Eat Your Veggies, Get A Bonus
Are we living in a sci-fi world? Scientists want to give your salad a dash of mRNA.
How would you like to chomp on a mRNA vaccine in your salad?
As sci-fi as this may sound, the possibility is real. Very real.
In 2021, scientists at University of California Riverside received a $500,000 federal grant to study whether they can turn edible plants into mRNA vaccine “factories.”
The 2021 news release titled “Grow and eat your own vaccines” about the project stated: “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.”
The experiments in California have not yet concluded.
That's not stopping Tennessee from taking some proactive action.
A bill is currently awaiting Tennessee Republican Gov. Bill Lee's signature that would classify any food that “contains a vaccine or vaccine material” as a drug under Tennessee law.
Food would be labeled as a substance intended to “stimulate the production of antibodies and provide immunity against disease.”
The Tennessee House passed the bill 73-22 in March. The Senate passed the bill 23-6.
Tennessee state Rep. Scott Cepicky addressed his concerns earlier this year in Tennessee’s legislative session.
This law would label food as drugs if it “contains a vaccine or vaccine material.”
Cepicky said vaccinated plants like lettuce, spinach and tomatoes should be listed as pharmaceuticals so “people can get the proper dosage” if, or more likely when, these foods hit grocery shelves.
Before COVID-19
As early as 1990, scientists were developing edible vaccines and filing for patents.
One of the first reports of an edible vaccine was in tobacco when it appeared on “a patent application published under the international patent cooperation treaty.
In 1997, during the 31st National Immunization Conference, researchers discussed alternative methods to vaccinate babies, according to a Centers for Disease Control and Prevention news release.
Researchers were then exploring options to simplify childhood vaccines as they added more required vaccinations for children including chickenpox, hepatitis B and meningitis.
Dr. Hilary Koprowski, then a professor of microbiology and immunology of the Biotechnology Foundation, Thomas Jefferson University, addressed the conference.
Koprowski developed the “first live attenuated polio vaccine to be tested in human trials in 1950.”
At the 1997 conference, Koprowski, who died in 2013, explained that “edible plants may be engineered to become vaccine factories, potentially reducing the costs to manufacture vaccines.”
A year later, a study by the National Institute Of Allergy And Infectious Diseases was reported in “Science Daily.” It stated:
“Opening a new era in vaccine delivery, researchers supported by the National Institute of Allergy and Infectious Diseases (NIAID) have shown for the first time that an edible vaccine can safely trigger significant immune responses in people.”
A 2013 article from “Advances in Biotechnology” stated: “In recent years edible vaccine emerged as a new concept developed by biotechnologists.”
Researchers wrote in the study that vaccines present “exciting possibilities for significantly reducing various diseases such as measles, hepatitis B, cholera, diarrhea, etc., mainly in developing countries.”
The study listed potatoes, bananas, lettuce, corn, soybeans, rice, and legumes as possible foods for vaccines.
“Edible vaccines are currently being developed for a number of human and animal diseases,” the study noted.
The vaccine appeared on “a patent application published under the international patent cooperation treaty.”
A researcher in a 2002 “Nature” article about edible vaccines said, “The biggest challenge will be to get pharmaceutical companies to put money in it.”
The future is now
Kentucky BioProcessing, LLC in Owensboro, Ky., the wholly owned subsidiary of British American Tobacco (BAT), is working on an edible vaccine using tobacco.
The two entities have merged to KBio Holdings Limited (KBio).
“The new entity will focus on using tobacco plants to develop biologics and vaccines for rare and infectious disease,” according to a 2022 article in BioProcess International.
A January 2024 article in “Frontiers” stated, “Plant-based edible vaccines that provide two-layered protection against severe acute respiratory syndrome coronavirus 2 (SARS-CoV-2) outweigh the currently used parenteral types of vaccines, which predominantly cause a systemic immune response.”
A year earlier in a December 2023 press release highlighted that PlantPharm BioMed, Ltd. was awarded “more than $900,000 by the U.S. Department of Agriculture Animal and Plant Health Inspection Service (USDA APHIS) to develop a stable, feed delivered SARS-CoV-2 (COVID-19) animal vaccine.”
That edible vaccine will “allow animals of multiple species whether wild or domestic to be easily vaccinated, thus breaking the animal-related path of the pandemic chain of COVID-19.”
This study isn't just for cows or chickens. Your beloved dog and cat can eat their vaccine in their food, too.
“Additionally, domestic pets including dogs and cats can be easily protected with an edible vaccine-treat preventing possible transmission of pathogens to their human family members.”
Around the world, scientists are studying edible vaccines. Here’s one from Canada. Here’s a LinkedIn post titled “Edible Vaccine Market Outlook 2031: Navigating Size and Share.” Brazil researchers are also on the edible vaccine bandwagon.
While some ridicule Cepicky, he may just be right on time with his legislation in Tennessee because of the growing research published about vaccines in food.
Whether grocery stores will ever sell edible vaccines remains unclear, but the research is real.
Now I'm worried they'll try to slip us something.