Word: livestock
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...With plants, for instance, there is always the possibility that new traits could be accidentally transferred to wild relatives of domestic species. Theoretically, experiments with genes that confer resistance to disease or herbicides could create hardier weeds. Food safety is another legitimate concern. Products from genetically altered crops and livestock will require rigorous testing to ensure that they are harmless...
...help farmers and the environment alike. Similarly, the discovery that plants can be "vaccinated" against disease by equipping them with viral genes ought to reduce reliance on chemical insecticides. Currently, farmers battle such diseases by spraying the insects that carry them. Genetic engineering could also be used to give livestock more resistance to bacteria, reducing the need to feed antibiotics to farm animals...
...Philippines are applying the tools of genetic engineering to improve the major crops of South America and Asia. Before the middle of the next century, experts warn, world population may reach 10 billion, and agriculture had better keep up. By that time, the planet's crop and livestock growers will probably have new environmental challenges to meet, among them a changing climate and increasingly salty soils. Asserts Beachy: "Some argue that it is irresponsible to use biotechnology. To me it seems irresponsible...
...Pennsylvania village of Yukon (pop. 1,100), Diana Steck is leading a protest organization of 600 members. Using roadblocks and other acts of civil disobedience as well as the legal system, the group is trying to force authorities to clean up six polluted lagoons that it suspects are killing livestock and causing cancer among the populace...
When a five-year civil war in the early 1980s drove farmers to abandon their land and livestock, swarms of once docile domestic pigs and their offspring returned to the wild, rooting up the earth in peasants' gardens and devouring cassava, sweet potato and groundnut crops. With their powerful sense of smell, vicious temperament and high birthrate -- sows can bear litters of up to 15 young four times a year -- the beasts are a formidable new enemy for local peasants. Moving mostly in darkness and traveling up to 20 miles a night, the wild pigs have cut local food production...