WUC NEWS: Genetic Engineering

Genetically Modified Babies Are Already A Reality

TheWake UpCall 0 Genetic Engineering 10:51 AM

Genetically Modified Babies Are Already A Reality

The U.S. federal agency Food and Drug Administration (FDA) begins its consideration of biological procedures which, if successful, will all...

GMOs cause horrible deformities, birth defects in piglets

TheWake UpCall 0 Genetic Engineering 10:19 AM

<span style="background-color: white; font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;">When Danish pig farmer Ib Pedersen first noticed the sudden uptick in disease, deformities and death among his farrow, his immediate reaction was to investigate the diet of his pigs to look for possible causes. And what he found confirms what a growing body of evidence also suggests: that genetically modified organisms (GMOs) in conventional animal feed are increasingly responsible for triggering birth defects, deformities, spontaneous abortions and other growth and development abnormalities in both pigs and cattle.</span><br />
<span style="background-color: white; font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;"><br />
</span><img src="http://livefreelivenatural.com/wp-content/uploads/2013/12/image.jpg" /><span style="background-color: white; font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;"><br />
<br />
With 13,000 pigs on his farm, Pedersen knows the ins and outs of how to properly raise swine, as well as what is considered normal in terms of pig health. This is why he grew particularly alarmed when many more of them than usual began to come down with strange illnesses. Besides noticeably lower birthrates, Pedersen observed more of his pigs than normal being born with strange defects like spinal deformities and limb problems, and many more pigs than usual were dying.<br />
<br />
"When using GM feed I saw symptoms of bloat, stomach ulcers, high rates of diarrhea, pigs born with deformities," explained Pedersen to <i>The Ecologist</i>'s Andrew Wasley, who recently conducted an in-depth investigation into the link between GMOs and animal health problems. "But when I switched [to non-GM feed] these problems went away, some within a matter of days."<br />
</span><br />
 
<SCRIPT LANGUAGE="JavaScript1.1" SRC="http://bdv.bidvertiser.com/BidVertiser.dbm?pid=579098%26bid=1449088" type="text/javascript"></SCRIPT>
<noscript><a href="http://www.bidvertiser.com/bdv/BidVertiser/bdv_advertiser.dbm">marketing</a></noscript>
 
<br />
<br />
<h1 style="font-weight: lighter; line-height: 34px;"><span style="background-color: white; font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif; font-size: small;">Switching to non-GM feed reduces costs, boosts profits</span></h1><span style="background-color: white; font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;">Pedersen's case is hardly an isolated one, as animal farmers all over the world are now reporting more illness and death associated with the use of GM animal feed, problems that typically go away when <a href="http://www.naturalnews.com/GM_feed.html" style="text-decoration: none;">GM feed</a> is replaced with non-GM feed. Monsanto's Roundup Ready soybeans are especially problematic, as they are doused with the toxic herbicide glyphosate, which numerous studies have linked to causing <a href="http://www.naturalnews.com/birth_defects.html" style="text-decoration: none;">birth defects</a>, endocrine disruption and other problems.</span><br />
<span style="background-color: white; font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;"><br />
</span> <img height="300" src="http://www.transcend.org/tms/wp-content/uploads/2013/12/deformed-pig-GMO.jpg" width="400" /><span style="background-color: white; font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;"><br />
<br />
"Farmers who have worked to exclude GM ingredients from their feed report dramatic improvements in herd health," says Claire Robinson from the group <i>GM Watch</i>. "Farmers should be worried and should not settle for what some scientists are calling a 'new norm' of increased rates of malformations, deaths and digestive and reproductive problems, as GM feed becomes more common."<br />
<br />
Those like Pedersen who have made the switch to non-GM feed say it has actually saved them money in the long run. Not only are there fewer animal health issues that require treatment when using non-GM feed, they say, but transgenic corn and soy also hampers productivity.<br />
<br />
"In my experience, farmers have found increased production costs and escalating antibiotic use when feeding GM crops," says Howard Vlieger, an Iowa-based farmer who helped coordinate an independent study comparing the health of pigs fed GM feed to those fed non-GM feed. The findings of Vlieger's study corroborate what Pedersen observed on his farm.</span><br />
<br />
<h1 style="font-weight: lighter; line-height: 34px;"><span style="background-color: white; font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif; font-size: small;">Many farmers have no choice but to settle for disease-causing GM feed</span></h1><span style="background-color: white; font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;">Finding affordable, non-GM feed, however, is an entirely different story. The unfortunate reality is that even in places like Europe where GMOs are widely rejected by the public, and where GMO labeling is mandatory, non-GM animal feed is getting harder and harder to come by. And this, of course, is due to the fact that corporations like Monsanto dominate the seed stocks used by staple crop growers throughout North and South America.</span><br />
<script async src="//pagead2.googlesyndication.com/pagead/js/adsbygoogle.js"></script><br />
 
