In the early 2000s, a Japanese team bred pigs containing a spinach gene that altered the way the animals metabolized fatty acids; the transgenic swine had a healthier fat profile, but the scientists’ work was widely condemned, and the pigs never made it out of the lab. Around the same time, a Canadian team created the Enviropig, an environmentally friendly transgenic pig containing an E. coli gene that allowed the animals to better digest a phosphorus-containing compound called phytate. Normal pig manure retains high phosphorus levels that leach into streams and rivers, causing algal blooms,
...more
