Author Topic: Cottonseed hummus, anyone? Texas A&M researchers win USDA approval, hope to help feed the world with  (Read 831 times)

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Online Elderberry

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Houston Chronicle  by Lynn Brezosky Oct. 16, 2018

After more than two decades and millions of dollars trying, Texas scientists received federal approval Tuesday of a genetic process to unleash cottonseed as one of the planet’s leading sources of protein-rich food.

“TAM66274,” as the patent-pending process is known, won nonregulation status by the U.S. Department of Agriculture’s Animal & Plant Health Inspection Service, or APHIS, making it just the third U.S. university-pioneered crop biotechnology to be deregulated.

Lead researcher Keerti Rathore of the Institute for Plant Genomics & Biotechnology at Texas A&M AgriLife Research said he was driven early on by knowledge cottonseed could be not only an inexpensive feed for farmed fish, swine and poultry, but also a food source for the world’s growing population.

“You could meet the basic protein requirements of hundreds of millions of people,” he said, noting all the chicken eggs produced in the world right now (1.4 trillion) couldn’t meet the protein in what’s being produced in cottonseed.

It’s not over yet — it will take a couple of years before there’s enough seed for a commercial-scale run at a cottonseed oil mill, and an agreement will have to be reached with a seed company willing to market the trait for cotton farmers worldwide.

Still, deregulation was considered a huge hurdle.

“More than half a billion people across the world may have access to a new form a protein,” Texas A&M University Chancellor John Sharp said in a statement. “Our farmers will be able to earn a much better living.”

More: https://www.houstonchronicle.com/business/local/article/Cottonseed-hummus-anyone-Texas-A-M-researchers-13311341.php

Milo did have the right idea, after all.


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