http://www.nature.com/news/super-muscly-pigs-created-by-small-genetic-tweak-1.17874
With pork being a main staple food in China, then like the Belgian Blue cattle, obviously a hyper-muscular breed could help provide its citizenry with more protein.
With the Indian govt calling for a new 'green revolution' after the first one wore out about 30 years ago, it's worth asking if genetic engineering of livestock could provide useful dividends to the country, beyond just crop engineering. Even for those who don't eat meat, livestock are still a source of dairy output, not to mention farm work.
12 comments:
Are you suggesting that we emulate China's atrocious project of genetically engineering "muscle pigs" or some other livestock? Isn't it bad enough that contrary to its civilizational values, India has emerged as the world's largest exporter of Beef - a side effect of Christist Kurien's mindless breeding of Cows for the so-called "White revolution"? This kind of mindless obsession with "productivity", profit & loss - mimicking Western ways makes me shudder to think of the inevitable disastrous consequences
Oh no, we should not emulate da evil Western Ways. We should keep our 'Indian way' of having 40% of the world's poor, 50% of the worlds malnourished etc. Yes, Kurien wanted to make India the world's largest milk producer, how dare he? He made us the world's largest milk producer, doubled the milk availability per-capita and made dairy farming India's largest rural employment generator.
Src: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Operation_Flood.
More I see Hindutva idiots spouting nonsense, the less hope I have for India.
Green revolution did a lot more to fill Indian stomachs than banning slaughterhouses did. One of the reasons why the poor keep desperately turning to imported ideologies is because they've been relegated to an afterthought by the native uppercrust - how's that for "civilizational values"? People need to eat, and malnutrition is still a reality in India, despite all the rosy promises of "superpower"dom. China seems to be worried more than we are about keeping its people fed, but this type of research is being conducted around the world, resulting in double-muscled breeds for various species including sheep, goats, etc.
China is no role model for our hunger alleviation challenge. The China Study is very well known. Next, we will need institutes and pharmaceutical companies to tackle "World Class Cancer".
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- USDA Does Diets Differently, Moves Off Meat
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- Dirt Poor: Have Fruits and Vegetables Become Less Nutritious?
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Hiding behind an apparent concern for the poor is plain dishonesty.
Such breeds need extensive medical support to exist.
Dunno about the pigs, but every Belgian Blue birth is a C-section. That's 'cos at the end of gestation, the Belgian Blue calf is too big to be delivered naturally.
Great, if you are a vet, or feed supplier.More business for you. Not so much if you are a poor farmer. More expense
Gentlemen, the fact that this announcement was made by researchers in China is irrelevant. While you pick and choose which Vedic-utopian solution is most ideal, malnutrition and starvation continue in India with all their attendant political instability. What's the harm in being practical, rather than turning up our noses against every possible solution, so that conquering famine is always left as a distant dream?
Agriculture itself amounts to tampering with nature, which Indians have been doing for millenia. Even basic ordinary farming itself poses environmental problems.
"Vedic utopia"? That's hilarious. Malnutrition and starvation are real in India - induced by the genocidal policies of the warmongering British colonialists. Read about the Bengal famines caused by British prohibition of grain cultivation. Poverty and starvation are exacerbated further by the Nehruvian Stalinist edifice - people starving to death while excess food stocks are literally rotting in FCI (Food Corporation of India) godowns due to lack of storage infrastructure. A pompous Congress minister laughed off the Supreme Court's directive to distribute the excess food - literally hundreds of thousands of tonnes rotting. An actual "Vedic utopia" would entail mandatory free distribution of food grain to those in need. The concept of AnnaDanam originated in Hindu thought ages before greedy Westerners could conceive of monstrosities like genetically engineering, mass breeding of animals for slaughter. I object to that as a Hindu, a vegetarian and a compassionate human being. It is possible to alleviate hunger and malnutrition through just means - and without perpetrating cruelty on an industrial scale as mindless emulation of the West necessitates.
The Green revolution helped reduce famine in India, in spite of the glaring deficiencies in distribution and storage infrastructure. The Green revolution was not some crazy stunt perpetrated by Nehruvian Stalinism, it was the result of application of intelligent agricultural policies developed in the West, which yielded a tremendous improvement in the basic quality of life for even the poorest rural people. Not every Indian is a vegetarian, nor should they be forced to be. I'm not a vegetarian, and I happen to enjoy eating beef, chicken, pork, mutton, etc. Meat is a source of protein. Plenty of animals eat meat too. A double-muscle animal is no more monstrous than a muscled human being is. In the case of livestock, such animals could become a generous source of protein. I don't see what the problem is.
I'm quite well aware that not all Indians are vegetarian - I'm not advocating vegetarianism or stopping people's carnivorous behavior by force. However, this behavior is unconscionable purely on ecological and environmental grounds - without going into cultural, religious sensitivities. The amount of water that is expended to grow a pound of "protein" is simply unsustainable for the planet. There are excellent, cruelty free sources of protein. Have you considered Daal, Soya bean, Ragi, Bajra etc? What you consume is your personal choice. But, in my country - we hold certain things sacred and will endeavour to protect them. Nobody can forcibly impose Beef and Pork on Hindus as a "source of protein" and disparage us for holding on to our cultural values. In Korea, dog meat is considered a delicacy and "protein". I object to the slaughter of Dogs with equal vehemence as I am a dog lover - regardless of any customary derision from any Kancha Ilaiah type
or sarcastic contempt from the New York Times as in "Save the Cows, Starve the children". Meat is not the answer to starvation. Enlightened people in the West are giving it up and taking to "Vedic Utopias" like Yoga, Pranayaam, meditation etc.
San, you can enjoy all the beef you want, but there are more appropriate forums to peddle such perspective. This is a Hindu Nationalist blog with immense respect for the old Indian civilization. We are clear about who and what we support here.
Quite right. I respect everybody's opinions and freedoms. However, all this talk of Beef and Pork as a panacea to "malnutrition, starvation and sources of protein" resonates with the shrill rhetoric of pseudo-secularists and belligerent Christist provocateurs like Kancha Ilaiah and their breast beating about "Minority right to nutrition being infringed upon" in the context of the recent Beef ban in MahaRashtra. This is one of the things that I will vehemently fight for. I have cut off social contact with first cousins for their Beef eating habits. I got into trouble with Beef eating roommates when in college - for my derivation that: A Hindu willingly eating Beef is akin to committing incest with one's mother. I'm a lifelong vegetarian - 6 feet tall, over 200 lbs & a 46" chest, recently turned 40. I dare any Beef eating Kancha Iliaiah to take me on - will put the fear of God in him.
I was talking about agricultural engineering, not advocacy of meat-eating over vegetarianism. However, agriculture does include livestock. India has been open to genetic engineering of crops, and doing so for livestock would simply be an extension of that. India produces a full spectrum of agricultural output, and there is room to improve everywhere along that spectrum.
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