By BETSY BLANEY
Associated Press
November 30, 2009
LUBBOCK, Texas - "The Fabric of Our Lives"
may soon feed millions.
Texas researcher has
found a way to reduce toxin in cottonseed that
until now could only be eaten by cattle. The
bovines' multiple stomachs gradually digested
the poisonous substance called gossypol.
The new seeds can be eaten by pigs, chickens, fish
and humans and could show up in protein bars,
shakes, breads, cookies and other foods within
about 10 years. The amount of cotton already
grown worldwide contains enough protein to
feed 500 million people per year, researchers
said.
There are a lot of poor people that cannot
afford diets that contain a reasonable amount of
protein," said Keerti S. Rathore, the Texas A&M
University researcher who made the
breakthrough. "It will nice to be able to utililize
this source.
Gossypol
drops blood potassium to
dangerous levels in humans and can harm the
heart and liver in people and animals. Chickens
eating only cottonseed die within a week.
Researchers have worked for decades to neutralize the substance and achieved partial success in the 1950s when scientists produced a gossypol-free plant by shutting off the gene that produces the toxin throughout the plant.
But without gossypol, insects and diseases ravaged the cotton. Rathore found a way to shut off gossypol production in only the seeds, leaving stems, leaves, flowers and tissue protected. Cotton raised in field trials earlier this year at A&M had both stable growth and safe levels of gossypol in the seeds. More tests involving a variety of cotton strains lie ahead as well as regulatory hurdles, but researchers are optimistic about the technique's potential. We're trying to proceed cautiously, but we're optimistic," said Jodi Scheffler, a research geneticist in the U.S. Department of Agriculture's Crop Genetics and Production Research Unit. "So, so far, so good.
Rathore said there could be less resistance to eating the genetically-altered cottonseed because his technique involves shutting down a chemical process within the seed, not adding something to it. The method also has potential with crops such as the Indian pea, a legume that grows in Asia and Africa.
Farmers grow the pea as an emergency crop
because it's high in protein and hardy in drought,
but it contains a neurotoxin that paralyzes the
lower body when eaten in large amounts.
Rathore's cottonseed meets World Health
Organization and U.S. Food and Drug
Administration standards for food consumption,
but he needs approval from the USDA, FDA and
possibly other agencies to make it commercially
available. If approved, the seed could be as
valuable as the cotton fiber used to make blue
jeans, T-shirts and other garments, said Tom
Wedegaertner, director of cottonseed research
and marketing at Cotton Inc., an industry
promotion group.
It's
huge, Wedegaertner said.
Cottonseed now is worth about 10 cents a
pound; the fiber is worth about 70 cents a
pound.
At about 22 percent protein, cottonseed
could improve the diets of malnourished people
in developing nations worldwide, researchers
said. The kernel has a nutty flavor and can be
roasted and salted. And unlike the protein in
soybeans, Rathore's cottonseeds produce no
flatulence when eaten.
It's not quite like peanuts," said Scheffler, the geneticist. I've
tasted worse. They do taste better than the
roasted soybeans.
Oil pressed from cottonseed
has long been used in such things as mayonnaise
and salad dressing. Without the threat of
gossypol, the leftover kernel could be ground
into meal and combined with wheat or corn
flours to enrich them with protein. In tests, the
meal has been used to make pancakes, cereals,
caramel popcorn and tortillas.
There are all kinds of uses for this thing," Rathore said. "Our hope
is that our cotton farmers will get more value for
their crop.
Plains cotton farmer Rickey Bearden
said the extra income could help offset higher
prices for diesel fuel, fertilizer and electricity to
run irrigation systems.
It's going to make a viable market that we've never had," Bearden said. Who knows what the possibilities are?
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