The marvels of science

I would like to wish everyone a Happy New Year, although I realize some of you came into the new year without electricity thanks to Mothers Nature's show of hand. Interestingly enough, the people who did have electricity were able to hear the news about how science and technology will continue to pave the way for improving human lives. I believe everyone would agree that it is always better to be lucky than good. With that said, on Dec. 28, 2006 I was just plain lucky. I had scheduled a meeting with Dr. Matt Wheeler at the University of Illinois to discuss cloning of food animals. It just so happened to be the same day that the FDA announced that it is safe to consume meat or milk from cloned animals and there is no need for special labeling. The FDA is steering people to Dr. Wheeler for additional information because he was on the peer review committee. Timing is everything.

Proving that 2007 will undoubtedly be all about what we can accomplish with science and technology, the first animal news story was about a team of researchers that has determined that they can genetically modify cattle and "knock out" the gene that causes bovine spongiform encephalopathy. And again, as luck would have it, I was discussing this with two other scientists at the University of Illinois who have been studying the prion diseases in beef, sheep, deer and elk.

I think the whole issue with BSE parallels the concept of what people refer to as the "Nanoculture" we are heading into. I never really understood exactly what Nano technology was until we became so inundated with information about things that we could not see or feel. The best definition that I have found is that nano deals with organisms that are less than 1-micron in size. I know we always wanted our pig feed to be 700 microns so we are talking very, very small. Funny how we need a visual before we truly understand things, isn't it? I think the same holds true for the American public and their lack of understanding in regard to genetic modification, even when it could put an end to a disease like BSE ? Manipulating something as small as a gene is a concept that people just can't wrap their minds around and therefore they conjure up Jekyll and Hyde images of research scientists running amuck and mixing genes around like a pot of Mulligan stew.

I could probably go on and on about the benefits to the producers and consumers if we had a wide acceptance of these technologies. Don't get me wrong, I am not opposed to them but I do have a question. Why is it major headline news when we have an announcement from FDA about the safety of consuming meat and milk from cloned animals? And likewise the story about genetic modification of beef animals to eliminate a disease that people are so freaked out about? If you followed how many major news sources highlighted these stories, you would be amazed. The upside to this is that we can use it as an opportunity to tell the real story about the wholesomeness and safety of the food we produce every day. Let's face it, Dr. Matt Wheeler, a trained reproductive physiologist, doesn't get phone calls from CNN every day. This might be our big chance to get the good word out.

My big news story for the beginning of 2007 is a little different. We know that less than 165 people have ever been affected by BSE . Yes, thousands of cattle have died from the disease but I believe globally we have this disease under control. Cloned animals may one day assist humans at some level, but both of these technologies are just tools that I believe we should have in the toolbox for food producers. But if we are spending millions of dollars to combat a disease that kills both people and animals, what about rabies?

The CDC reports that rabies annually still kills 50,000 people worldwide and 10 million people receive post-exposure vaccinations against the disease. Yet we don't have the media hype selling newspapers like we do if we can use a scary term like "Mad Cow Disease" on the front page. I hope that as we continue through a year that will be filled with scientific breakthroughs, we remember a couple of basic things: Someone sitting in a house on the fifth day without electricity won't give a genetically modified rat's ear about how we can clone cows, they just want to be able to see the ones we already have. Delivering the basic essentials of life to everyone that needs them must never be overlooked as we pave our way into this scientific wilderness.

Editor's note: Trent Loos is a sixth generation United States farmer, host of the daily radio show, Loos Tales, and founder of Faces of Agriculture, a non-profit organization putting the human element back into the production of food. Get more information at www.FacesOfAg.com, or e-mail Trent at trent@loostales.com.

Date: 1/4/07

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