On Producing Boneless Chickens DR. CAROL V. GAY Professor of Poultry Science The Pennsalvania State University Some time ago, Gary Larson created a cartoon entitled "The Boneless Chickenßanch." Pic tured were floppy feathered crea tures lying about here andthere. I suppose Mr. Larson got his idea from strolling past packages of boneless chicken breasts at the grocery store; Gary Larson is so good at amusing us. But his idea is also interesting from a biologi cal point of view, namely to grow bone-free meat since chicken meat is a valuable foodsource and chicken bones have little or no market value. The value of chicken bones is "t When you make your living with milk, you need a partner who pours on the services. In addition to paying our farmer members an average premium of 30 cents per hundredweight, no one else can offer the wide array of We focus our efforts on developing resources that can help generate more revenue or achieve real cost savings for you. With our help, the average of course hidden because muscle develops in conjunction with bone. Muscle development is impaired when bone development goes awry. It is the skeletal sys tem that establishes the shape and overallsize of an organism. Interestingly, both heavy and light breeds of chickenshave bones that are more or less similar in length, when appropriatecom parisons are set up, but there is tremendous variation in thickness. Increased thickness is associated with increased muscle mass. Pre sumablythis occurs in the heavy breeds wherein bones are subjected to greatermechanical stresses due to the extensive musculature. And so production ofbirds that have greater amounts of muscle is unavoidably associated with more Dairylea delivers guaranteed markets, competitive milk prices and the comprehensive package of services you need. programs and services available exclusively from Dairylea, farmer can also save up to 40 cents per hundredweight. To learn more about how we pour it on for our members, please call us toll-free at 800/654-8838, today. Dairylea Cooperative Inc.G A market for your milk A partner for your farm -.W V I 1 i^} l * bone by-product Genetic manipulation has differentiated muscle cells from texture of the product. One might played a major role in producing chicks or chick embryos and place even create culture chambers the kinds of rapidly growing, t h e C ells in a fluid that contained shaped like drumsticks or some heavy breeds of poultry available a j| t he necessary nutrients (amino other interesting shape. Possible? today. Would it be possible to ac ids, sugar, salts, vitamins and Yes. Feasible? Not anytime make genetic crosses that would so on ) Qne could then allow the soon because of the high costs of lead to thinner bones and more ce jj s t 0 divide many times over creating the scaled-up instrumenta muscle meat? Possibly, to some while subjecting the cultures to tion, acquiring the purified nutri extent; however, the propensity of some kind of mechanical force to ents, maintaining sterility and so bone to respond to the twistings p ro duce proper muscles. on. Besides, it's nice to hear and pullings of muscles attached Application of mechanical chickens cackle and watch them to them make this unlikely. f orce wou id be important for the strut around. Additionally, bones need to be tive handling during catching and American Farmland Trust at the processing plant. Rather than altering bone volume, proba- (Continued from Pag* A 32) bly the best direction to take Allowing farmland uses to be on would be to identify uses for bony equal footing with non-necessary by-products. uses of land in open competition Another approach for reducing doesn't work. In naturally rich the mass of bone to be dealt with farmland regions, farming uses is to think about the possibility w jjj always be least considered of growing muscle tissue in the vmder strict supply-and-demand absence of bone. Theoretically <wnp*Htinn this is possible. A relatively new Restricting all land uses to cur area of research, called tissue en- jpnt uses is not freedom for land gineering, has been built on the owners, some of whom have pur capacity of cells of a variety of posefully purchased land years ago types to be grown in tissue cul- with the intent of fanning or leas ture chambers, much like the way jug die land until retirement, and bacteria and yeast can be cultured then gelling to the highest bidder, and be of importance to the food Ranks and lending institutions industry (yogurt and wine come to determine the highest bidder, wind)- because they too want to make the To produce cultures of muscle, mo st money the fastest, one could start with relatively un- while local governments can require developers to post bonds for certain construction activities, such as road building (because roadways are usually conveyed to local governments for traffic enforcement, maintenance and repair and ultimately the local gov ernment is financially responsible for any allowed negligence), there are no similar requirements for those who want to destroy farm land for residential or commercial development to post bonds to cov er the cost of returning the land to agricultural productivity, should the project fail. The landscape is dotted with such failures. And they sit there 9pS automatic farm systems 608 E. Evergreen Road, Lebanon, PA 17042 i|JP Phone:7l7-274-5333 HAMMER MILLS for Grinding (Ghl) High Moisture 8 Dry vlx Grains FEED BINS than Roller | " Expert Installation WE CUSTOM MANUFACTURE. Painted, Galvanized and Stainless Steel Fabrication, Feed Bins, Feeders, Hoppers, Covers, Dump Pits, Augers, and Control Systems to Automate Your Operation. Lancaster Fanning, Saturday, April 4,1998-MI For Pennsylvania, there is basi cally no backbone to zoning laws. In fact, in Pennsylvania munici palities arc required by law to fore ver allow other land uses, even beyond point when fanning has been squeezed so hard it can longer be considered a viable concern. Politically, the problem is exacerbated by the current politi cal campaign fund/favoritism sys tem, whereby political candidates and decisions can be influenced not by long-term benefits or soundness of logic and fairness to constituents, but by short-term goals of capturing power and con trolling common resources. Many involved in land preserva tion understand the problems. Many in politics (most should) understand the situation that causes the problems, but know they wouldn't be in elected office were it not for the campaign funds they attract. The American Farmland Trust organization is the only national private, nonprofit conservation organization dedicated to protect ing agricultural resources, accord ing to organization literature. It was founded in 1980 with the mission to stop the loss of produc tive farmland and to promote farm ing practices that lead to a healthy environment. It has SO staff mem bers, and more than 30,000 mem bers and donors nationally. 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