Mad Japanese Scientists create real-life swamp thing.

January 24, 2002 8:25 AM

Mad Japanese Scientists create real-life swamp thing. "We removed the 'fattening' genes from pigs and replaced them with 'vitamin-enriched' genes from spinach!" I will not eat it in a box, I will not eat it with a fox...
posted by greensweater (17 comments total)

That's not a pig. The chemicals made the spinach sentient and it assumed the form and identity of a pig.
posted by SuperBreakout at 8:39 AM on January 24, 2002

I will not eat it in a box, I will not eat it IN a fox...
posted by piskycritters at 9:08 AM on January 24, 2002

of course, this raises the question.....

is the pig green?
posted by presto at 9:19 AM on January 24, 2002

I'm really more interested in spinach to which has been added pig genes. Pop it in the skillet, it makes its own grease! Mmmmmmmm. Pork fat.
posted by BitterOldPunk at 10:46 AM on January 24, 2002

So they removed the best part of the pork and put in spinach flavor!? I'll keep on having spinach on the side either blanched and drenched in butter or smothered in ranch dressing.
posted by revbrian at 10:51 AM on January 24, 2002

But seriously folks... this story is only a back-page blurblet, but putting forth the notion that (spinach genes + pig genes = nutritious pork) seems awfully silly, even irresponsible. Does Star Trek style pseudoscience pass as PR when the general public is too stupid to grasp the technology? Is this like the "wowee zowee" internet PR of the 90's but with a sinister 21st century twist? I mean, total cognitive dissonance here. Should I be outraged or should I just laugh? Is irony really dead? Does freak-ass, totally effed up, evil scientist hijinks like this bother anyone anymore?
posted by greensweater at 10:54 AM on January 24, 2002

Does freak-ass, totally effed up, evil scientist hijinks like this bother anyone anymore?

How is this evil exactly? Or are you just goinging off on a "You can't play god man!" speech?

I've got no problem with genetic engineering as long as it is heavily regulated, and all such produced foods are treated by the FDA as entirely new things (i.e. put through rigirous testing).

We've got no details on this study, so I have no way to validate (or invalidate) their claim that they've managed to make pork "more healthy", but its certainly not impossible. The scientist involved did say "the significance of this success is more academic than practical".
posted by malphigian at 11:03 AM on January 24, 2002

Does freak-ass, totally effed up, evil scientist hijinks like this bother anyone anymore?
yawn. green eggs. green ham. dr. seuss broke this ground years ago.
posted by quonsar at 11:15 AM on January 24, 2002

this is how it starts...innocuously, humorously. but pretty soon there will be nothing differentiating plant from animal, animal from machine...oh, god, i've seen too many bad sci-fi anime.
posted by mariko at 11:39 AM on January 24, 2002

Don't get me wrong, I'm ALL FOR playing god. It's not the science that bothers me. The story just reminds me of that 16mm classroom film from '54, with the soap commercial plucked-violin soundtrack that talks about Our Friend the Atom. The real evil part is the corny spin on the story. "Making your food more nutritious! New and improved Pork!"

Here's a story about drifting GM corn. Genes (I've read) are recursive formulas which interact in ways we have only begun to calculate. But what the hell! Headlong into the darkness!
posted by greensweater at 11:45 AM on January 24, 2002

Headlong into the darkness!

That's a MeFi tagline, right there.
posted by starvingartist at 12:40 PM on January 24, 2002

This is disturbing. Another reason to keep kosher/cacher, I say.
posted by ParisParamus at 12:42 PM on January 24, 2002

so what if pig genes get put in chicken? or into spinach?

kosher? vegetarian safe?

mariko...i'm sort of picturing the pig exhibiting signs of the Akira effect or something, just...greener.
posted by th3ph17 at 1:32 PM on January 24, 2002

Goats with spider genes.
posted by skyline at 2:22 PM on January 24, 2002

I never liked vegetables much anyway...
posted by panopticon at 3:27 PM on January 24, 2002

OMG, a diabolical conspiracy to make pork less yummy! And I thought the Japanese were our friends.
posted by electro at 4:10 PM on January 24, 2002

disgusting. Playing God IS a bad idea. Course I ate a GMO tomato--the "Ugly" tomato and broke out in hives all over my body.
posted by Budge at 10:39 AM on January 25, 2002