THOSE who fret about overfishing and those who fret about genetically modified (GM) food are often one and the same. Such people will soon be impaled on the horns of a dilemma if Johnathan Napier of Rothamsted Research, an agricultural establishment in southern England, has his way. As he and his colleagues describe this week in Metabolic Engineering Communications, they are working on technology that could reduce demand for wild-caught fish considerably. It will do so, though, by feeding farmed fish with GM chow.
Apart from the fact that they taste good, oily fish are also desirable because they are healthy fare. There are many things you can remove from your diet in order to improve cardiovascular fitness, but few that you can add. However DHA and EPA—two molecules often referred to as fish oils—buck this trend. They are known to lower blood pressure, to reduce the risk of heart arrhythmia and to slow the growth of fatty plaques that block arteries.
Fish do not, though, actually make fish oils. They get them from their food. The synthesis is done by single-celled algae and the molecules then pass up the food chain to small,...
from The Economist: Science and technology http://ift.tt/1CrBVJ2
No comments:
Post a Comment