"Super Yuca" [Cassava]

[pedrsmit]

Picked up a thread this morning from El Nuevo Dia, our main newspaper in Puerto Rico, about our main engineering university [universidad de Mayaguez] announcing the creation of a "super yuca" as part of a Bill and Melinda Gates-funded international research initiative called "BioCassava Plus". This yuca variety is genetically modified to pack a higher concentration of ingredients and the intent is to transfer the same to Africa for cultivation and to address malnutrition. I am aware genetic modification of food is highly polemical and thought this forum could generate some very insightful commentary on the same. As a side commentary, cassava, in its raw form, can be processed as a poison, a common practice by indigenous populations throughout current "Latin America". [i've inserted a "UCLA.edu" link on this one]. This may explain why my Cuban mother-in-law stuffs me with half cooked yucca every Christmas. Just kidding Alicia!

http://www.elnuevodia.com/creansuperyucaenmayaguez-678410.html

http://biocassavaplus.org/program_description.htm

http://www.botgard.ucla.edu/html/botanytextbooks/economicbotany/Manihot/index.html

[porcupine]

] announcing the creation of a "super yuca" as part of a Bill and Melinda Gates-funded international research initiative called "BioCassava Plus". This yuca variety is genetically modified to pack a higher concentration of ingredients and the intent is to transfer the same to Africa for cultivation and to address malnutrition. I am aware genetic modification of food is highly polemical and thought this forum could generate some very insightful commentary on the same

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