#genetic-modification

#genetic-modification

Some of us will cut off the bruise and eat the rest, but evidence shows that a lot of bruised apples are tossed out. According to the Food and Agricultural Organization of the United Nations, about 45% of all fruits and vegetables are wasted. That's 3.7 trillion apples. The creators of Arctic apples saw that as a major problem they needed to fix as they attempted to design an apple that wouldn't turn brown, allowing it to stay fresher longer.

Do you think we should genetically modify wildlife? What if we could make seabirds resistant to the flu that has been exterminating them en masse, just by tweaking their DNA a smidgen? Or make fish that can shrug off pollution, or coral that can survive warming waters? Engineer in the sorts of change that could occur naturally, given enough time, if only the wildlife would stop dying already. Thanks to newly emerging methods, such as Crispr, these feats are within reach.

Piled next to lines and lines of identical Roma and Beefsteak tomatoes, the colors and lumps of heirlooms give way to a host of questions. What exactly is an heirloom tomato anyway? Do they taste better? Or are those misshapen tomatoes just another form of visual produce marketing? The answer to that last question is "kind," but in the best way possible. Ultimately, heirloom tomatoes' unique shapes and colors are their natural form because they were passed over for genetic modification.