Tasty Mutant Oysters

By Atom Bergstrom

Atom’s Blog

Today’s beaker boys think they know more than God.

“God takes too long to make changes,” is the rallying cry of these poor excuses for so-called human beings.

They’re feeding the world, one genetically-modified PATENTED “food” at a time.

Dennis Hollier (“Tasty Mutants: The Invention of the Modern Oyster: Genetic innovation, on the half shell,” The Atlantic, Sept. 29, 2014) wrote …

“If you slurped down any oysters on the half-shell this summer, you probably didn’t realize they were monsters. Not monsters in the pejorative sense, but man made creatures — the invention of a modern-day Dr. Frankenstein. That Dr. Frankenstein, in this case, is Standish Allen, currently the director of the Aquaculture Genetics and Breeding Technology Center at William & Mary’s Virginia Institute for Marine Science. Over the past three decades, Allen’s patented innovations in oyster culture have transformed this old-fashioned industry. His monster: a sweet, plump morsel called the triploid oyster.”

According to the University of Washington …

“Through research carried out by University of Washington Fisheries Professor Kenneth Chew and his colleagues, Washington state has become one of the nation’s top three producers of oysters. Chew is perhaps best known for developing the triploid Pacific oyster, which doesn’t become “mushy” during the summer spawning season.

“Triploid oysters have been genetically altered using controlled applications such as heat, pressure, or a chemical, so that they are reproductively inactive — virtually sterile — in summer months when other oysters are spawning. Triploids attain a larger size than normal, or diploid strains.”

Nothing can go wrong … go wrong … go wrong.

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