<SCRIPT LANGUAGE="JavaScript1.1" SRC="http://bdv.bidvertiser.com/BidVertiser.dbm?pid=579098%26bid=1449088" type="text/javascript"></SCRIPT>
<noscript><a href="http://www.bidvertiser.com/bdv/BidVertiser/bdv_advertiser.dbm">marketing</a></noscript>
 
<br />
<span style="background-color: white; font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;"><br />
</span> <img height="481" src="http://www.non-gmoreport.com/graphics/articlephotos/pigshealthimprovednongmofee.jpg" width="640" /><span style="background-color: white; font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;"><br />
<br />
"It's a nightmare trying to source non GM feed," stated one U.K.-based supermarket source to <i>The Ecologist</i>. "The reality is that trying to source it on the scale needed [by large retailers] is very difficult. The feed companies own the boats, the mills, they control the supply chain."<br />
<br />
Be sure to check out the full report by <i>The Ecologist</i>:<br />
<a href="http://www.theecologist.org/News/news_analysis/2176082/deformities_sickness_and_livestock_deaths_the_real_cost_of_gm_animal_feed.html" style="text-decoration: none;" target="_blank">http://www.theecologist.org</a>.<br />
<br />
<b>Sources for this article include:</b><br />
<br />
<a href="http://www.theecologist.org/News/news_analysis/2176082/deformities_sickness_and_livestock_deaths_the_real_cost_of_gm_animal_feed.html" style="text-decoration: none;" target="_blank">http://www.theecologist.org</a><br />
<br />
<a href="http://www.organicconsumers.org/articles/article_28062.cfm" style="text-decoration: none;" target="_blank">http://www.organicconsumers.org</a><br />
<br />
<a href="http://science.naturalnews.com/gmo.html" style="text-decoration: none;" target="_blank">http://science.naturalnews.com</a><br />
<br />
 <a href="http://www.naturalnews.com/043208_GMOs_farm_animals_birth_defects.html##ixzz2nH2wuXuF" style="text-decoration: none;">http://www.naturalnews.com/043208_GMOs_farm_animals_birth_defects.html##ixzz2nH2wuXuF</a></span><br />
<br />
<script type="text/javascript">
//<![CDATA[
epom_key = "585a1f37f0a87ff49f68b4ff36bf96f4";
epom_channel = "";
epom_code_format = "ads";
epom_ads_host = "//www.adshost2.com";
epom_click = "";
epom_custom_params = {};
epom_width = "728";
epom_height = "90";

document.write("<script type='text\/javascript' src='"+(location.protocol == 'https:' ? 'https:' : 'http:') + "//www.adshost2.com\/js/show_ads.js'><\/script>");
//]]>
</script><br />

GMOs cause horrible deformities, birth defects in piglets

When Danish pig farmer Ib Pedersen first noticed the sudden uptick in disease, deformities and death among his farrow, his immediate reactio...

Darpa, Venter Launch Assembly Line for Genetic Engineering

TheWake UpCall 0 Darpa, Genetic Engineering 1:08 PM

<div style="background-color: white; color: #333333; font-family: Arial, Verdana, sans-serif; font-size: 14px; line-height: 20px; margin-bottom: 20px; margin-top: 20px; padding: 0px;">The military-industrial complex just got a little bit livelier. Quite literally.</div><div style="background-color: white; color: #333333; font-family: Arial, Verdana, sans-serif; font-size: 14px; line-height: 20px; margin-bottom: 20px; margin-top: 20px; padding: 0px;">That’s because Darpa, the Pentagon’s far-out research arm, has kicked off a program designed to take the conventions of manufacturing and apply them to living cells. Think of it like an assembly line, but one that would churn out modified biological matter — man-made organisms — instead of cars or computer parts.</div><div style="background-color: white; color: #333333; font-family: Arial, Verdana, sans-serif; font-size: 14px; line-height: 20px; margin-bottom: 20px; margin-top: 20px; padding: 0px;"><img src="http://www.wired.com/images_blogs/dangerroom/2012/05/synthetic2.jpg" /></div><div style="background-color: white; color: #333333; font-family: Arial, Verdana, sans-serif; font-size: 14px; line-height: 20px; margin-bottom: 20px; margin-top: 20px; padding: 0px;">The program, called “Living Foundries,” was first <a href="http://www.wired.com/dangerroom/2011/06/pentagons-new-factory-your-dna/" style="color: #007ca5; margin: 0px; outline: none; padding: 0px; text-decoration: none;">announced</a> by the agency last year. Now, Darpa’s handed out <a href="https://www.fbo.gov/index?s=opportunity&mode=form&tab=core&id=e8e2f7298a4b043fa3fb91d3fd693b36&_cview=0" style="color: #007ca5; margin: 0px; outline: none; padding: 0px; text-decoration: none;">seven research awards</a> worth $15.5 million to six different companies and institutions. Among them are several Darpa favorites, including the University of Texas at Austin and the California Institute of Technology. Two contracts were also issued to the <a href="http://www.jcvi.org/cms/about/overview/" style="color: #007ca5; margin: 0px; outline: none; padding: 0px; text-decoration: none;">J. Craig Venter Institute</a>. Dr. Venter is something of a biology superstar: He was among the first scientists to sequence a human genome, and his institute was, in 2010, the first to create a cell with <a href="http://www.csmonitor.com/Science/2010/0521/J.-Craig-Venter-Institute-creates-first-synthetic-life-form" style="color: #007ca5; margin: 0px; outline: none; padding: 0px; text-decoration: none;">entirely synthetic genome</a>.</div>

