“I’ll Have My Burger Petri-Dish Bred, With Extra Omega-3: How researchers can make meat that’s better for you- and better for animals”
By Susan Kruglinski and Karen Wright, Discover Magazine, 9/22/2008
People already seem to have a great deal of control over the meat they eat- the type of animal, which part of it, how it’s cut, prepared, the list goes on. As Discover Magazine noted in 2008, people will soon have another degree of control over their proteins- nutrient enhancement. Beyond discussing petri-dish-grown meat, this article also addresses the research currently being conducted to augment the Omega-3 content of the meats we’ll soon be eating.
A great deal of research is going on on both the genetic and organismal levels. Scott Kronberg, a researcher at the USDA Agricultural Research Service Lab in Mandan, North Dakota, for example, has been feeding sheep flaxseed that has been treated to prevent conversion of ALA into saturated fat. ALA, a beneficial fatty acid found in fish oil, could have dramatic effects on health that cannot be tapped into when converted to saturated fats. In genetics, Randall Prather, a livestock reproductive biologist at the University of Missouri-Columbia National Swine Resource and Research Center, has cloned a pig with a gene that converts less-beneficial fatty acids into EPAs, another beneficial fatty acid found in fish oil.
Both of these engineered alterations may prove to make biologically-grown meat healthier for humans. Omega-3s have been getting a great deal of press in recent years for their benefits in "the treatment and prevention of diseases from type 2 diabetes and rheumatoid arthritis to asthma, cancer, dementia, and, most conclusively, heart disease". Also, as the production of Omega-3s uses up material that would otherwise go to the production of saturated fats in animals, this adjustment seems to have the capability to really tip the scales on nutritional contents.
However, there are a great deal of questions that arise when people start to re-engineer natural processes. It's true that omega-3s have been pretty strongly proven to be beneficial for humans, but what other costs to the animals do we inflict when we alter these processes? Is there some other mechanism that may be affected that we have yet to think about? Also, no research has been done yet as to what happens when we consume these meats. Will these fatty acids be processed differently in our bodies? What about combining this engineering with others? The possible ramifications are numerous.
When you look at this information in light of the other possible benefits of engineering meat- decreasing contamination, increasing healthiness- it seems that our lives could only get better as we take more control over what we eat, but who knows what will happen once we start eating meat engineered to create other substances? Will doctors start prescribing engineered meat in light of mineral supplements? Our medications? How far could this go?
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