!Beware of Frankenfood!
Er, I mean: science moves another step to reducing the use of animal-based foods:
Two studies now show that with a little help from gene editing, Sun-ripened tomatoes can also stockpile a precursor molecule to vitamin D, a vital nutrient normally found mainly in animal products…
Today in Nature Plants, a team led by Cathie Martin, a plant metabolic engineer at the John Innes Centre, reported that knocking out a single gene created tomatoes which could each provide 20% of the recommended daily allowance of vitamin D in the United Kingdom…
…each ripe, sliced tomato, after exposure to sunlight, should offer as much previtamin D3 as two medium eggs.
https://www.science.org/content/article/scientists-turn-toma… (gated, subscription)
The authors go on to note that the proto-D compound is also found in the stem and leaves of the engineered plant, theoretically allowing their use as a precursor in the manufacture of Vitamin D supplements (now derived from animal products, or fungi, lichen or yeast)
Macro impact obvious, I think
–sutton
in favor of as few intermediaries as possible between solar energy and us