I'm surprised nobody has mentioned Golden Rice, developed in the 1980s, which offered similar nutritional benefits. Golden Rice failed to gain significant traction because of dogmatic opposition to bioengineered foods. Personally, I hope Golden Lettuce receives more pragmatic review and support.
“Golden Lettuce” is genetically engineered to have higher beta-carotene levels
21–30 of 62 posts
Re: “Golden Lettuce” is genetically engineered to have higher beta-carotene levels
#22Earlier quoted context omitted.
I do not see much value in a golden lettuce, because nothing stops you to eat one carrot every day, which will provide enough beta-carotene. Moreover, the carrot is certainly cheaper, because it is not patented and it is available from a myriad of sources. Also a boiled carrot is unlikely to cause any health problems, while raw lettuce periodically causes disease outbreaks, so it is not a good choice for a staple foo…
Even without the patent angle, carrots are cheaper than regular lettuce. They're one of the cheapest foods there is. And they are trivial to add to any meal, just put a carrot on the plate. It doesn't need anything else like all the stuff thrown into salads to make lettuce appealing. And everybody likes carrots, even kids who normally complain about vegetables will happily eat carrots.
Especially baked carrots, that was the only veggie I’d eat growing up (unless you count a singular broccoli in a sea of cheese a vegetable, I’d classify that as a mess).
Re: “Golden Lettuce” is genetically engineered to have higher beta-carotene levels
#23Earlier quoted context omitted.
Higher atmospheric CO2 is actually causing this all around the world. Faster, bigger plants with less nutrient density.
How then did the Plioocene megafauna grow so large if the plants they consumed were 'faster, bigger [...] with less nutrient density'? https://www.rmets.org/event/pliocene-last-time-earth-had-400... The last time carbon dioxide was so plentiful in our planet's atmosphere was in the Pliocene era, around 3 million years ago. Life on Earth was dominated by giant mammals; humans and chimps had shared their last common an…
Lower nutrient density isn't an issue when there's plenty of food to eat. There weren't 8 billion people to feed 3 million years ago, and back then they lived right alongside their food.
Re: “Golden Lettuce” is genetically engineered to have higher beta-carotene levels
#24I guess the idea is that you grow these in vertical farms on the moon.
Re: “Golden Lettuce” is genetically engineered to have higher beta-carotene levels
#25Earlier quoted context omitted.
How then did the Plioocene megafauna grow so large if the plants they consumed were 'faster, bigger [...] with less nutrient density'? https://www.rmets.org/event/pliocene-last-time-earth-had-400... The last time carbon dioxide was so plentiful in our planet's atmosphere was in the Pliocene era, around 3 million years ago. Life on Earth was dominated by giant mammals; humans and chimps had shared their last common an…
Lower nutrient density isn't an issue when there's plenty of food to eat. There weren't 8 billion people to feed 3 million years ago, and back then they lived right alongside their food.
>There weren't 8 billion people to feed 3 million years ago, and back then they lived right alongside their food.
sorta. there was more fauna/megafauna biomass then than now. the nutrient requirements were likely even greater.
Re: “Golden Lettuce” is genetically engineered to have higher beta-carotene levels
#26Earlier quoted context omitted.
On the other hand, kale is goitrogenic. With two little kids I like to make sure they get a good mix of vegetables which aren't all from the cabbage family. I'm lucky living in California; my local Safeway has all kinds of fresh vegetables, including various (non-cruciferous) lettuce greens, year round, but in many other places in the U.S. it's just iceberg plus cruciferous vegetables for long stretches.
Growing salad greens is probably one of the best things one can do for themselves. Why spend $5 for a pound of salad greens when you can buy 2-3lbs of seeds for that price? Which, speaking of, cheapest I’ve found for bulk seeds are GreenCover, does anyone know of any other companies selling that cheap?
Where I live it's a full time job to keep the deer from eating a garden.
Re: “Golden Lettuce” is genetically engineered to have higher beta-carotene levels
#27I wanted to say something in favor of sweet potatoes, so did some research: [0] says: The best lettuce has 2.5mg of beta-carotene in 47g of lettuce. The best sweet potato has 31mg of beta-carotene in 328g of sweet potato (sweet potatoes are the beta-carotene leader BTW :strong:). If this modified lettuce can really have 30 times as much beta-carotene, that's a significant amount. I was expecting the numbers to show t…
Oh, also, if you want a stupidly easy way to eat sweet potatoes, cut one up into bite sized chunks and cook it at 350 fahrenheit for 45 minutes or longer (it won't burn easily at that temperature). No need to remove the skin, but wash it first. They aren't bad even plain. This is an easy no-preperation-necessary to get at least 1 veggie.
I prefer to peel the sweet potatoes, cut them in relatively big chunks, then bake them without adding anything, in a closed glass vessel, in a microwave oven.
The baking time depends on the oven and on the quantity, but for example in my 1000 W oven, baking 3 big sweet potatoes needs about 8 minutes.
Once you have made a successful test, this method is very fast and perfectly reproducible. Because there is no added water and a part of the water from the sweet potatoes evaporates (but not too much, due to the closed glass vessel), the taste of the sweet potatoes cooked in this way is very intense.
Re: “Golden Lettuce” is genetically engineered to have higher beta-carotene levels
#28I'm surprised nobody has mentioned Golden Rice, developed in the 1980s, which offered similar nutritional benefits. Golden Rice failed to gain significant traction because of dogmatic opposition to bioengineered foods. Personally, I hope Golden Lettuce receives more pragmatic review and support. https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Golden_rice
Golden rice attempts to solve a real problem: Vitamin A deficiency in many parts of the world, where rice is also a food staple and where the poorest cannot afford a diet with enough vitamin A in it.
Golden lettuce solves what?
Re: “Golden Lettuce” is genetically engineered to have higher beta-carotene levels
#29Prepare for Greenpeace et al to shoot this down just like Golden Rice. Decades wasted, millions with damaged eyesight because of some weird Westerners with backwards ideas about what's "natural" telling people in the global south how they should live their lives (or rather, should suffer for their ideals).
Re: “Golden Lettuce” is genetically engineered to have higher beta-carotene levels
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