Pig with a difference

Farm-raised pigs are dirty, smelly animals that get no respect. They8217;re also an environmental hazard. Their manure contains phosphorus, which, when it rains, runs off into lakes and estuaries, depleting oxygen, killing fish, stimulating algae overgrowth and emitting greenhouse gases.

Farm-raised pigs are dirty, smelly animals that get no respect. They8217;re also an environmental hazard. Their manure contains phosphorus, which, when it rains, runs off into lakes and estuaries, depleting oxygen, killing fish, stimulating algae overgrowth and emitting greenhouse gases.

During the 1980s, phosphorus pollution killed all aquatic life in Denmark8217;s Mariager Fjord8212;an ecological disaster that prompted European governments to impose strict regulations on pig farming. It didn8217;t solve the problem. Pigs provide more dietary protein, more cheaply, to more people than any other animal. Northern Europe still maintains the highest pig-to-human ratio in the world 2-1 in Denmark, but East Asia is catching up.

As it turns out, there is a solution to the pig problem, but it requires a change of mindset among environmentalists and the public. Two Canadian scientists, Cecil Forsberg and John Phillips, have created a pig whose manure doesn8217;t contain very much phosphorus. If this variety of pig were adopted widely, it could reduce a major source of pollution.

But the Enviropig, as they call it, is the product of genetic modification8212;which is anathema to many Westerners. The Enviropig is one of many new technologies that are putting environmentalists and organic-food proponents in a quandary: should they remain categorically opposed to genetically modified GM foods even at the expense of the environment? Pigs can also be modified to digest grasses and hay as cows and sheep do, reducing the energy-intensive use of corn as pig feed.

The most significant GM applications will be ones that help alleviate the problem of agriculture, which accounts for 38 percent of the world8217;s landmass and is crowding out natural ecosystems and species habitats. GM crops that can be produced more efficiently would allow us to return land to nature. Standing in opposition to these advances are advocates of an organic food philosophy that holds to the simplistic notion that 8220;natural8221; is good and 8220;synthetic8221; is bad. Genetic modification is unacceptable to organic farmers merely because it is performed in a laboratory. Says Charles Margulis, a spokesman for Greenpeace USA, 8220;We think the Enviropig is a Frankenpig in disguise.8221;

Technically, however, all domesticated plants and animals were created by human selection of random mutations. High-energy cosmic rays break chromosomes into pieces that reattach randomly; in this way, nature sometimes creates genes that didn8217;t previously exist. Lab work, however, is more nuanced than nature: scientists can make subtle and precise changes to DNA.

Of course, stringent testing is needed to show that a genetic modification works and that the product is not harmful to humans. Scientists can do both of these things with techniques that allow them to examine and compare the structure and activity of every one of an animal8217;s genes. An added advantage with the Enviropig is that the single extra enzyme in its saliva is also present naturally in billions of bacteria inhabiting the digestive tract of every normal human being, which suggests that the Enviropig will be as safe for human consumption as non-GM pigs.

Newsweek