<script language="JavaScript1.1" src="http://bdv.bidvertiser.com/BidVertiser.dbm?pid=579098%26bid=1449088" type="text/javascript"></script>
<noscript><a href="http://www.bidvertiser.com/bdv/BidVertiser/bdv_advertiser.dbm">marketing</a></noscript>

<script type="text/javascript">
  ( function() {
    if (window.CHITIKA === undefined) { window.CHITIKA = { 'units' : [] }; };
    var unit = {"publisher":"milevski21","width":300,"height":250,"sid":"Chitika Default"};
    var placement_id = window.CHITIKA.units.length;
    window.CHITIKA.units.push(unit);
    document.write('<div id="chitikaAdBlock-' + placement_id + '"></div>');
    var s = document.createElement('script');
    s.type = 'text/javascript';
    s.src = '//cdn.chitika.net/getads.js';
    try { document.getElementsByTagName('head')[0].appendChild(s); } catch(e) { document.write(s.outerHTML); }
}());
</script>
<script type='text/javascript' src='http://ads.qadserve.com/t?id=a2b34d3a-e07c-4678-a7a8-346319aafab6&size=728x90'></script><div style="background-color: white; color: #333333; font-family: Arial, Verdana, sans-serif; font-size: 14px; line-height: 20px; margin-bottom: 20px; margin-top: 20px; padding: 0px;"><span id="more-81226" style="margin: 0px; padding: 0px;"></span>“Living Foundries” aspires to turn the slow, messy process of genetic engineering into a streamlined and standardized one. Of course, the field is already a burgeoning one: Scientists have tweaked cells in order to develop <a href="http://www.ls9.com/" style="color: #007ca5; margin: 0px; outline: none; padding: 0px; text-decoration: none;">renewable petroleum</a> and <a href="http://www.dailymail.co.uk/sciencetech/article-2094364/Bio-engineered-bulletproof-skin-human-cells-spider-silk-revealed-video.html" style="color: #007ca5; margin: 0px; outline: none; padding: 0px; text-decoration: none;">spider silk</a> that’s tough as steel. And a host of companies are <a href="http://www.dna.com/divisions" style="color: #007ca5; margin: 0px; outline: none; padding: 0px; text-decoration: none;">investigating</a> the pharmaceutical and agricultural promise lurking — with some tinkering, of course — inside living cells.</div><div style="background-color: white; color: #333333; font-family: Arial, Verdana, sans-serif; font-size: 14px; line-height: 20px; margin-bottom: 20px; margin-top: 20px; padding: 0px;">But those breakthroughs, while exciting, have also been time-consuming and expensive. As Darpa notes, even the most cutting-edge synthetic biology projects “often take 7+ years and tens to hundreds of millions of dollars” to complete. Venter’s synthetic cell project, for example, <a href="http://www.popularmechanics.com/science/health/breakthroughs/synthetic-cell-breakthrough" style="color: #007ca5; margin: 0px; outline: none; padding: 0px; text-decoration: none;">cost</a> an estimated $40 million.</div><div style="background-color: white; color: #333333; font-family: Arial, Verdana, sans-serif; font-size: 14px; line-height: 20px; margin-bottom: 20px; margin-top: 20px; padding: 0px;">Synthetic biology, as Darpa notes, has the potential to yield “new materials, novel capabilities, fuel and medicines” — everything from fuels to solar cells to vaccines <em style="margin: 0px; padding: 0px;">could</em> be produced by engineering different living cells. But the agency isn’t content to wait seven years for each new innovation. In fact, they want the capability for “on-demand production” of whatever bio-product suits the military’s immediate needs.</div><div style="background-color: white; color: #333333; font-family: Arial, Verdana, sans-serif; font-size: 14px; line-height: 20px; margin-bottom: 20px; margin-top: 20px; padding: 0px;">To do it, Darpa will need to revamp the process of bio-engineering — from the initial design of a new material, to its construction, to its subsequent efficacy evaluation. The starting point, and one that agency-funded researchers will have to create, is a library of “modular genetic parts”: Standardized biological units that can be assembled in different ways — like LEGO — to create different materials.</div><div style="background-color: white; color: #333333; font-family: Arial, Verdana, sans-serif; font-size: 14px; line-height: 20px; margin-bottom: 20px; margin-top: 20px; padding: 0px;">Once that library is created, the agency wants researchers to come up with a set of “parts, regulators, devices and circuits” that can reliably yield various genetic systems. After that, they’ll also need “test platforms” to quickly evaluate new bio-materials. Think of it as a biological assembly line: Products are designed, pieced together using standardized tools and techniques, and then tested for efficacy.</div>

