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Engineering Food at the Molecular Level
Krishna Dagli writes to mention a New York Times article about the possibility of manipulating food at a molecular level. Though some of the initial suggestions are a little pointless (lower-fat ice cream, harder-to-melt M&Ms), weighter goals could eventually be achieved here as well. From the article: "Given the uncertainty about the risks of consuming new nano products, many analysts expect near-term investment to focus on novel food processing and packaging technology. That is the niche targeted by Sunny Oh, whose start-up company, OilFresh, based in Sunnyvale, Calif., is marketing a novel device to keep frying oil fresh. OilFresh grinds zeolite, a mineral, into tiny beads averaging 20 nanometers across and coats them with an undisclosed material. Packed into a shelf inside the fryer, the beads interfere with chemical processes that break down the oil or form hydrocarbon clusters, Mr. Oh says. As a result, restaurants can use oil longer and transfer heat to food at lower temperatures, although they still need traditional filters to remove food waste from the oil. Mr. Oh said OilFresh will move beyond restaurants into food processing by the end of the month, when it delivers a 1,000-ton version of the device to a 'midsized potato chip company' that he said did not want to be identified. "
Evolution has not equipped man to deal with genetic modification, chemicals, or preservatives.
Even in nature, larger fruits and vegetables(of the same variety) generally less taste as their surgar production is spread out of the larger area. A good example I have is with tomatos. When water and sun are plentiful, they grow HUGE, but have virtually no taste. Now when you have just enough water to GROW the tomatos(not big, just grow), you will get tomatos that are about 75-50% of the size of thier "brothers" but all that sugar is stored in a much more compact area... and mmmm mmm good.
This was what we referred to as Stressing a plant. Once fruit has set and is approaching a good size, reduce the water to just enough to keep leaves from wilting. In the afternoon sun they may droop a bit, but don't worry. This stressing causes, as you say, a concentration of sugars, but is in effect reducing the amount of water stored in the fruit. I practiced this with my roma tomatoes and they were legendary goodness!
A feeling of having made the same mistake before: Deja Foobar
"I'd bet that 99.99% of food-related fatalities over the past 30 years have been due to natural pathogens (or choking). Care for some organic spinach?"
h s.cfm) he is still spreading the rumour because people tend to believe him.
? caseid=archive&newsid=2605) were very quick to spread the rumor that it was about organic spinach, which afaik is also a construction of them.
Ok what will be bet on?
Anyway a bet is pointless as it is not tested for GE.
About the organic spinach: I'ld like you to be aware that this myth was deliberately spread by people who think they have something to fear from organic food.
Earlier, Dennis Avery from the Hudson Institute carefully wrote misleading stories on E.coli and organic food, which was based on deliberately mispresented research.
Even though it has been debunked (http://www.organicconsumers.org/Organic/ecolimyt
With the recent spinach problem biotechnology apolegetes (AgBio http://www.agbioworld.org/newsletter_wm/index.php
I tried to politely suggest to them to also spread the news that it wasn't organic after all, which they simply ignored.
Think independently.