease hit the livestock. There is no question that it WILL happen.

~Garnet
Homesteading/Farming over 20 years
Suport small farmers, especially those with heritage breeds!

Answer 6

well animals are our own reflections..we should not treat them badly..no i don't recommend bioengineering for food production sysytems..instead we can t chineese agriculture methods fro food production systems

Answer 7

It has been legal to patent an animal since 1987. No I don't think its right.