Ready for edible cottonseed?

US regulators have cleared the way for farmers to grow a cotton plant genetically modified to make the cottonseed edible for people, a protein-packed potential new food source that could be especially useful in cotton-growing countries beset with malnutrition.

The US Department of Agriculture Animal and Plant Health Inspection Service on Tuesday lifted the regulatory prohibition on cultivation by farmers of the cotton plant, which was developed by Texas A&M University scientists.

The cottonseed cannot be used as food for people or as animal feed yet in the US because it lacks Food and Drug Administration approval.

Cotton is widely grown around the world, with its fibre used to make textiles and the seed used among other things to feed animals like cattle and sheep that have multiple stomach chambers.

Ordinary cottonseed is unfit for humans and many animals to eat because it contains high levels of gossypol, a toxic chemical.

With financial help from a cotton industry group, scientists led by Texas A&M Agrilife Research plant biotechnologist Keerti Rathore used so-called RNAI, or RNA interference, technology to “silence” a gene, eliminating gossypol from the cottonseed. They left it at natural levels in the rest of the plant because it guards against insects and disease.

“To me it tastes somewhat like chickpeas and it could easily be used to make a tasty hummus,” Rathore said after tasting gossypol-free cottonseed. | Reuters