A new approach in California utilizes epigenetic treatments to enhance the longevity of crops such as tomatoes, making them last longer post-harvest without genetic modification. Decibel Bio employs these methods to help tackle key agricultural challenges, including drought and heat stress. The CEO, Travis Bayer, explains that epigenetics can optimize gene expression and improve crop resilience. The technology not only retains the appearance and flavor of tomatoes for two weeks post-harvest but also triples the freshness duration of lettuce, highlighting its potential benefits for the food supply chain.
"Epigenetics is really a sort of frontier that hasn't been tapped into yet in plant science...We're at the forefront of that with our platform."
"What we're really doing is working with what the plant has, but just making a little bit less of that enzyme that is responsible for the cell wall degradation."
"After they were harvested, they still looked and tasted fresh two weeks later."
"The new crop wasn't bred differently or genetically edited. Instead, the plants had been given an epigenetic treatment that fine-tunes certain traits without changing the plant's DNA."
Collection
[
|
...
]