Chinese scientists use genetics to boost iron content of corn, offer hope to anaemia sufferers worldwide (www.scmp.com)
from naturalgasbad@lemmy.ca to world@lemmy.world on 10 Dec 2023 16:14
https://lemmy.ca/post/11041724

#world

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CobblerScholar@lemmy.world on 10 Dec 2023 16:32 next collapse

I do not know with what weapons WW3 will be fought but WW4 will be fought with popcorn

stevedidWHAT@lemmy.world on 10 Dec 2023 17:03 next collapse

Edit: corn is most definitely digestible, and because of its common usage in many commercial food products, we could improve these nutrient areas allegedly.

Ignore: … of all the edible things in the world.

They chose corn. Which barely gets digested.

What am I missing here, this is way too obviously strange to me, gotta be missing something.

But seriously: This article has like 3 sentences, why the fuck was this posted lmao.

Classy@sh.itjust.works on 10 Dec 2023 17:04 next collapse

What could po$$ibly be mi$$ing?

stevedidWHAT@lemmy.world on 10 Dec 2023 17:05 collapse

It’s a shit article, the “scientific detail” makes no sense, is this an attempt to spread malware/spyware or just clickbait/analytics boosting

naturalgasbad@lemmy.ca on 10 Dec 2023 18:04 collapse

Biofortification of iron content by regulating a NAC transcription factor in maize

Published in Science, which, along with Nature, are the two premier publication venues in the world.

stevedidWHAT@lemmy.world on 10 Dec 2023 19:00 collapse

Now we’re cookin, would’ve rather read the science or nature articles over a local news resource any day. It’s so easy to pop up “news sites” and push them as authority figures

naturalgasbad@lemmy.ca on 10 Dec 2023 19:42 collapse

The article literally says it was published in Science. If it was only 3 sentences, why did you read none of them?

stevedidWHAT@lemmy.world on 10 Dec 2023 21:58 collapse

Because none of it loaded for the mobile view on my iPhone, didn’t expect it to be a bug with the website.

Things didn’t need to get hostile, you had no need calling names and throwing around stereotypes. You took my viewpoint of the article some random person wrote and took it personally.

I can’t help you with your anger dude, I’m sorry.

In fact, prior to reading the offending comment, I was pretty open to your comment citing the science and nature articles.

Over an article about corn enrichment.

naturalgasbad@lemmy.ca on 10 Dec 2023 23:07 collapse

“why the fuck was this posted”

“it’s a shit article”

ah yes, I’m the one being hostile

Nevermind that the reference to Science is literally in the first sentences loaded in the mobile view.

Tremble@sh.itjust.works on 10 Dec 2023 17:47 next collapse

Corn is also in a lot of processed foods especially vegetarian dishes etc

naturalgasbad@lemmy.ca on 10 Dec 2023 17:56 next collapse

Corn is a huge part of agricultural output, at least in the US. It also holds a huge cultural significance in many cuisines. 80 million acres in the US are dedicated to corn, which produced a third of a billion tons of corn. Corn production in the US nets billions in federal subsidies.

Tell me again how corn doesn’t matter?

stevedidWHAT@lemmy.world on 10 Dec 2023 19:38 collapse

Pretty simple, you’re not telling the full story of the statistics.

  • About 40% of corn produced is for biofuels

  • 36% is used as animal feed

Furthermore, the US exported nearly $20 billion dollars worth of said corn for 2021.

Much of the corn usage in food is for high fructose corn syrup, which, as you can imagine, is different from eating sweet corn for dinner.

Corn isn’t used primarily for feeding people, it’s for fuel, animal feed, and garbage additives. Change my mind please.

PaupersSerenade@sh.itjust.works on 10 Dec 2023 20:52 next collapse

You can both be right. In America we use A LOT of corn (syrup or otherwise) in our dishes. This just reminds me of when we added Iodine to our salt. A recognition that we can supliment necessary vitamims/minerals/etc.

naturalgasbad@lemmy.ca on 10 Dec 2023 23:08 collapse

Where do you think the remaining 24% goes? Up into smoke?

