"genetically modified foods" news and stories

Hold up, frankenfish. While the USDA is still hung up on whether to approve genetically modified salmon, it appears there's a new mutant on the table: a genetically modified apple that won't brown.

Designed by British Columbia-based Okanagan Specialty Fruits, the new "Arctic" apple -- or what critics are calling the "botox apple," reports Gawker -- is said to have "silencing" enzymes, which would prevent it from looking old, no matter how old it gets. While this may be arguably okay for foreheads, we take it most people would rather know when their food is past its prime. Just like waxing fruit and piping nitrogen into fish to make it look younger, preventing fruit to brown would no longer allow us to know when it's gone bad.

According to the Associated Press, the company "licensed the non-browning technology from Australian researchers who pioneered it in potatoes." Andrew Kimbrell, executive director of the Center for Food Safety, tells the AP that this technology "appears to benefit apple growers and shippers more than consumers." He's predicting failure.

The president of Okanagan Specialty Fruits, Neal Carter, happens to agree: "Some people won't like it just because of what it is." Yep, seems reason enough, we think. But, he adds, "people will see the process used to get it had very sound science." Excuse us, Mr. Carter, but so did the atomic bomb.

Although no genetically modified plants have been approved for human consumption, more and more of these crops are being developed and acknowledged as potentially offering huge human health benefits. For instance, they have seen enhanced nutrition in the form of zeaxanthin in potatoes, omega-3 fatty acid in soybeans, and stearidonic acid (SDA) in canola.

However, there is promise for a genetically modified tomato that has a high concentration of flavonoids, which are compounds that are getting a lot of press these days for their antioxidant properties. A study by BASF, TNO, and two universitiesin Holland and Germany has demonstrated (in mice, of course) that these GM tomatoes reduce human C-reactive protein (CRP), a protein that is associated with inflammation, diabetes, and heart diease.

But no matter if the governments approve something like this, it might take a long time for general consumer acceptance.

Sir John Krebs, a professor and major proponent of genetically modified foods, has made onions shine by modifying it with jellyfish genes. This was shown during a series of lectures that aims to show that genetically modified (GM) foods can be a powerful tool against food shortages among people in places of high population growth.

I wonder why they didn't go for a more subtle showing of the benefits of GM foods. Making an onion glow is probably going to enrage the anti-GM food activists, not persuade them to adopt it.

[Photo Eddie Mulholland]