As far as Newport Genetics Limited is concerned, the science it uses to breed pigs for local consumption is safe and brings home the bacon.

However, the National Consumers League believes that the firm is genetically modifying pigs and wants the meat labelled so consumers can make a choice.

“The truth is, there is no regulation against labelling, so they are really not breaking the law,” said Carlton Stewart, the consumers league president.

Stewart, though, insisted that Jamaican consumers have been unsuspectingly buying ham produced from genetically altered pigs for more than two years.

He is, therefore, hoping that the Government yields to the lobby being mounted by the Inter-American Development Bank (IDB) and Consumers International in England to implement regulations requiring the proper labelling of foods.

“If they don’t, they are not providing consumers with a choice,” Stewart said. “Proper labelling is done in Europe and Japan. Why can’t we have these foods properly labelled here?”

Newport Genetics Ltd is a subsidiary of Caribbean Broilers Ltd. It operates the farm, at the Bodles Agricultural Research Station, in Old Harbour, St Catherine in conjunction with the government-run Agricultural Support Services Project (ASSP).

The farm sits on 15 to 20 acres of land leased from the Ministry of Agriculture. The main breeding facility has been in operation since 2004.

Genetic modification is basically the technology used to alter the genetic make-up of living organisms such as animals, plants or bacteria.

Essentially what is done is that genes are combined through a process known as recombinant DNA technology and the resulting organism is said to be genetically modified or genetically engineered.

However, GM products have been mired in controversy for years, with the major focus being on human and environmental safety, labelling and consumer choice.

Supporters of the technology say that in crops it enhances taste and quality, improves resistance to pests, disease and herbicides, reduces maturation time and increases nutrients, stress tolerance and yields.

They also argue that in animals the technology leads to better yields of milk, eggs and meat, increases hardiness, productivity and resistance, and improves health and diagnostic methods.

Opponents of the technology, on the other hand, insist that it has the potential to affect human health; that it can lead to the transfer of transgenes through cross-pollination; and that it amounts to meddling with nature by mixing genes among species.

Stewart said that based on studies, genetically modified (GM) foods, when consumed, could activate diseases in the human body that have been dormant.

“No one knows what it will do,” he said. “They are using a virus, but have removed the virulence so you won’t get the disease, but it still has the ability to infect.”

“They have attached the virus to the gene and then inject it into the animal. So they really transfer the gene. Experts say that when these viruses enter the human body they combine horizontally and bring back diseases that were dormant in the body.”

“All we are saying is that before you give these [genetically modified foods] to people, do more testing and assessment, because the level and rigour of assessment is absent,” Stewart added.

He said that threat of GM foods to the public’s health is even greater as insects within the vicinity of testing areas, such as mosquitoes and flies, are likely to spread the viruses within a seven-mile radius of the plant.

“So you find that other animals will be infected and our products will not be accepted on the overseas market after they have been tested,” said Stewart.

But according to Dr Keith Amiel of Caribbean Broilers, Stewart’s argument “is absolute nonsense and based on ignorance of the situation and livestock breeding”.

“We do not conduct any form of genetical modification on the pig farm,” Dr Amiel said.

“Canada is the main pig producing country in the world. What we did was go to Canada and pick 10 from their top brands – duroc – large, white and land race,” he explained. “One ejaculation from one of these boars can impregnate 50 sows. What is done at Bodles is to extract the semen, divide it into 50 portions and then inseminate one of the portions into each sow. Whereas the average piglets produced by regular pigs was six to seven, the amount from this cross breeding is between 12 and 16.”

The boars, he explained, are put in an artificial insemination lab where they are fed and watered. When the boar is ready for semen to be extracted, he is led to another room to a dummy pig made of wood and fibre glass. The smell of the female pig is on the dummy so the boar will mount the pig. The penis is then diverted and the semen collected in a sterile flask for examination and dilution.

The person, Dr Amiel said, who collects the semen is a trained lab technician with a master’s degree.

“So that is all we try to do, mix the breeds,” said Dr Amiel. “And you find that the pigs grow faster, produce better pork, make more money for the economy and feed more people. This produces animals known as hybrid vigour.”

According to Amiel, the Jamaican pig industry was extremely backward compared to other pig-producing countries. “We had what you call in-breeding (because proper records were not being kept) where you had offspring mating with mother, or brother to sister sort of thing. This caused the animals being born to come up short. Just as how when you have sicknesses and down growth if a human brother and sister marry and produces a child, it’s the same way with the pigs. The pigs just cannot do well,” he explained.

“We had to bring in pigs from Canada to match the market. Any pig-producing country is always seeking to improve its market,” Dr Amiel said.

“In other pig-producing countries such as Holland, after six months the animals would weigh 240 pounds to 270 pounds, while in Jamaica you find that after the same period of time the animals would be weighing 110 pounds to 170 pounds. That was utterly not economically viable,” he said.

Dr Amiel said that pork is the most eaten meat in the world with a consumption rate of 43 per cent to 47 per cent, while the consumption of chicken is 23 per cent to 28 per cent.

“A lot of the pork is consumed by tourists because it is not possible for a hotel to have breakfast without having ham or bacon on the menu. We had to adjust to supply to the hotel industry. So we needed to have quality pigs in Jamaica to produce quality pork,” the doctor said.

“The reality is that we are living in a different time and a different place. With this type of cross-breeding, we have gone from third world to first class world in the pig industry,” he said.

Gary Stephens of the ASSP also denied Stewart’s claim and corroborated Dr Amiel’s statements.

“It’s not genetically modified, it is all natural,” said Stephens. “No injection is done. “What they do is artificial insemination (AI) by using a special plastic tube (straw) to insert the sperm of the boar into the vagina of the gilt.”

The cost of the breeding project is said to be over J$60 million, of which US$298,000 was contributed by the ASSP. Stephens said that the money, which was contributed to the farm, came primarily from the IDB.

“This is a large project. The aim is to improve the competitiveness of the pig/pork industry by providing improved breeds of animals to farmers and improved breeds of meat,” Stephens said.

Sperm from these pigs are also sold to pig farmers across the island, some of whom are currently undergoing training in AI.

“The success of AI in Jamaica will be dependent on farmers actually doing the insemination,” Stephens said.

Annabel Williams, president of the Pig Farmers Association of Jamaica, said that the transgenetic modification (where genes from one animal are transferred to another) to which Stewart is referring is not being done at the Bodles farm.

“I do believe that genetically modifying organism is illegal in Jamaica, and is something I am totally against,” Williams said.

“We were breeding something that wasn’t growing very fast,” she said. She noted that originally, growing a pig would take seven to eight months before it reaches maturity, but with the cross-breeding it now takes five months and the result is better quality livestock.

Stewart, however, is not convinced.

“They just don’t want people to know what they are doing. Maybe the pigs they get from Canada are already transgenetic and they just insert the semen, but some transgenetic thing is going on.”