RSS Feed
March 9th, 2012 
FAKE NEWS for the Zionist agenda <!–
Australian scientists have genetically modified a banana that is now rich in iron. The technology has now been shared with Indian scientists and farmers to help address the country’s nutrient deficiencies, particularly in poorer rural areas.
–>
MARK COLVIN: Australian scientists have genetically modified bananas, so the fruit is not only fully of vitamins but also rich with iron.
They’re now sharing the technology with Indian scientists and farmers to help address widespread anaemia in the country.
Professor James Dale, from the Queensland University of Technology, is leading the project.
He spoke to Bronwyn Herbert.
JAMES DALE: Micronutrient deficiencies are about the third largest public health problem in the world. HIV/AIDS and malaria tend to be one and two and they swap around a bit.
There have been a whole lot of strategies to overcome micronutrient deficiencies, particularly in developing countries. Supplements and food fortification, but a large of proportion of the population seems to be resistant to those strategies.
So the strategy we’re now using, and a number of other groups in the world, is to generate staple crops or staple foods that have those micronutrients in them.
BRONWYN HERBERT: So similar to folate being introduced into bread in Australia, you’re putting nutrients into bananas to try and make a difference to health outcomes?
JAMES DALE: Exactly, exactly. So increasing the amount of ProVite may for instance, in the staple food, in countries where they eat a lot of bananas, it’s a very cheap and a hopefully very effective way to overcome those deficiencies.
BRONWYN HERBERT: What’s been agreed to with the Indian government’s Department of Biotechnology?
JAMES DALE: We’ve entered into an agreement that we will transfer the technology that we’re developing in Australia to Indian institutions over a period of time so they can use the technology we’ve developed here to generate bananas in India with high levels, particularly of iron.
One of the major reasons around iron is that a large proportion of the Indian population are vegetarians and it’s very difficult in a vegetarian diet to have intake of sufficient iron, particularly for subsistence farming populations.
India is the largest producer of bananas in the world but they don’t export any; all of them are consumed locally. So it’s a very good target to be able to increase the amount of iron in bananas that can then be distributed to you know the poor and subsistence farmers.
BRONWYN HERBERT: You’re already developed nutrient-dense bananas for farmers in Uganda, how’s that project progressing?
JAMES DALE: That’s going really well. Our first target for Uganda was Provitamin A. Provitamin A or betacarotene is converted by the human body into vitamin A or retinol. We’ve now got bananas that have up to 25 fold increase in the level of Provitamin A, which is way above the target we needed. and that technology has already been transferred to Uganda.
BRONWYN HERBERT: Are there risks of introducing a new species or strains of the already existing banana species that are in India?
JAMES DALE: Well we don’t believe so. Bananas are sterile so there’s no concern about the genes that we’re putting in getting in to other varieties. That just won’t happen.
So these bananas will be the standard varieties that are already grown in India but they will have an enhanced level of iron. And there is absolutely no evidence that that would cause any bio-safety problem at all.
BRONWYN HERBERT: When would you expect people in India to actually be eating these bananas?
JAMES DALE: Well we’ve signed the agreement for the first four years, starting this year, and that will get right the way through proof of principle.
Then a decision will be made, okay we’re going to now take those plants through from that proof of concept, proof of principle right the way through to release to farmers.
We believe that will be an extra five years so it’ll probably be a nine to 10year project before farmers actually see them in their fields.
MARK COLVIN: Professor James Dale, director of the Centre for Tropical Crops and Biocommodities at QUT, speaking to Bronwyn Herbert.
Views: 0
Posted in 
Tags: 
