Dive Brief:
- The U.S. Department of Agriculture has approved cultivation of a cotton plant that's been genetically modified so the protein-rich cottonseed could be safety eaten by humans and animals. The U.S. Food and Drug Administration would still need to approve its use for consumption, Reuters reported in a story posted by CNBC.
- Cottonseed as currently grown cannot be safely consumed because it contains gossypol, a toxin which helps the plant protect itself from insects but is not healthy for humans or many animals, according to National Public Radio.
- The GMO version was developed by scientists at Texas A&M University with support from a cotton industry group called Cotton Incorporated, the university's AgriLife Today reported. Using RNAi, or RNA interference, they silenced a gene inside the cotton plant that resulted in removing most gossypol from the cottonseed but leaving it at normal levels in the rest of the plant.
Dive Insight:
Scientists at Texas A&M said the high-protein cottonseed meal could be used to make flour for baked goods, protein bars and other products. The whole kernels might be roasted and salted and used as snacks or ground into paste similar to peanut butter.
"To me, personally, it tastes somewhat like chickpea and it could easily be used to make a tasty hummus," Keerti Rathore, a university plant biotechnologist who led the research team, told Reuters. He added if the global cottonseed supply were used for human nutrition, it might supply the daily protein needs of 575 million people.
Along with the food and feed potential, USDA's Animal and Plant Health Inspection Service said in a release that the development "benefits agriculture by lowering cottonseed oil refining costs, and potentially expands the use of cottonseed in the livestock and aquaculture feed industries, as well as for human food uses."
Cottonseed oil has long been used for cooking, although it has a relatively high level of saturated fat and could contain pesticide traces. Additional uses for leftover meal from this new variety could be a significant value-add — though GMO crops cannot be legally certified as USDA Organic, which could limit marketing potential.
Governmental approval is likely to be another hurdle. For prospective genetically engineered cottonseed benefits to be realized, all 80 cotton-producing countries around the world, including the U.S., would need to give regulatory approval for its cultivation. That might be a tough sell in some places, such as parts of the European Union and Russia, where genetically engineered crops cannot be cultivated — although some EU countries allow their importation.
If only a few countries produce the GE cotton, there could be supply problems for manufacturers and consumers ; however, if the FDA gives its regulatory OK, cultivation here might benefit some producers and exporters. While this sounds good, recent studies show there still may be a significant level of consumer resistance, with some people indicating skepticism and being "grossed out" by genetically modified food.
If enough resistance to GE foods can be overcome, though, adventurous snackers might be interested in giving cottonseed products a try. Marketing outreach would need to separate the food aspect from the cotton-producing one so people don't imagine themselves chowing down on fluffy white cotton balls. Labels calling out the protein content and other nutritional benefits of the cottonseed would also be an advantage, but it remains to be seen whether this new cotton variety can make it past the regulatory hurdles, into enough fields and from there into food products on the shelf.