The headline reads… “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.” This is getting serious folks!
Misguided public food policy and biotechnology
Riding on the wings of my previous post about Roundup and genetic modification, here we are confronted with the combination of misguided American food policies and the relentless progression of biotechnology into the grey area of cloning.
Apparently the Chinese have fallen for the American mantra of “polyunsaturated fats are good and saturated fats are bad” which is such a shame because they have lived for centuries on their own traditional foods which include a lot of saturated fats.
A normal sheep?
The sheep, named Peng Peng, “… is growing very well and is very healthy like a normal sheep,” said lead scientist Du Yutao at the Beijing Genomics Institute in Shenzhen in southern China.
Gene insertion — more like machine-gun fire
Du and colleagues inserted the gene that is linked to the production of polyunsaturated fatty acids into a donor cell taken from the ear of a Chinese Merino sheep. (Read about how they go about “inserting” a gene into a cell here). It’s kind of amazing they actually got a sheep out of it.
The cell was then inserted into an unfertilized egg and implanted into the womb of a surrogate sheep.
“The gene was originally from C. elegans (the helminth roundworm) which has been shown to increase unsaturated fatty acids which is very good for human health,” Du said.
If you haven’t read my article on helminths (worms) read it here. They are a lot more valuable to humans than this one was.
Prove they are harmless and safe for consumption
“The Chinese government encourages transgenic projects but we need to have better methods and results to prove that transgenic plants and animals are harmless and safe for consumption, that is crucial,” Du said.
Hopefully, in China, they will actually test and study these genetically modified organisms before they open them up to the market — unlike here.
The United States is a world leader in producing GM crops. Yup. The Food and Drug Administration has already approved the sale of food from clones and their offspring, saying the products are indistinguishable from those of non-cloned animals.
Say goodbye to real wild salmon
U.S. biotech firm AquaBounty’s patented genetically modified Atlantic salmon are widely billed as growing at double the speed and could be approved by U.S. regulators as early as this summer.
Did nature make a mistake?
Aside from the obvious ethical issues, the whole world is becoming a crazy place with this insistence on forwarding a dangerously incorrect tenet that saturated fat is bad for human health and unsaturated fat is good. Nature, in her infinite wisdom did not make a mistake about saturated fats.
Why is this not clear to health officials?
All of this has been and is being proven in the health of the American public who have been unknowingly participating in a giant experiment. The results are in: the low saturated fat, high carb, high polyunsaturated fat diet is making everyone fat and sick with diabetes, heart disease, metabolic syndrome, cancer and autoimmunity.
What do you think about all this? Leave a comment and let me know!
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