| Dr. Felts directed me up a ladder which took us to the top of the big tank in the center of the room. As we reached the top and walked out onto a gang plank which extended across the tank it took my eyes several seconds to adjust. By the time that they were functional again in the bright lights I started to make out what looked like an extremely overpopulated aquarium built for some giant. The shrimp were all the size of my forearm, and it appeared that there was more of them than there was water. When they occasionally surfaced I could see their whiskers constantly throwing some invisible food into the direction of what I imagine must be their mouths. These creatures were large, there was no doubt about that, but I couldn't help but feel less disgusted by them as I did by the chicken, maybe I was becoming immune to the mad doctors science projects, or maybe it was that I never really regarded the shrimp as anything special to look at in general, just a damn fine appetizer. I smiled at this thought, and quickly looked up to see Dr. Felts looking with pride at my smile as a compliment to him. "We again altered the shrimp, just as in the case of the chickens, genetically, specifically targeting their flesh areas as those most amplified. We also increased the levels of their major growth hormones genetically, which made them grow much faster, nearly half as fast to reach harvest size. The end result, combined with the increased amount of food for the shrimp, is a quicker growing, larger in consumable food, and easily grown crop. The only real problem we still need to work out is increasing the stability of the tank when the shrimp are still younger and not eating as much of the microorganisms. But other than that, they are ready for implementation, they have passed our safety trials, which by the way are on the same level as the FDA's if not more rigorous." "May I pick one up? I mean they wont bite me will they?" "Oh, no, they will not. It seems like they would though, doesn't it. Their mouths aren't big enough to fit your pinkie though, they are quite safe. Feel free, just be careful." I bent down, cautiously, not wanting to be submerged in a tank full of prawn flesh, and snagged one of the shrimp from the water. It was quite difficult to get a hold of, with its legs squirming between my fingers. It had to weigh over a pound, and knowing shrimp as I did, the eatable portion had to be at least half of that. "How do you intend to market this to the fast food industry, Dr. Felts? Not as shrimp poppers I hope." "Marketing is not my department, but as far as I am aware our people have come up with quite a few options. The shrimp burger is one of them, merely ground up flesh, although personally I think it looks too much like tofu to be bought up by the consumer. But with the cheap production costs, I think that Dr. Riesdorf said it best that this will most certainly redefine shrimp as a cheap alternative to most meats out there. Two of these are big enough to feed a family of four, and I couldn't imagine the price being more than any meat on the market, actually it is more likely that they will be sold at a considerable fraction of the per weight prices of beef or chicken. Truly a seafood for all. And the great part about it is that it doesn't require sea to be sea food. It can be produced just as easily in the desert of Arizona as in the coasts of Florida." I was taken back by the lack of preparation I had for such amazing sights on my visit here. Was all the research here true, had they actually found a way to do what it appeared they were doing? And why hadn't all of this work been leaked out earlier. What about the safety of it all, was it truly as safe as he said it was? It all sounded too good to be true that I found myself disbelieving in it, trying to find ways to be repulsed by it. I must say that when leaving the chicken room I was anxious to leave the place all together, now I couldn't help but be curious by what would be in the next lab. I certainly wasn't the one to determine whether this was safe or not, and I wasn't sure whether or not I trusted the biased opinion of the good doctor Felts or his omnipotent mentor Riesdorf, but I couldn't help but be caught up in the excitement that I felt. I had read stories about genetically modified crops and their opponents, but to me they had both been made up of biased views from both sides, each side usually denouncing the points of the other as false, irrelevant, or blown out of proportion. I wished desperately that I was more informed on the topic, I knew that with a lack of contrary view points from the other side of the argument, even the fanatical doctor Felts could sell his side of the story. All I could do now was to go along with Dr. Felts to his next lab, feeling unease and excitement all rolled into one, and fearful that a decision one way or the other was required of me at the end. "If you will follow me we can conclude this tour with our most exciting project. This one is our newest and what we hope to base the future of this institute on. And, unlike the other projects, this one was created totally by nature." I followed the doctor down a hall way and into another lab. This one also had a tank in the middle, but it was much different than the shrimp tank in the previous room. The tank had an enormous lid on the top with tubes and gages protruding from all sides. There was considerably less action going on in this room, nearly all the space in it was taken up by the tank and it's tangled arms. |