Recently I have spent some free time flipping through livestock pages on the Internet.
It was/is, for me something of a reflective process. I grew up on a farm with a primary focus on livestock. My summer holidays were spent at summer fairs showing livestock, and a rather varied list of livestock over the years; hogs, sheep, beef cattle, dairy goats and believe it or not chickens.
It is still one of my sharpest memories, me as a youngster, and the neighbour who helped out on occasion on the farm out with fish nets catching some free range laying hens so we could take them to Shand Fair, the only fair on the summer circuit we used to attend that had a poultry show. Interesting I had planned a day off this summer to take in the Shand Fair, again as a way to maybe turn back time a little, but work got squarely in the way of that idea, so maybe next summer.
But back to the livestock searches.
It came to me that when people talk about worrying about genetically modified farm produce, humankind has already done a significant job modifying farm livestock.
Certainly, the current technology of GM allows for gene transfer, which is more at the heart of concerns than the actual idea of modification.
Or at least the wise would hope so.
If it just the idea of humankind altering the basic organism, then the concern is far too late to arise.
You only need to start looking into the wild diversity of chickens, to see just how dramatic selective breeding can alter a species over time.
While the core genetics of all chickens are similar, the actual birds can vary significant.
Take for example the Ayam Cemani breed. It is an uncommon and relatively modern breed ofchicken from Indonesia. They have a dominant gene that causes hyperpigmentation (Fibromelanosis), making the chicken entirely black; including feathers, beak, and internal organs.
That is significantly different from the laying hens of producers in Canada.
The silkie chicken is also black-skinned, with feathering again very different from the more commonly perceived breeds.
The situation is no less dramatic when you cross from farm livestock to the world of common household pets.
There is little to suggest Chihuahua dogs and Newfoundland and Shar Pei dogs all come from common roots, but they actually do have similar lineage in the far distant past.
Pigeons are the same. We see rollers and tumblers developed from certain traits (a roller pigeon is a domesticated breed or variety of pigeon that has been selected for its ability to tumble or roll in the air).
Even gold fish have the hand of selective breeding to modify the species. The bubble eye variety perhaps the most dramatic example.
Genetic modification is hardly new. The techniques for achieving it are certainly advancing, and the ability to influence one species with traits from another are emerging, but it still is far from a new endeavour on our part.
Humankind has molded many species of the years and we have as a society accepted them as commonplace already.
Calvin Daniels is Assistant Editor with Yorkton This Week.
