GM scientists engineer meal to make your day

Tag : rice protein meal

SCIENTISTS say they have genetically engineered fruit andvegetables capable of providing most of a day's nutrients in asingle meal.
Heading towards the market are potatoes with 33 per cent moreprotein content, modified tomatoes that could be capable ofprotecting against cancer and peanuts without the chemicals thatcause deadly nut allergies.
Such foods, the first genetic modifications offering nutritionalbenefits to consumers, would be in marked contrast to the GM cropsmarketed to date. These were designed to boost the profits made byfarmers and seed firms by raising yields or cutting costs.
Their attempted introduction to Europe in the late 1990s provoked abacklash from consumers suspicious at being asked to consume plantswhose DNA had been "contaminated" but which offered themno benefit.
Plant scientists hope the new plants will reverse such fears.
"It's time to reopen the debate over GM crops," saidChris Leaver, professor of plant science at Oxford University and along-term supporter of GM. "Earth's population will reach ninebillion by 2040. We need crops that offer better nutritionalquality, can withstand drought, use fertiliser more efficiently andresist diseases and pests. GM can contribute to achievingthat."
Such claims will infuriate the green lobby, which sees thepromotion of the new "nutritionally enhanced" crops as acynical marketing exercise. Some scientists, however, have growingimpatience with such views. They point out that the BioCassava Plusproject is funded with a $12.4million donation from the Bill &Melinda Gates Foundation rather than a profit-hungry corporation,and say it could help ease food shortages in Africa.
At Rothamsted Research, in Hertfordshire, England, Johnathan Napierhas modified rapeseed plants to produce fish oils, which are saidto be good for the heart and nervous system.
"The global market for fish oil has grown very fast and isadding to the pressure on depleted fish stocks," ProfessorNapier said.
Ian Crute, director of Rothamsted, is overseeing other researchusing plant breeding and genetics to create grains that would allowbakers to make white bread with as much fibre as wholemeal."Europe is going to become ever more important for global foodproduction, so GM will get increasingly appealing," ProfessorCrute said.
Such a change would need a political rethink. Europe has held outfirmly against GM crops since their introduction in 1996, eventhough they have been widely adopted in North and South America,Australia, Asia and South Africa. About 113 million hectares of GMcrops were planted globally last year.
The main crops are soy beans, maize, cotton and rapeseed, all ofwhich are available with modifications making them tolerant of someherbicides.
Cotton and maize are available with genes taken from bacteria thatenable them to produce their own insecticide, reducing the need forpesticides.
However, such plants already seem primitive compared with those inthe pipeline, many of which have been given several new traits. Oneof the most interesting ideas is to remove allergens such as thosefound in peanuts and many other foods. Peanut allergy affects aboutone in 100 children and can kill the most sensitive. At GeorgiaUniversity in the US, Peggy Ozias-Akins, professor of plantbiology, is researching how to erase such genes as well as addingseparate genes for disease resistance.
Graham Brookes, of British agricultural consultancy PG Economics,will publish a research paper next week in AgBioForum , a peer-reviewed journal, suggesting that the rejection of GMcrops has cost Europe's farmers dearly. "GM cuts costs andimproves yields, while consumers are missing the environmentalbenefits of reduced insecticide use. Since 1996, British farmershave missed out on an estimated £500 million-£600million ($1.03-1.23 billion) of additional income," he said.
Others disagree. Claire Hope Cummings, a former lawyer with the USDepartment of Agriculture and author of Uncertain Peril: Genetic Engineering and the Future of Seeds , published in March, said: "People do not need miracle cropsoffering enhanced nutrients. What they need is a good varied diet.
"Who wants to eat a giant bowl of cassava or golden rice eachday? These ideas are just a new way of marketing GM."
The Sunday Times