[extropy-chat] diversification of the food supply

[Lifespan Pharma Inc.]

Keeping the foodsupply safe in the future may mean discontinuing use of 
species who might serve as vectors for or
sources of new biohazardous organisms.

The "Soylent Green in a vat" discussion tweaked me to respond.

The list of species jumps from such food supply orignated disease 
organisms  includes BSE, swine flu, avian
flu and perhaps AIDS.

The advantage of developing rabbit, Iguana, mouse, rat, and worm and 
insect food sources is numerous.
The animal rights people will be happy too.

The  R&D possible if billions of rats or such are used includes RFID and 
biochip tracking of novel genetics for
medical purposes on an organization and scale of an unprecedented scale.
Epigenomics and epigenetics would boom if thousands of dietary input 
scenarios could be played out in a cost effective manner
where the test subjects could always have a cost recovery feature 
through the human and pet food chain.

Just think of the australian scenario of rat, rabbit and other plagues 
in the context of secure land areas remotely managed
with intensive crop and feeding inputs.  Use of pheromones and biochips 
to monitor and manage a livestock with
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.

Nutritional tweaking with numerous nutraceuticals is more resource 
efficient if the amounts required are fed for say 72 hours
to a mouse than if voluminous amounts are fed to a cow or pig for days 
to weeks.

Save the pigs for transplant tissue and organ sourcing.  With fewer more 
managed medical livestock production,
biohazard can be more measured, monitored and contained than if there is 
a vast food supply bound bio-pool from which
biohazards can arise.

Save the cows for bioproduction of novel fermentation products.

Conversion of grains by insects  allows more diversity in bioproducts.

Mines, caves and other novel production areas mightbe used.

Prairie Plant Systems has for example the equivalent of 10,000 acres of 
farmland in 2 spent mines.
There might be the equivalent of millions of acres in like this available.

Replacing high cost pharma plants with intensive Pharming is already 
calculated to reduce pharma production costs by
60-95%.

This technology will someday be useful on the first extraterrestrial 
colonies and long duration space voyages as well.
Bossie is not food material for the trip to Alpha Centauri or pre 
terraformed Mars.

This commentary if you can believe it comes from  someone raised as  
grain and livestock farmer from
marginal agriculture Canadian Prairies.   Most of my neighbours would 
lock me up in the looonie bin  and throw away the key or
worse if they heard these comments.

Of course I am not your average farmer these days as I go about my way 
commercializing trees and hemp and pot
for people and pets  and god knows what else  next door to normal wheat, 
flax, peas and canola  and cow farmers.

"Pharmer Mo"

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http://bio-era.net/events/add_event_13.html

Avian Flu:

Situation Update and Bio-era Scenarios Review

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.   

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."

Speakers and Commentators Include:

Mr. James Newcomb, 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.

Mr. Robert Carlson, 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.

Mr. William Karesh, 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.

Key questions to be answered:

    * What is the significance of the widening geographical scope of
      avian influenza outbreaks in terms of the risk of pandemic emergence?
    * What developments are possible in the months ahead and what are
      the signposts to watch?
    * 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?
    * What is the likelihood that the existing vaccine will be effective
      against a pandemic strain?
    * How soon could DNA vaccines and alternative vaccine production
      technologies play a role?
    * What do recently published computer model analyses tell us about
      the possibility of containing an outbreak of a human transmissible
      H5N1 virus?
    * Do these findings suggest new scenarios for consideration? What
      are the implications for business of planning and preparedness?
    * 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?


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