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Keeping the foodsupply safe in the future may mean discontinuing use of
species who might serve as vectors for or<br>
sources of new biohazardous organisms.<br>
<br>
The "Soylent Green in a vat" discussion tweaked me to respond.<br>
<br>
The list of species jumps from such food supply orignated disease
organisms includes BSE, swine flu, avian<br>
flu and perhaps AIDS. <br>
<br>
The advantage of developing rabbit, Iguana, mouse, rat, and worm and
insect food sources is numerous.<br>
The animal rights people will be happy too.<br>
<br>
The R&D possible if billions of rats or such are used includes
RFID and biochip tracking of novel genetics for<br>
medical purposes on an organization and scale of an unprecedented scale.<br>
Epigenomics and epigenetics would boom if thousands of dietary input
scenarios could be played out in a cost effective manner<br>
where the test subjects could always have a cost recovery feature
through the human and pet food chain.<br>
<br>
Just think of the australian scenario of rat, rabbit and other plagues
in the context of secure land areas remotely managed<br>
with intensive crop and feeding inputs. Use of pheromones and biochips
to monitor and manage a livestock with <br>
a reproductive capacity far beyond the chicken or pig, an annual
production cycle measured in days and weeks instead of months and years
would allow major commercialization of cutting edge technology.<br>
<br>
Nutritional tweaking with numerous nutraceuticals is more resource
efficient if the amounts required are fed for say 72 hours<br>
to a mouse than if voluminous amounts are fed to a cow or pig for days
to weeks.<br>
<br>
Save the pigs for transplant tissue and organ sourcing. With fewer
more managed medical livestock production,<br>
biohazard can be more measured, monitored and contained than if there
is a vast food supply bound bio-pool from which<br>
biohazards can arise.<br>
<br>
Save the cows for bioproduction of novel fermentation products.<br>
<br>
Conversion of grains by insects allows more diversity in bioproducts.<br>
<br>
Mines, caves and other novel production areas mightbe used.<br>
<br>
Prairie Plant Systems has for example the equivalent of 10,000 acres of
farmland in 2 spent mines.<br>
There might be the equivalent of millions of acres in like this
available.<br>
<br>
Replacing high cost pharma plants with intensive Pharming is already
calculated to reduce pharma production costs by <br>
60-95%.<br>
<br>
This technology will someday be useful on the first extraterrestrial
colonies and long duration space voyages as well.<br>
Bossie is not food material for the trip to Alpha Centauri or pre
terraformed Mars.<br>
<br>
This commentary if you can believe it comes from someone raised as
grain and livestock farmer from <br>
marginal agriculture Canadian Prairies. Most of my neighbours would
lock me up in the looonie bin and throw away the key or<br>
worse if they heard these comments.<br>
<br>
Of course I am not your average farmer these days as I go about my way
commercializing trees and hemp and pot<br>
for people and pets and god knows what else next door to normal
wheat, flax, peas and canola and cow farmers.<br>
<br>
"Pharmer Mo"<br>
<br>
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<a class="moz-txt-link-freetext" href="http://bio-era.net/events/add_event_13.html">http://bio-era.net/events/add_event_13.html</a><br>
<p><font color="#0000ff" size="5"><strong>Avian Flu: <br>
<br>
</strong></font><font color="#990000" size="4"><em>Situation Update and
Bio-era Scenarios Review</em></font> <br>
<br>
The
widening geographic scope of H5N1 outbreaks in recent weeks has
heightened concerns that the disease will continue to spread in the
months ahead along with autumn bird migrations in Asia. This news,
together with recent announcements concerning vaccine development,
stockpiles of anti-viral drugs, and possible intervention strategies to
contain outbreaks of human-transmissible H5N1, provides critical new
information for analyzing avian flu risks using scenarios. <br>
<br>
In
this call, we will review and analyze recent developments and update
the scenario framework created by bio era in March 2005. The latest
information allows better elaboration of the critical junctures and
possible outcomes outlined in bio era's original "scenarios roadmap." </p>
<p class="header">Speakers and Commentators Include:</p>
<p><strong>Mr. James Newcomb</strong>,
Managing Director, bio-era, is an accomplished economic and strategic
analyst, and an experienced authority on the application of scenario
planning to business planning and decision-making. He is the principal
author of the bio-era reports, “SARS and the New Economics of
BioSecurity”, and “Avian Flu: New Responses to Emerging Disease”. Jim
studied scenario planning under Ted Newland in the 1980s, the
co-inventor of scenario planning at Royal Dutch Shell. </p>
<p><strong>Mr. Robert Carlson</strong>,
Senior Associate, bio-era. is a leading analyst of enabling
biotechnologies, including emerging new vaccine production
technologies. At the broadest level, Rob is interested in the future
role of biology as a human technology. His current research focuses on
the application of advancing biotechnologies in response to emerging
infectious diseases, including avian influenza. As a practicing
scientist, he is currently working on microfluidic devices to quantify
properties of single cells, and on new fabrication techniques to
produce those devices. Dr. Carlson earned a doctorate in Physics from
Princeton University in 1997. </p>
<p><strong>Mr. William Karesh</strong>,
Director of Field Veterinary Service, Wildlife Conservation Society.
Billy Karesh is a leading wildlife veterinarian, who directs the
activities in the field of over 5,000 veterinarians who make up the
global WCS wildlife field vet network. Dr. Karesh is actively engaged
in the issue of avian influenza as an emerging zoonotic disease, and
has pioneered the WCS "One World, One Health" initiative.</p>
<p class="header">Key questions to be answered:</p>
<ul>
<li>What
is the significance of the widening geographical scope of avian
influenza outbreaks in terms of the risk of pandemic emergence? </li>
<li>What developments are possible in the months ahead and what are
the signposts to watch? </li>
<li>What
are the implications of the recently completed tests of an H5N1 vaccine
and what are the next steps toward producing and stockpiling a vaccine?
</li>
<li>What is the likelihood that the existing vaccine will be
effective against a pandemic strain? </li>
<li>How soon could DNA vaccines and alternative vaccine production
technologies play a role?</li>
<li>What
do recently published computer model analyses tell us about the
possibility of containing an outbreak of a human transmissible H5N1
virus? </li>
<li>Do these findings suggest new scenarios for consideration? What
are the implications for business of planning and preparedness? </li>
<li>How
should pandemic planning and preparedness efforts consider trade-offs
between "upstream" and "downstream" strategies? For example, in the
event of a pandemic outbreak, how the trade-off between contributing
toward the collective effort to prevent or contain the outbreak of a
pandemic strain at its source, be evaluated against stockpiling
anti-virals and vaccines?</li>
</ul>
<br>
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