Institute For The Future

Food with a human twist?

Thanks again to BoingBoing for turning me on to this fascinating excerpt from an article in Steps Magazine (which I have never heard of before):

Somewhere in Kansas, a crop of rice is growing whose DNA includes a couple of genes borrowed from the human genome. These genes make the rice plants produce a protein found in human breast milk. The rice is intended to be used to produce medicines for infants suffering from diorrhea and dehydration resulting from malnutrition. Rice, long a staple food for many, is being tailored to better meet the needs of the human animal in a changing world. Although humans have been modifying plant species for hundreds of years, genetic modification is a relation between human and plant that fills many people with visceral horror, particularly when the result is a hybrid of plant and animal.

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(And speaking of rice, check out FreeRice.com for an opportunity to help address the problem of world hunger while expanding your vocabulary.)