Kentucky Fried Chicken study...

[jikeda at socrates.berkeley.edu]

>The following letter was written by our Cooperative Extension 

>Biotechnology Specialist, Dr. Peggy Lemaux.  I am sharing it with all of 

>you as I think you will find it very informative...Joanne Ikeda




>Dear Linda,

>My colleague at UC Berkeley, Joanne Ikeda, forwarded me your message

>inquiring about the Kentucky Fried Chicken story you saw on the internet.

>I had seen the same thing a couple of weeks ago and called KFC to find out

>what the story was with this piece.  I had gone to their web site and

>didn't easily find anything.  The person at the other end of the phone was

>not that helpful but in the meantime I decided to do some more in-depth

>searching on my own.

>

>I went to the University of New Hampshire web site and

>very prominently on their home page they have a link to information

>http://www.unh.edu/BoilerPlate/kfc.html  At this site they explain that

>this was an internet hoax of the urban legend type that falsely claims

>that KFC is using genetically engineered organisms instead of

>chickens.  They say that the hoax refers to a UNH study but that no such

>research or study was done at UNH.  They also give reference to several

>other pages that talk about this hoax, including one that has an article

>written for USA Today about this hoax.  They give additional links

>including KFC.  (http://www.usatoday.com/lite/cyber/ccarch/cceli008.htm)

>

>I went back to the KFC site again and after a 10-minute search I was able

>to find their information!  Go to http://kfc.com and click on the scroll

>in the lower right hand corner that says "current internet legend just

>doesn't fly".  If you click on that, you will find a short disclaimer

>entitled "No Colonel of Truth", in which they also disavow any truth to

>the hoax and refer you to the UNH site.

>

>In addition to that information, let me speak professionally and also as

>someone who grew up on a chicken farm.  My training is in biotechnology

>and I can tell you that it is not possible to grow chickens as genetically

>engineered, cultured chicken cells in a vat that would look and taste like

>KFC.  We can grow human cells in culture plates also and perhaps in large

>fermentation vats, but they are just that, cells, not whole organisms.

>Anything grown like the G.E. chicken described would have none of the

>properties that we would want in a food.

>

>I am not sure what spurs people to disseminate this kind of information

>and it is sad that technology has come so far that intelligent,

>knowledgeable individuals can't tell the difference between fact and

>fiction.  I can assure you that this was fiction.

>

>I hope this was helpful.

>

>Peggy

>

>Peggy G. Lemaux, Ph.D.

>Department of Plant and Microbial Biology

>111 Koshland Hall

>University of California

>Berkeley, CA 94720

>Phone: 510-642-1589

>FAX: 510-642-7356


Joanne P. Ikeda,MA,RD
Co Director
Center on Weight and Health

Cooperative Extension Nutrition Education Specialist
Department of Nutritional Sciences
University of California, Berkeley, CA 94720-3104

Phone (510)642-2790
FAX (510)642-0535
E-Mail: jikeda at socrates.berkeley.edu