Sludgehammer@lemmy.world on 10 Dec 2023 18:10 next collapse

They chose corn. Which barely gets digested.

Corn gets digested. The “corn” you see in your poo after eating sweet corn is usually a empty hull, the good stuff has been digested and only the tough fibrous hull is left. Hard corns are upper-mid in their amount of calories per volume when compared to other grains.

What am I missing here, this is way too obviously strange to me, gotta be missing something.

The main reason of “why corn” is that corn is a staple food, meaning that in many regions of the world (including the US) it supplies a large amount of the calories a person eats to get through their day. This includes many areas where subsistence agriculture is common. As such in some countries a subsistence farmer may grow corn and most of what he eats throughout the year is that corn. Obviously, this is not a ideal diet and malnutrition becomes a common problem, like say anemia.

Also corn uses C4 photosynthesis, which is much more efficient than the C3 photosynthesis most crops use. Which means (depending on conditions) you can get more grain per acre.

Edit: I just noticed that I typed “substance” rather than “subsistence”… twice. Fixed now.

naturalgasbad@lemmy.ca on 10 Dec 2023 18:17 next collapse

The OP has no idea what he’s talking about. Classic American hubris.

stevedidWHAT@lemmy.world on 10 Dec 2023 19:04 collapse

Cool stereotyping bro. Post some more articles with crap for sources and crap for writing and surprise pikachu when people ask for actual data and good information.

Classic asshole.

circuscritic@lemmy.ca on 10 Dec 2023 21:21 collapse

It’s a Chinese shill account. Don’t engage with it’s posts. I’d rather not even be leaving this comment, but it needed to be said - hopefully it will stop others.

stevedidWHAT@lemmy.world on 10 Dec 2023 19:02 collapse

Beautiful explanation and data to boot. Appreciate the time you took to politely correct my misunderstanding. Appreciate it!

SoleInvictus@lemmy.world on 10 Dec 2023 21:40 collapse

It has a lot more than three sentences. A button should pop up at the bottom that prompts you to load the rest of the article.

stevedidWHAT@lemmy.world on 10 Dec 2023 21:55 collapse

This might be the case, the mobile view that pops up is a a few paragraphs of 1-2 sentences each, really just introductory stuff. This is my guess as to what’s going on, thanks for commenting

SoleInvictus@lemmy.world on 10 Dec 2023 23:43 collapse

Of course! I love Lemmy because so many people are just so damn nice and reasonable. Thanks for being a part of that

rustydomino@lemmy.world on 10 Dec 2023 19:03 next collapse

It is somewhat interesting that this is coming from Chinese and not American (geographic, not country) scientists. In Asia the staple crop is rice, not corn. Still a cool project.

CaptnNMorgan@reddthat.com on 11 Dec 2023 02:15 next collapse

Maybe it’s easier to boost iron in corn than rice? But that’s pure speculation, not even educated

ExfilBravo@lemmy.world on 11 Dec 2023 06:56 collapse

Uneducated Speculation would be an awesome band name.

CaptnNMorgan@reddthat.com on 11 Dec 2023 07:48 next collapse

Hell yeah😂

irreticent@lemmy.world on 11 Dec 2023 08:14 collapse

Or the title of a porno.

OttoVonNoob@lemmy.ca on 11 Dec 2023 03:53 next collapse

I think China is the #2 Corn producer in the world and it’s considered a more luxurious food than rice?.

beetus@lemmy.world on 11 Dec 2023 13:10 collapse

Fortifying foods is very important in Africa and lots of ongoing research and rollouts are happening there. Neat to see China doing it as well successfully, but they are not the only nation trying to solve nutrition and hunger

Agreed about corn fortification coming from China specifically being interesting.

un.org/…/fighting-‘hidden-hunger’-fortified-foods

kandoh@reddthat.com on 11 Dec 2023 02:38 next collapse

This is all part of some larger scheme of feeding people

Zehzin@lemmy.world on 11 Dec 2023 04:02 collapse

I knew they were up to something sneaky

Shanedino@lemmy.world on 11 Dec 2023 15:07 collapse

Interested if it modifies the soil in such a way that it is no longer an easy rotation crop.