Some better news – about food

Several new, healthy GM foods are arriving, or about to arrive, offering health benefits, increased flavour and longer shelf-life. This is a list of them:

Arctic apples, which went on sale in the US in November 2017, never go brown (Okanagan Specialty Fruits Inc)

Non-browning apples: Some people dislike eating fruit with discoloured flesh. This never happens to Arctic apples. They went on sale in the US in November 2017.

Potatoes that don’t bruise: The Innate potato is less prone to bruising and black spots. When fried, it also produces less acrylamide, a substance suspected of causing cancer, than conventional potatoes do.

Wheat with “good” gluten. At least two groups worldwide are editing out the genes for the gluten proteins that damage the guts of people with digestive disorders. One GM wheat is undergoing clinical trials in Spain.

Pink pineapples: They are pink because they accumulate lycopene, the pigment that makes tomatoes red, instead of converting it into yellow beta-carotene as normal pineapples do. Lycopene is thought to have various health benefits. The pink pineapples are also said to be sweeter – and add a twist to a pina colada.

Omega-3 rapeseed (canola): This seed from the rape plant is rich in the beneficial omega-3 oil DHA.

High-fibre white bread: Gene-edited wheat yields white flour with three times as much dietary fibre as standard white flour.

Bloodier oranges: Blood oranges are rich in antioxidants called anthocyanins. Normal blood oranges only turn red if they experience cold nights while growing, regardless of the weather. The oranges are not yet on sale.

Bananas: The matoke cooking banana is a staple in Uganda. The GM variety contains provitamin A, a lack of which can lead to blindness. It is being field tested in Uganda and could be on sale in 2021.

Lower-saturated fat rapeseed oil: Conventional rapeseed oil contains 7 per cent saturated fats. A gene-edited variety will have half this amount.

Golden rice: Rice designed to reduce vitamin A deficiency has been approved in Australia, New Zealand and Canada and declared it safe for humans.

Opinion: Scientists are now confident that GM modified fruits and vegetables are totally safe for human beings, and that refusing to accept GM food is similar to climate change denial

(Michael Le Page,senior news reporter for New Scientist. Lightly edited to make it a bit shorter; nothing important omitted)

One Comment

  1. So why should we consider GM modified fruit and vegetables at all? Well, they are having to undergo thorough investigation before marketing. Ah, you are thinking, but will the growers bribe the scientists? Possibly, but the research is multi-national, and involves a lot of people, and each and every government is looking at the items for safety. Yes, we live is suspicious times (rightly sometimes) but skulduggery is a bit unlikely for so many different products.

    The other thing is that by enhancing shelf life and flavour the fruits and vegetables will have a bigger following (Lord be praised!) and because of enhanced shelf life and freedom from pests, wastage will be reduced, and, thus price. But I agree, we still have to overcome suspicions from the same folk who won’t inoculate their kids and don’t believe in climate change.

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