Fish oil could soon come from GM crop

[unhappycamper]

http://www.rawstory.com/rs/2014/01/24/fish-oil-could-soon-come-from-gm-crop/



Oils could provide feed for farmed fish and ultimately be used as a health supplement in human foods such as margarine

Fish oil could soon come from GM crop
By Damian Carrington, The Guardian
Friday, January 24, 2014 6:39 EST

A genetically-modified plant that produces seeds packed with fish oils is set to be grown in open fields in the UK within months, scientists announced on Friday. The oils could provide feed for farmed fish, the researchers hope, but they could ultimately be used as a health supplement in human foods such as margarine.

Fish oils – specifically omega-3 long-chain polyunsaturated fatty acids – have been shown to cut the risk of cardiovascular disease and are a popular food supplement. But about 80% of the fish oil harvested from the oceans every year is actually fed to other fish being raised in aquaculture. With many fish stocks already over-exploited, the government-funded researchers from Rothamsted Research in Hertfordshire have spent 15 years developing the new GM plant and hope to have permission for field trials by March, with planting to start shortly after if approval is given.

Environment secretary Owen Paterson will make the final decision after a public consultation and advice from experts on the independent Advisory Committee on Releases to the Environment. Paterson is an enthusiastic supporter of GM crops and earlier this month said: “The longer Europe continues to close its doors to GM, the greater the risk that the rest of the world will bypass us altogether. Europe risks becoming the museum of world farming.”

But if the field trial is approved, as is likely, it could spur protests such as those that accompanied a field trial of GM wheat at Rothamsted Research in 2012, when hundreds of campaigners gathered at the site and threatened to destroy that crop.

[SamKnause]

1. Omega 3

Hemp is the answer.

We do not need a new genetically-modified plant.

Hemp contains the highest concentrate of Omega 3.

Hemp could feed and clothe the world.

Hemp is the answer to our energy needs.

Hemp is the answer for all that ails the world.

Ask yourself why those in power do not want competition from Hemp ?

[unhappycamper]

2. "Hemp contains the highest concentrate of Omega 3. "

I did not know that. Thanks!

[SamKnause]

4. You are most welcome.

[hunter]

3. Yep. Other plants produce these oils too.

No need for genetic modification.

A diverse diet containing walnuts, spinach, okay, hemp oil too, is probably a healthier option.

I love ocean fish, it was my primary source of meat as a kid, but all the mercury from coal power plants and other industrial toxins, probably didn't do me any good.

Anyways, our fascination with refined supplements doesn't make a lot of sense. There are other things in less refined foods that we have not yet discovered. Eating something like walnuts in a spinach salad with a roughly refined plant oil and vinegar dressing is almost certainly more beneficial to one's health than eating a capsule of something extracted from a genetically modified plant.

[SamKnause]

5. Thanks for your input.