<script language="JavaScript1.1" src="http://bdv.bidvertiser.com/BidVertiser.dbm?pid=579098%26bid=1449088" type="text/javascript"></script>
<noscript><a href="http://www.bidvertiser.com/bdv/BidVertiser/bdv_advertiser.dbm">marketing</a></noscript>

<script type="text/javascript">
  ( function() {
    if (window.CHITIKA === undefined) { window.CHITIKA = { 'units' : [] }; };
    var unit = {"publisher":"milevski21","width":300,"height":250,"sid":"Chitika Default"};
    var placement_id = window.CHITIKA.units.length;
    window.CHITIKA.units.push(unit);
    document.write('<div id="chitikaAdBlock-' + placement_id + '"></div>');
    var s = document.createElement('script');
    s.type = 'text/javascript';
    s.src = '//cdn.chitika.net/getads.js';
    try { document.getElementsByTagName('head')[0].appendChild(s); } catch(e) { document.write(s.outerHTML); }
}());
</script>
<script type='text/javascript' src='http://ads.qadserve.com/t?id=a2b34d3a-e07c-4678-a7a8-346319aafab6&size=728x90'></script><br />
<div style="background-color: white; color: #333333; font-family: Arial, Verdana, sans-serif; font-size: 14px; line-height: 20px; margin-bottom: 20px; margin-top: 20px; padding: 0px;">The process, once established, ought to massively accelerate the pace of bio-engineering — and cut costs. The agency’s asking researchers to “compress the biological design-build-test cycle by at least 10X in both time and cost,” while also “increasing the complexity of systems that can be designed and executed.”</div><div style="background-color: white; color: #333333; font-family: Arial, Verdana, sans-serif; font-size: 14px; line-height: 20px; margin-bottom: 20px; margin-top: 20px; padding: 0px;">No doubt, Darpa’s making some big asks of the scientists tasked with this research. And not everyone’s convinced they’ll pull it off. “The biology will fight them,” Daniel Drell, a program manager with the U.S. Department of Energy, <a href="http://news.sciencemag.org/scienceinsider/2011/06/darpa-to-offer-30-million-to-jump.html" style="color: #007ca5; margin: 0px; outline: none; padding: 0px; text-decoration: none;">predicted</a> last year. Which suggests it might be a few years, at least, before Darpa’s bio-creations try to fight us.</div><div style="background-color: white; color: #333333; font-family: Arial, Verdana, sans-serif; font-size: 14px; line-height: 20px; margin-bottom: 20px; margin-top: 20px; padding: 0px;">Source: <a href="http://www.wired.com/dangerroom/2012/05/living-foundries/" style="background-color: transparent;">http://www.wired.com/dangerroom/2012/05/living-foundries/</a></div><br />
<script type="text/javascript">
//<![CDATA[
epom_key = "585a1f37f0a87ff49f68b4ff36bf96f4";
epom_channel = "";
epom_code_format = "ads";
epom_ads_host = "//www.adshost2.com";
epom_click = "";
epom_custom_params = {};
epom_width = "728";
epom_height = "90";

document.write("<script type='text\/javascript' src='"+(location.protocol == 'https:' ? 'https:' : 'http:') + "//www.adshost2.com\/js/show_ads.js'><\/script>");
//]]>
</script><br />

Darpa, Venter Launch Assembly Line for Genetic Engineering

The military-industrial complex just got a little bit livelier. Quite literally. That’s because Darpa, the Pentagon’s far-out research arm, ...

WUC NEWS

Genetically Modified Babies Are Already A Reality

GMOs cause horrible deformities, birth defects in piglets

Darpa, Venter Launch Assembly Line for Genetic Engineering

Comments

Popular Posts

Popular Posts

Pages

Comments