Genetically-altered pigs are now on the menu

Here’s the latest on genetically modified pork, from NextGov:

The United States Food and Drug Administration has authorized gene-edited pigs entrance into the food chain for human consumption—as German-style sausages.

Gene-editing can make changes in an organism’s DNA that could occur in nature or through selective breeding but would take much longer without a tool like CRISPR.

The FDA authorization is investigational, and limited to these particular pigs, but shows that gene-editing livestock to quickly produce desirable traits for improved food production is a viable strategy for helping feed the planet’s growing population.

Uh huh.  Here’s the final quote:

“There’s a trust that comes with university-based research,” he says. “We just want to make sure the research is valid, and the animals we produce are healthy.”

The “trust that comes with university-based research”?  With all the corruption in the peer-reviewed studies (RetractionWatch does nothing all day but track the retractions in peer-reviewed research), well, that trust would seem to be long gone.  Read the full report here. 

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