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USDA Gives $500,000 Grant for Genetically-Engineered Pig Development

Several days ago when I wrote about the imminent approval of genetically-engineered salmon, I also said something else: this will pave the way for genetically-engineered animals and cloned animals.

Well, the USDA recently announced that it would be giving $500,000 to Recombinetics, a Minnesota-based company for “TALEN-mediated chromosome targeting for monosexing and genetic containment in livestock.”

Translation: money for the company to help introduce genetically-engineered animals (pigs) into the food and biomedical marketplace.

Make no mistake about it. The USDA is very, very pro-biotech.

The grant that Recombinetics received came from the USDA’s Biotechnology Risk Assessment Grants (BRAG) program, which was established in 1992.

From the USDA’s website, it says that:

BRAG funding supports research in the following areas: identifying and developing practices to minimize risks associated with genetically engineered organisms; developing methods to monitor the dispersal of genetically engineered organisms; increasing knowledge about the characteristics, rates and methods of gene transfer that may occur between genetically engineered organisms and related wild and domesticated organisms; and providing analysis which compares impacts of organisms modified through genetic engineering to other types of production systems.

WHAT CAN YOU DO TO STOP THIS?

There probably isn’t much we can do to stop this BRAG program, but what we can do is ambush the FDA with comments telling them that we don’t want genetically-engineered salmon.

Rejecting GE-salmon will be an important roadblock in future approval for GE-animals.

Sending in your complaint to the FDA about GE-salmon is super-easy, super-quick and painless. It can be done by clicking HERE.

Please share this post with your network, so we can get as many people as possible telling the FDA “No” to GE-salmon.

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