Vegetables from outer space to land on China's markets

Vegetables from outer space to land on China's markets
AGENCE FRANCE PRESSE

SHANGHAI, NOV 30: Vegetables grown from seeds sent into orbit will soon land in Chinese markets with consumers expected to bite, the Shanghai Daily reported on Thursday.

``These green peppers are more tender in taste and their size huge. As long as the price is not to steep, I will definitely buy them,'' said Zhao Ming, a farmer, who tried a prototype of the new product.

Peppers and tomato seeds were spun in orbit around the earth for 15 days and bombarded with a wide range of cosmic rays which produced mutations in the seed's genes, the paper said. After the satellite returned to earth, researchers planted 400 seeds to see whether the mutations were beneficial -- some were, others were not, the paper reported.

The first generation of space peppers had a misshapen appearance but after breeding the space seed with a local variety, researchers produced a pepper with more nutrients, trace elements, vitamin C and dissolvable sugars than ordinary varieties, the report added.

The peppers bred by the Jiading Agrotechnical Centre, an institute responsible for crop research are expected to receive sales certification from Shanghai's Science and Technology Commission before the end of the year.

``People don't have to worry about eating space food,'' said Pang Yingjie, president of the Shanghai Academy of Agricultural Sciences. ``Unlike other genetically-modified food, space-food changes its own characteristics on its own rather than through operations by biologists,'' he added.