By Danielle
Our federal government has funded diabolical research to create mRNA plant-based vaccines with food items like lettuce and spinach.
Rep. Thomas Massie (R-KY) this week introduced an amendment to prohibit funding the research into transgenic edible plant vaccines.
Massie discovered a University of California, Riverside research project to create edible plant vaccines.
A $500,000 grant from the National Science Foundation made the research possible.
UC Riverside wrote in 2021:
The future of vaccines may look more like eating a salad than getting a shot in the arm. UC Riverside scientists are studying whether they can turn edible plants like lettuce into mRNA vaccine factories.
Messenger RNA or mRNA technology, used in COVID-19 vaccines, works by teaching our cells to recognize and protect us against infectious diseases.
One of the challenges with this new technology is that it must be kept cold to maintain stability during transport and storage. If this new project is successful, plant-based mRNA vaccines — which can be eaten — could overcome this challenge with the ability to be stored at room temperature.
The project’s goals, made possible by a $500,000 grant from the National Science Foundation, are threefold: showing that DNA containing the mRNA vaccines can be successfully delivered into the part of plant cells where it will replicate, demonstrating the plants can produce enough mRNA to rival a traditional shot, and finally, determining the right dosage.
“Ideally, a single plant would produce enough mRNA to vaccinate a single person,” said Juan Pablo Giraldo, an associate professor in UCR’s Department of Botany and Plant Sciences who is leading the research, done in collaboration with scientists from UC San Diego and Carnegie Mellon University.
“We are testing this approach with spinach and lettuce and have long-term goals of people growing it in their own gardens,” Giraldo said. “Farmers could also eventually grow entire fields of it.”
“Scientists, funded with your tax dollars, are trying to turn edible plants like lettuce and spinach into mRNA vaccine factories. It’s dangerous to play God with our food. The House just passed my amendment to prohibit USDA funding of this research,” Massie wrote Wednesday.
“My amendment, which states that ‘none of the funds made available by this act may be used to fund any grant related to any transgenic edible vaccine.’” Massie said on the House floor.
“Does the term ‘transgenic edible vaccine’ sound far-fetched?” he asked.