Debate on Salmon-berries.?!
As I understand it, Geneticists are working on splicing a freeze-resistant gene from salmon into stawberries to make them, you guessed it, resistant to frost!. They say its possible to moves genes btwn kingdoms like that, but the question my group had was:
Would this berry, with animals genes, be able to be eaten by vegetarians!?Www@FoodAQ@Com
Would this berry, with animals genes, be able to be eaten by vegetarians!?Www@FoodAQ@Com
Answers:
Personally I wouldn't eat them but not for the obvious "animal product"/purity reason!.
If they successfully splice a gene from salmon into strawberries, the resulting life-form would still be a plant (even if it is resistant to frost)!. Most importantly, it would not be sentient!. As I base my diet/lifestyle on attempting to reduce animal suffering, it makes no sense to avoid these "salmon-berries" purely because they contain a fish gene!. They don't contain a fish's central nervous system and so eating them is fine!.
However, in the production of these "salmon-berries" fish would have been harmed!. The salmon in question would have been confined in a lab, their children mutated to discover which gene (if it is only one - unlikely) is responsible for "frost resistance"!. In the process is splicing, the gene would have been isolated from those fish!. While this can be done using blood samples, the easiest way is to put fish in blender - puree!.
The idea of doing that to sentient beings en masse sickens me (as does any animal testing)!.
As a vegan I would avoid any animal-plant "hybrids" due to the cruelty involved in their production, not because of any purity issue!.
In case you are interested, it is not really a "fish gene" anyway!. None of our genes are species specific!. Our "human" genes are essentially the same as those in salmon!. It is just how many copies and how these genes are "read"/translated that make us we are (and salmon who they are)!.
This makes the entire argument pretty theoretical as even if a salmon gene was spliced into a plant, this would likely not be sufficient to make the plant frost resistant!. They would have to take gene pathways, promoters, transcription factors etc into account!. Our genomes are a lot more complicated than a simple jigsaww puzzle! Www@FoodAQ@Com
If they successfully splice a gene from salmon into strawberries, the resulting life-form would still be a plant (even if it is resistant to frost)!. Most importantly, it would not be sentient!. As I base my diet/lifestyle on attempting to reduce animal suffering, it makes no sense to avoid these "salmon-berries" purely because they contain a fish gene!. They don't contain a fish's central nervous system and so eating them is fine!.
However, in the production of these "salmon-berries" fish would have been harmed!. The salmon in question would have been confined in a lab, their children mutated to discover which gene (if it is only one - unlikely) is responsible for "frost resistance"!. In the process is splicing, the gene would have been isolated from those fish!. While this can be done using blood samples, the easiest way is to put fish in blender - puree!.
The idea of doing that to sentient beings en masse sickens me (as does any animal testing)!.
As a vegan I would avoid any animal-plant "hybrids" due to the cruelty involved in their production, not because of any purity issue!.
In case you are interested, it is not really a "fish gene" anyway!. None of our genes are species specific!. Our "human" genes are essentially the same as those in salmon!. It is just how many copies and how these genes are "read"/translated that make us we are (and salmon who they are)!.
This makes the entire argument pretty theoretical as even if a salmon gene was spliced into a plant, this would likely not be sufficient to make the plant frost resistant!. They would have to take gene pathways, promoters, transcription factors etc into account!. Our genomes are a lot more complicated than a simple jigsaww puzzle! Www@FoodAQ@Com
Yes, diets are flexible!. I am sure some people would refuse to eat it (if they even knew) because of the "animal product" aspect of it!.Www@FoodAQ@Com