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GENET-news articles on GE pigs (EnviroPig)

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2012-04-03 |

Canadian plans for first GE pig for human consumption now in limbo

Canada’s only herd of genetically-engineered pigs will be killed by the summer if an industry partner isn’t found. The future of the University of Guelph’s Enviropig project, touted by supporters as having a good shot of becoming the first genetically-engineered animal approved for human consumption, is now in limbo after the industry group Ontario Pork decided to pull its research support. The Ontario university, which holds the patent for the GE pig, says the plan — pending any last-minute corporate support secured by June — “would be depopulating the herd” and “putting the genetics in long-term storage,” spokeswoman Lori Bona Hunt said Monday.

2011-06-22 |

Canadian pork producers split on GE Enviropig

Genetically modified with material from a mouse, Enviropig could be headed for a dinner plate near you. Supporters argue genetically engineered food is the best way to feed the planet’s growing population. Nonsense, opponents counter. Genetically modified pork on your plate?
It sounds like a plot for some weird science fiction flick, cooked up by an overly lubricated campus film club.

2011-04-19 |

GE technology holds promises and perils for the USA

What’s certain is that plants and animals awaiting approval hold both promise and peril. The promise is intriguing. Monsanto’s drought-tolerant corn, for instance, might withstand the drier conditions climate change is expected to cause. Then there’s the South Dakota biotech company whose cattle are resistant to mad cow disease; an ”Enviropig” that produces low-phosphorous manure; and another pig that produces omega-3, so consumers could get their dose of heart-healthy fatty acids from bacon instead of fish oil or flaxseed. Yet no one knows exactly what will happen when transgenic products are released into the environment.

2011-03-24 |

Canadian food processor Olymel says no to GE Enviropig

If Enviropig starts being produced on pig farms here one major Canadian pork processor says it isn’t interested in processing meat from the genetically modified animals. In a March 1 letter to two representatives from groups critical of Enviropig, Rejean Nadeau, president and CEO of Olymel, says his company doesn’t intend to market pork meat from genetically modified pigs either nationally or internationally. ”Also Olymel supports mandatory labelling of products derived from genetically modified pigs.”

2011-03-15 |

GE Enviropig debate set to sizzle in Canada

”When I think of high value pork I think of Omega-3 enriched pork, organic pork, humanely raised pork,” [Sean McGivern, president of the National Farmers Union’s Ontario branch] says. ”Those are all the types of pork people are paying a premium price for,” he says. [...] ”People that are buying those products aren’t looking for organic ’genetically modified’ pork or humanely raised ’genetically modified’ pork,” McGivern says. ”They are looking for something as pure and untouched as possible,” he says.

2011-02-01 |

Pigging out on genetically modified pork

At the centre of the furor, a line of pigs known as the ”Enviropig.” The scientist who developed it, the University of Guelph’s Dr. Cecil Forsberg, explains that it is more environmentally friendly than your average pig because it uses phosphorus more efficiently. ”Because of this characteristic, the manure contains anywhere from 30 to 65 per cent less phosphorus, and as a consequence, that manure is less polluting,” says Forsberg. He claims there is no effect on the physiological characteristics of the pigs. Forsberg points out the reproduction, litter size and speed of growth is the same as any conventional pig.

2011-01-05 |

What is the ”Enviropig”?

Enviropig is the trademarked industry name for a pig that has been genetically engineered to excrete less phosphorous in its feces. Enviropig was developed by researchers at the University of Guelph in Ontario and could soon be the first genetically modified food animal on the market. The goal of the GM Enviropig is to provide intensive livestock operations (factory farms) with a product to reduce the amount of polluting phosphorous they produce. [...] Researchers claim that the feces from Enviropig could contain 30 to 70.7% less phosphorus.

2011-01-05 |

Frankenswine: Pigs genetically modified not to smell

One of the pig’s creators, Professor Rich Moccia, of the University of Guelph, in Ontario, Canada, told the BBC: ’They are pretty friendly and pretty gregarious. ’These pigs are almost identical to a normal Yorkshire pig. They look normal, they grow normally and they behave normally.’ [...] it is still not allowed in the food chain – and is years away from being approved. Vicky Hird, of Friends of the Earth, said the name Enviropig ’was a huge irony’. She added: ’Pigs reared in these intensive units can never be sustainable because they require so much soya which is grown by clearing forests which leads to more greenhouse gases being released. ’And when it comes to GM food, consumers are voting with their feet. They won’t accept it.’

2010-11-30 |

GE food and animals - the year 2010 in review

Starting with the humble alfalfa seed and ending with a genetically engineered Atlantic salmon, the controversies in 2010 over genetic engineering multiplied and tumbled over each other, with the year ending in unprecedented uncertainty. This year, the GE Atlantic salmon and GE “Enviropig” began lurching towards commercialization in both the US and Canada. The fate of these GE animals, and that of the unassuming alfalfa seed, will shape the future of our food system and of democracy.

2010-11-26 |

Canada's transgenic Enviropig is stuck in a genetic modification poke

The market may soon need Enviropig. To feed the projected world population of nine billion in 2050, food production will have to increase by 70 per cent, according to the Food and Agriculture Organization of the United Nations. Genetically engineered organisms will have to be part of the equation, according to the globe-spanning community of experts concerned with meeting those looming targets. “You cannot feed the world at affordable prices without using the modern arsenal of inputs,” said Marco Ferroni, head of the Syngenta Foundation

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