$aff|1-Super Foods



$fff                      Typed up by Zebedee/Carnage

$ffaI  was  glancing through the Plymouth Evening Herald earlier on and came
across  a  quarter  page  article  about  food  and  how scientists have
genetically engineered it to produce super foods.  What surprised me was
the number of foods mentioned.

Of  course I know food is being genetically engineered but I didn't know
to what extent until I read the article...

$fff                 Genetically Modified Food: Super Foods

$ffaScientists  developing  new  varieties of foods are manipulating genes -
the  basic stuff of life.  A gene is a strand of DNA, or deoxribonucleic
acid,  that  tells  the  cells  to  build  the proteins which create the
specific characteristics of a plant or animal.

Processed tomatoes:  Genetically modified tomato puree will be available
in  Safeway  and  Sainsbury's from February.  The tomato contains a gene
that  slows down the action of an enzyme, polygalacturonase.  The enzyme
makes  the  fruit  mushy by breaking down pectin.  Modified tomatoes can
take 40% longer to rot.

Fresh tomatoes:  US biotech companies are developing rot-resistant fresh
tomatoes  and  frost-resistant  tomatoes  which  incorporate  genes from
cold-water fish.

Potatoes:   Adding  extra genes from bacteria that live in the human gut
produces  crisper  chips.   Reducing  an amino acid which contributes to
bruising and rot produces `perfect' potatoes.

Poultry:   Modified  genes  enable  breeding  of  chickens  resistant to
salmonella.  Food poisoning costs £1bn per year in the UK.

Eggs:   Hens  that  have  been  genetically adapted lay bigger eggs more
frequently.  Yolks modified for more yellow color.

Low-cholestrol  meat:   Genetically  modified  pigs grow faster, produce
more muscle and less fat.

Milk:   Cows  treated  with bovine growth hormone, BST, produce 15% more
milk but `burn out' quicker.  Banned in Europe until 2000, moratorium on
use in Canada, authorised in the US.

Cattle:   Synthetic  hormones, beta-agonists and natural growth hormones
produce more and leaner meat.

Super  salmon:  Genetically engineered hormone injected into eggs result
in salmon which grow 10 times faster than normal.

Pest  resistant crops:  Scorpion venom gene, engineered into a virus, is
used to spray cabbage to kill insects.

Rice:  Disease-resistant gene isolated.  Known as Xa21, the gene resists
bacterial  blight  - the world's worst bacterial plant disease infecting
almost  every  crop species.  Rice is the staple food for more than half
the world's population.

Wheat,  oilseed  rape:   Engineered to be herbicide resistant, so fields
can be sprayed with immunity.

Soybeans:   Genes  found naturally in oily fish like mackerel and salmon
lower saturated fat content.

Corn,   cotton  and  potato:   Bacteria  gene  (Bt)  creates  a  genetic
insecticide.  When Colorado beetle larvae, budworm or bollweevil eat the
plants  they  develop  stomach  ulcers, stop eating and die.  Humans can
safely eat the protein made by the gene.

Now  I  think  its time for me to say some more on this subject.  In the
bit about pest resistant crops, it was mentioned that the scorpion venom
gene  was  engineered  into  a virus.  If microbiologists can manipulate
something  like  scorpion  poison  into a virus by playing with the DNA,
then  whats to stop them building a `frankenstein' virus that hunts down
and  kills the AIDS and Ebola virus - the latter which is far worse than
the first!

$fffEnd.