Biotechnology in animal agriculture

With great power there must also come great responsibility

   — Uncle Ben in Spiderman comics

Biotechonology in animal agriculture, commonly known as one aspect of genetically modified foods (GMO foods) or its subbranch transgenic food animal, is a prevalent, yet controversial topic not only in scientific field, but also in the entire society globally. It is simply because food is so closely related to us. Since the demand for food increase every year (due to dramatic increase in population) and seems not going to stop in a short term, the production of GMO foods is in an ascending trend correspondingly. Why? If you ask me, I would say it’s for efficient growth in food animals, and subsequently for making money more efficiently. Is it correct to do this? My answer would be theoretically no.

Recall from “Food Inc.” the movie, it took 70 days to raise a chicken until it was qualified for sale 50 years ago. Today, however, it only needs 48 days for chicken to meet the requirement. This is not the only improvement. The size of the chicken is twice as big as it was 50 years ago. Why? Because people like white meat. As consumers in the market prefer large chicken breasts today, producers have redesigned the chicken so they can grow more efficiently within a much shorter time of period. It is good for consumers and producers? Maybe. Is it good for chicken? No, because according to the movie, most chickens cannot afford the effect of the rapid growth. One thing leads to another, they end up failing to stand up and are forced to sit around instead. This situation severely violates the five freedoms of animals completely, yet seems like no one is caring about this.

Another example I can think of is the genetically modified salmon. Again, people are doing this for rapid growth rate of salmon. According to a literature review paper I wrote last year, growth hormone from the Pacific Chinook salmon is transferred into the genes sequence of Atlantic salmon, and after subsequent series of DNA promoter transfer, transcription, and translation, it would only take about one and half year to grow the fish for market size instead of three years. This technology is remarkable, but how about the story behind this? How about the scientific fact that evolution is dynamic, and mutation may happens at any stage of any species, including fish. In my opinion, I don’t resist the progressive development of GMO foods, but we should’ve not forgotten the nature of evolution and abandoned for economic demands and profits. Everything has a line. It’s like a double edge sword. It might help you in short run, it also could hurt you in long run.