Are we on the road to new mega flora & fauna

Are we on the road to new mega flora & fauna, the new records for many wild animals weight are astounding, here are a few, Black Bear 880 pounds, Griz 1800 pounds, whitetail deer 511 and wild hog 800 + pounds.
Most all of the new weight records for the wildlife are coming from areas where farming is a common livelihood, most all of our grown food stuffs are now genetically enhanced.
We now have corn, wheat, rice, ECT.. which is producing 10 times the normal yield, due to genetic enhancement.
Are these genetic enhancements now being passed onto our wild flora & fauna? Are we going to see animals that are the size of dinosaurs. Just imagine an African elephant that is 3 times the normal size or the common house mouse at 5 lbs. What is going to be the size.
Are we going to see the human population double in size also, I know that there is no right or wrong answer, for these questions yet, I'm just curious to what others think.

I believe that Mother Nature should not be messed with. I guess you have to had food that was not "enhanced" to taste the difference. What good is a pig that has genetically been altered to yield more meat and less fat content? A big old fat pig butt is what makes our bacon taste good! I was raised to hunt and fish to get my meat and to grow veggies and fruit to go with it. My family raised rabbits to supplement our food supply. It is totally different tasting when it`s not influenced by any additives. And anyone who has ever grown any fruit`s or vegetables on thier own can attest to the better flavor of produce naturally grown and ripened on the plant. The convenience of fast food has destroyed the concept of a healthy meal cooked without artificial flavoring added and cooked in fat. Add to that the fact that many schools now have cut out physical education classes so they have more time in class rooms. I prefer it the old way but it`s just my opinion.

It would be cool, if it was the case, but I doubt so. The genetic modifications in GMO crops cannot spread to animals.

Plants can share genes, especially if they're closely related, and so can bacteria. So in some cases a GMO crop may share its modified genes with wild breeds.
A similar thing is only seen in animals in the extremely rare instance where a defect virus ends up transferring a chunk of host DNA instead of its own viral DNA/RNA.
4 events are required for this, each of which are unlikely; the virus must pick up host DNA, it must infect a germline cell in the new host, the transferred DNA must be functionally incorporated in an expressed loci of the germline genome, and the infected cell must give rise to a zygote.
On top of that, the gene transfer must not radically disturb the normal development of the zygote (viral insertions are liable to induce cancer or miscarriage).
On top of that, a gene transfer between GMO plants and wild animals requires a virus, which can infect both plants and animals. I have never heard of such a virus.

And on top of THAT; a stretch of DNA that has a function (for instance enhanced growth) in a specific plant species, is unlikely to have the same function in distantly related plants. And it is unlikely to have ANY function in mammals.

I'm reliable to deem it impossible for a plant growth gene to induce growth in mammals at all, even if it could be transferred in nature.

You are a little wrong Ceph. The Latex or chitinase in plants is necessary in all animals to assist their own animal chitinases in fighting diseases. By boosting the vegetable chitinases to extremes the body's mammilian chitinases slow production or completely shut down as the body senses that they are not needed. This causes problems when a disease comes around that the vegetable chitinases can't fight. By genetically modifying food with the BT or other genes, The plant responds to the chitin present by boosting it's latex or chitinase. This can cause the latex food syndrome or other allergies in humans including analphalagic shock. Animals cannot boil their vegetables to convert the chitinases to forms that cannot hurt them. Humans and animals have the ability to know what is good for them unless they start to believe in what they "know is right". A deer only eats certain foods like plantains and dandilions when it has parasites. They are high in natural worm and bacteria eating enzymes in their latex. Until recently People used to eat them in the spring also incase they ingested anything during the winter. Our habits of agriculture have made all food high in these molectular compounds. The immune system of all animals is starting to get screwed up. Our medicines have been based off of the properties of plants for thousands of years. Disregarding past knowledge and thinking we Know more than the cumulative knowledge of our ancestors is dangerous. Certain plants have medicinal values, taking medicines on a regular basis causes allergies or immunity to their benefits. We may not be able to rely on the plants and all medicines derived from them in the future because of wanting a perfect looking fruit or vegetable on our table. We have been genetically modifying foods for thousands of years, but they always have been known through tradition and verbal teachings as what you do. Sayings as tea, toast, or coffee when sick. The type of chitinases in tea and coffee are great, although tea in my genetics is a little too strong as my ancestors couldn't afford it. Chitin in the toast causes the mamilian chitinases to boost, sensing the remnants of the yeast. Somehow I think the activated charcoal formed by the toasting process draws the endotoxins and exotoxins created by bacteria and rampant chemical reactions in the body into the toast and causes them to be excreted in the toilet. Most of all the old sayings can be proven but current thinking is that a pill is the only answer. I believe we need some medicines especially when we screw up our body's natural balance. Long term goals should be to correct these imbalances from ever occuring. I believe some GM food is all right as long as whoever eats it is imformed of all changes that it does to body chemistry. Try this on the massive modifications that we have done in the last 30 years. Remember it takes about 3 generations or fourty years to allow our genetics to catch up in humans. same 3 generations in animals, but their genetic timeframe is different for reproduction.

Ceph you have a strong and valid point in your response. But I`m gonna have to side with Rickymouse in a way also. Did you ever see the clip of then Sec. of Defense Donald Rumsfeld in his talk about the "known knowns" and the "unknown knowns"? In a very confusing way he said it well. We know what we know because others have taught us this and self observation. What we don`t know may kill us all. I guess time will tell. We are not so powerful that we can`t go the way of the dinosaurs and other life forms before that. You cannot hold back the forces of nature so don`t mess with her creations. Here locally pecans are good business. The papershell pecan is the most popular but it`s a hybrid. If a fallen pecan sprouts it reverts back to native pecan, the way it was intended to be. DNA is still an infant science. Would you believe that a person who is an exact 25 marker DNA match to you could be living in your town? I found one here much to my surprise. So anything is possible.

