cassava

As I mentioned earlier in my daydream list, I thought it would be a good idea to genetically engineer a plant to become a self-contained complete source of nutrients for humans. It turns out, someone is doing exactly that. They're working on a plant called cassava which looks something like a yam. It's an interesting choice as a food source, since it's also potentially deadly because of its cyanide yield. Apparently preparation of the cassava as food involves many hours of airing out so that the cyanide gas can escape. Strange, eh?

The story from Ohio State University says:

The researchers have further engineered the cassava plant so it can resist the crop’s most damaging viral threats and are refining methods to reduce cyanogens, substances that yield poisonous cyanide if they are not properly removed from the food before consumption. The reduction of cyanogens also can shorten the time it takes to process the plant into food, which typically requires three to six days to complete.

This is important news not just for humans on earth but for humans leaving the planet too. Information that I can't yet find is the B12 content of this newly engineered cassava plant. As I found out during my own health troubles, B12 is manufactured only by bacteria and not by larger life forms. Even on their more-detailed webpage, though, I can't find mention of B12 content. Worse, it seems that cassava is already known to actually reduce the B12 in the body.