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mises
Joined: 05 Nov 2007
Location: retired
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 Posted: Mon Jun 30, 2008 10:57 am Post subject: cassava could provide a day's nutrition in 1 meal |
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| Fortified cassava could provide a day's nutrition in a single meal |
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Scientists have determined how to fortify the cassava plant, a staple root crop in many developing countries, with enough vitamins, minerals and protein to provide the poor and malnourished with a day's worth of nutrition in a single meal.
The researchers have further engineered the cassava plant so it can resist the crop's most damaging viral threats and are refining methods to reduce cyanogens, substances that yield poisonous cyanide if they are not properly removed from the food before consumption. The reduction of cyanogens also can shorten the time it takes to process the plant into food, which typically requires three to six days to complete.
Studies also are under way to extend the plant's shelf life so it can be stored or shipped.
The international team of scientists hopes to translate the greenhouse research into a product that can be field tested in at least two African nations by 2010. Funded by more than $12.1 million in grants from the Bill & Melinda Gates Foundation, the group of researchers is led by Richard Sayre, a professor of plant cellular and molecular biology at Ohio State University.
Sayre presented an update on the BioCassava Plus project June 30 at the American Society of Plant Biologists meeting in M�rida, Mexico.
"This is the most ambitious plant genetic engineering project ever attempted," Sayre said. "Some biofortification strategies have the objective of providing only a third of the daily adult nutrition requirements since consumers typically get the rest of their nutritional requirements from other foods in their diet. But global food prices have recently gone sky high, meaning that many of the poorest people are now eating just one meal a day, primarily their staple food.
"So what we're working on has become even more important in the last year than it was when we started, not just in regions where people are malnourished, but across developing countries where food has gotten so expensive that people can't afford the diverse diet that they're used to."
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http://www.scienceblog.com
And with that, Malthus can suck the fertile arse of Science. |
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Ya-ta Boy
Joined: 16 Jan 2003
Location: Established in 1994
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| Posted: Mon Jun 30, 2008 3:37 pm Post subject: |
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| But do the starving people of the world want to be condemned to eating celery for the other two meals of the day? |
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Kuros
Joined: 27 Apr 2004
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| Posted: Mon Jun 30, 2008 6:00 pm Post subject: |
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| I want some of this when it comes out. That way I can eat whatever the hell I want the rest of the day. |
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Bigfeet
Joined: 29 May 2008
Location: Grrrrr.....
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| Posted: Mon Jun 30, 2008 6:05 pm Post subject: |
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But this is GM food, we have no idea if it's going to kill us in 10 years or not, never mind that we're dying from starvation now.  |
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Czarjorge
Joined: 01 May 2007
Location: I now have the same moustache, and it is glorious.
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| Posted: Mon Jun 30, 2008 7:11 pm Post subject: |
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| Now we just need a couple episodes of Iron Chef with fortified cassava as the main ingredient. I'm sure they'll find a number of ways to make it tasty. |
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