I live close to the Kootenai River in Montana, until 1990 the largest Rainbow trout ever caught was 17 pounds, now it is 31 pounds caught by rod and reel and a 35 pounder found beached on the river bank. Montana fish & game has caught a 38 pounder in its nets. They have tested them and claim them to be pure strain Rainbows, they are now twice the size as normal. The Kootenai river flows out of Canada into Montana, in Canada where the Kootenai river originates, there is a lot of farming and a lot of use of star link corn, modified wheat crops and other genetically enhanced crops.
The Libby area also has some of the largest whitetail deer in the USA and they are found very close to where there is wheat crops that have been genetically enhanced.
I have read about the barrier, that they say cant not be crossed between plant and animal life. But I'm not total convinced, I can list hundreds of different animals that have increased in size since the 1970s. New york city dumps a large amount of human waste into the ocean, and now we are see larger sharks, ravens normally weight around 5 pounds now are going as high as 12 pounds.
These animals that are getting larger, are close to a human food source, be it a dumping grounds, or our farm lands.

You can see a bug on a tree, get your jar and take it inside and study it, finding it does not in essence hurt the tree because it does not eat it. If you stand back and look at the tree with all this known knowledge you discover that the tree is dying. The woodpeckers are pecking it to death looking for these bugs in the bark. So in reality the bug is killing the tree. You notice there are no song birds in the area because there is a farmer putting genetically modified crops that bugs hate nearby. These bugs migrate to the woods and eat other foods. The birds don't like the GM crops either so never come around anymore. What is killing the trees? Do you kill the woodpeckers, natures natural insect control? Sometimes we should take a step back and look at the big picture.

But the bug dose kill the tree. In the 1970s Montana was infested by Japanese beetle, originally the foresters stated that they would not eat and kill a tree under 12 inches, now a tree with a 1/2 stem is being killed.
That being said, bugs don't not like the new GM crops, but the deer, bear ect.. love them. Fish hatcheries feed their fingerlings grains, these grains have been grown as GM crops and now we are getting Rainbow trout that are now twice their normal size. In 1990 a fish hatchery in Canada got hit by a flood and all of their fish got washed into the kootenia river and now we have giant Rainbow and Bull trout in it

The fish that eat these GM foods don't usually pose to much health problems to humans. With the presence of omega 3 to omega 6 oils in their meat they cover any reactions. They used to say "Whatever doesn't kill you makes you stronger" but they never new what extremes man would go through to test this. I wonder if the people testing these fish and saying their good would actually knowingly and purposely eat them?

Montana fish & game has issued a Warring, not to eat over 1 fish per month from the kootenia river and not to eat over 6 per year. Makes you wonder.

rickymouse wrote:

By boosting the vegetable chitinases to extremes the body's mammilian chitinases slow production or completely shut down as the body senses that they are not needed. This causes problems when a disease comes around that the vegetable chitinases can't fight.

I didn't know that, very interesting!
If we don't produce our own chitinases properly, we're more susceptible to intestinal fungal infections for instance.

I believe some GM food is all right as long as whoever eats it is imformed of all changes that it does to body chemistry.

Totally agree, but I doubt we'll ever know ALL changes.
In fact I am pretty concerned about the unknown side effects of GM food myself. I just wanted to point out why GM crops are very unlikely to be the behind the large animals morel has heard about.

Pollution with synthetic compounds is known to cause hormonal disturbances in wild animals - especially in aquatic environments. That would be my first guess.

The Colorado River runs right through the center of Austin locally called "Town Lake". Largemouth bass fishing is great, but they warn not to eat more than one a month on gamefish and not to eat bottom feeders at all such as catfish. It is because all the way down the line municipalities dump thier waste in this river system believing that a river hundreds of miles long has to dilute all of it. By the time it hits the Gulf it`s sediments flush into our bays. What used to be a thriving shrimping industry has been killed by this. Shrimp are not reproducing in the bays as before and so deeper waters have to be fished which are different types of shrimp. The common white shrimp is now imported in large amounts from China and served here everyday. And we all know that the Chinese wouldn`t add anything to thier exports that may harm us right.?! I buy my shrimp right from the boat as it docks.

Chitinases are complex,types of enzymes that are in latex of leaves, nuts, and fruits. There are many types. Fungus use certain types in their secretions that don't disolve their particular type of chitin. plants have types by their genetics that bother some animals and most bugs and bacteria. All animals make their own types also. At ripening the chitinase is converted in fruit so it attracts the deer and animals so they can carry it around and poop it out. Squirrels only go after nuts when the nuts are ready. Nature has a plan, only eat naturally ripened food or you get sick. Sometimes unripe food is medicine for all animals, killing parasites. We need certain bacteria in our intestinal tract, It's not good to get too little, or the wrong kind in there. And I think all of them can eat us if we don't feed them, or poison us if we piss them off. I guess they call that a symbiotic relationship with a respect factor. I don't understand why people give so many different names to the same things. Every science has their unique names for the same thing. It's difficult to learn all the different languages of the sciences and translate them into ordinary everyday terms. It was a lot easier just to eat the good healthy food that grandma used to cook and not worry about what was in it.