Terry Etherton’s Blog on Hormones, Biotechnology, and Food Safety

Terry D. Etherton

As readers of Terry Etherton Blog on Biotechnology appreciate, I have written a great deal about the looming World population growth, and the challenges we will confront in feeding the World’s population over the next 40 years.

Recently, the scientific journal, Nature, published an excellent series of articles about this topic (July 29 issue).  This is noteworthy because Nature is the preeminent scientific journal in the World.  It is telling that the leading life science journal in the World focused much of the July 29 issue on this topic.

In the Editorial in this issue, How to Feed a Hungry World, several important issues are presented that must be overcome if we are to produce and distribute sufficient food to feed the projected population of the World in 2050, about 10 billion people (the current World population is approximately 6.9 billion). Read the rest of this entry »

Chad Dechow
Associate Professor, Dairy Cattle Genetics
Department of Dairy and Animal Science
The Pennsylvania State University

First published on the Blog American Thinker on September 18,2010

Ever-Green-View My 1326-ET is the new world milk production record-holder. In the course of one year, she made 72,168 pounds of milk. That’s nearly 8,400 gallons in one year, or 23 gallons per day. The average cow produces 6.5 gallons per day. Ever-Green-View My 1326-ET is the culmination of intense genetic selection, terrific cow management, and the use of technologies like rBST. Genetically, she is a product of artificial insemination and embryo transfer. Her sire is Stouder Morty-ET, and he has over 67,000 daughters in more than 15,000 dairy herds around the globe. The “ET” designation indicates that she was transferred as an embryo from her genetically superior mother to an inferior surrogate cow. Read the rest of this entry »

Harold W. Harpster
Professor of Animal Science
Department of Dairy and Animal Science
The Pennsylvania State University

Let’s be optimistic and say that that the agricultural industries are slowly getting better at informing the general public on how and why their food is produced the way it is. The days of assuming we can raise animals any way we want and keep consumers in the dark are OVER! However, we must do a much better job of educating the public to the realities of food production. Read the rest of this entry »

Op-Ed Contributor
New York Times

By Stephen Budiansky
Published: August 19, 2010

IT’S 42 steps from my back door to the garden that keeps my family supplied nine months of the year with a modest cornucopia of lettuce, beets, spinach, beans, tomatoes, basil, corn, squash, brussels sprouts, the occasional celeriac and, once when I was feeling particularly energetic, a couple of small but undeniable artichokes. You’ll get no argument from me about the pleasures and advantages to the palate and the spirit of eating what’s local, fresh and in season.

But the local food movement now threatens to devolve into another one of those self-indulgent — and self-defeating — do-gooder dogmas. Arbitrary rules, without any real scientific basis, are repeated as gospel by “locavores,” celebrity chefs and mainstream environmental organizations. Words like “sustainability” and “food-miles” are thrown around without any clear understanding of the larger picture of energy and land use. Read the rest of this entry »

Terry D. Etherton

I never cease to be amazed at the political process in Europe that keeps hindering adoption of safe and effective ag biotechnologies.  The latest folly occurred on July 7, 2010 when Members of the European Parliament (MEP) renewed their appeal for a ban on food from cloned animals when they voted on novel foods legislation.  At this time, there are no European Union (EU) rules to specifically allow or ban dairy products and meat from cloned animals.  While the Commission and Council wanted to have cloned meat covered by novel food rules that are already in place, MEPs instead called for new legislation to expressly prohibit the sale of meat from cloned animals and their descendants.

This decision is astonishing given that in July 2008 the European Food Safety Authority (EFSA) announced its final scientific opinion that food from cloned cattle and pigs is safe, and there are no implications of animal cloning on the environment!

As I have written in previous blogs, this is another EU decision that is based on politics not science – more of the Luddites at the Gate phenomena that I have written about previously! Read the rest of this entry »

Terry D. Etherton

An interesting news release from Europe came across my desk.  A group of farmers from Spain, Portugal and Romania traveled to Brussels, Belgium to convey to the European Commission that they are upset that they can not us genetically modified (GM) crops.  They urged that laws be passed to enable them to plant GM crops!

The press release follows with a link to the full report in Spanish.

Brussels, Belgium, July 13, 2010 — Farmers from Spain, Romania and Portugal presented to the members of the parliament (MPs) and representatives of the European Commission (EC) in Brussels a manifesto stating that “Biotechnology, a Tool for Agro-Food cannot be Ignored”. The manifesto points out that the rejection (by the EC) of positions and decisions about GM crops are not based in science. The report goes on to underscore that the safety of GM crops is guaranteed by the strictest and independent scientific assessment. Read the rest of this entry »

Elton Robinson
Farm Press Editorial Staff
Posted, March 16, 2010

When surveys don’t give you the overwhelming result you’re looking for, there’s only one thing left to do — cook your numbers. This was the tactic employed by the Consumers Union (CU), the non-profit publisher of Consumer Reports, after it conducted a poll recently on genetically engineered crops. Read the rest of this entry »

The International Service for the Acquisition of Agri-biotech Applications (ISAAA) released their annual report on global adoption of genetically modified (GM) on February 23, 2010.

An executive summary of Global Status of Commercialized Biotech/GM Crops: 2009 – The first fourteen  years, 1996 to 2009 presents highlights of the amazing growth in the global adoption of GM crops.  Impressively, GM crops are being readily adopted by developing and developed countries. Read the rest of this entry »

Terry D. Etherton

The Opinion-Editorial published in the New York Times was passed along to me earlier today.  As readers of Terry Etherton Blog on Biotechnology appreciate, I have written about a variety of topics across the landscape of science and agriculture; defending science, as well as attempting to counter attacks on, and misrepresentations of production agriculture .

In the article below, Mr. Shriver paints a picture of animal agriculture that presents some perspectives that don’t reflect the reality of practices used in contemporary animal production.  Moreover, a paradox is presented about science – use transgenic farm animals that have been engineered so they can tolerate “pain and suffering” that he asserts is caused by “factory farming”.

My experiment, you ask?  Rather than my writing an initial blog about this Op-Ed piece, I am opening up comments, and wish to moderate the discussion of your opinions and knowledge about animal agriculture and science as framed in the story by Mr. Shriver.  I will share my perspectives after I “gather” your comments. Read the rest of this entry »

Terry D. Etherton

As readers of my blog have observed, I have not posted a blog for a few months.  About all that could be written about the battle over application of rbST in the dairy industry in the United States, and defending the freedom of dairy farmers to use safe and effective technologies has been discussed.  The stories currently being written by opponents of this biotechnology are simply a rehash of a rehash…nothing new.  This all has been chronicled in Terry Etherton Blog on Biotechnology. Read the rest of this entry »