Does the World Need GE Bananas and GE Apples?

Genetically engineered food scares many people.  But that doesn't stop scientists from trying to improve plants by using GE techniques. There's more justification for doing so with bananas than with apples. Let's find out what's happening in today's labs, beginning with apples, and then investigate the scary situation of bananas, threatened with destruction by fungi, mold, worms, drought, and other enemies.

Apples in the news:

Cut an apple in half or into slices and, rather soon, before you can say "Behave yourself," it goes and turns brown on you.  In response, recent Huffington Post article and New York Times articles tell us, a group of scientists at a small company called Okanagan Specialty Fruits (OSE) have created a genetically modified apple that stays crisp and doesn't turn brown.  Never fear.  If you ate one, you wouldn't unknowingly eat a rotten apple.  If the modified apple is rotten, it will still look rotten.

Some say the GE apple will cut down on waste.  However, industry response to this product is, so far, quite negative.  The U.S. Apple Association opposes its entry into the market. The New York Times quotes the president of the Northwest Horticultural Council: "We don't think it's in the best interest of the apple industry of the United States to have that product in the marketplace at this time." 

Will we ever find a genetically engineered apple in our stores?  According to the New York Times, "The Arctic Apple could become one of the first genetically engineered versions of a fruit that people directly bit into."  Since 1990s, the article says, Americans have been eating some genetically engineered foods, but these have been mostly processed foods. If the Arctic Apple starts appearing in supermarkets, there will, no doubt, be pressure to label it a GE product. 

Bananas in the news:

The banana is one fruit that definitely needs scientific research to sustain its very existence.  We all know it's a fragile item once we get it home.  (It cycles from green to ruin within a week at most.)  But it's also susceptible to all kinds of fatal attacks while it's growing.  That's why, according to a recent (7/12/12) Chicago Tribune article, "Tropical-fruit researchers were breaking out the banana daiquiris Wednesday to celebrate the sequencing of the banana genome by scientists in France."  The article goes to say that this "biological blueprint" (published in the journal Nature) helps breeders and genetic engineers develop banana varieties that are more resistant to disease and drought while also being even more nutritious than the ones we enjoy today.

Why all this effort to better understand  and improve upon the banana?  Consider these facts:

- Bananas are the fourth most widely consumed product in the world (after rice, wheat, and maize).

- About 85% of banana production is not exported but is food for survival in the areas where it's grown. 

- Americans eat more bananas per year than they do apples and oranges combined.

- Bananas are usually the first food fed to infants and are likely to be the last fruit eaten by the elderly.

- Bananas are both delicious and nutritious; they're often prescribed by doctors for folks who need a potassium boost.

- This may not be significant, but it's too interesting a fact to ignore: the most ancient translations of the Bible suggest that what Eve consumed was not, in fact, an apple but a banana.

Despite its thick, firm exterior, the type of banana we eat today (mostly the Cavendish) is a fragile crop.  It is a sterile fruit with just a few tiny seeds in the middle.  It cannot reproduce without human assistance, says Dan Koeppel in his extensively researched book Banana, published in 2008.   Koeppel expresses great concern that the banana we love may be dying: "There is an epidemic underway....In a matter of decades, it would essentially wipe out the fruit that so many of us love and rely on." 

Labs around the world have been working on the banana problem.  Some have bombarded bananas cells with radioactive gamma rays and produced  larger bananas with more resistance to some diseases.  Nevertheless, some scientists--including Ronny Swennen, head of the Laboratory of Tropical Crop Improvement in Belgium--believe that genetic engineering is what's in the future for bananas.  Swennen says, "I know there are a lot of arguments about genetically modified foods, but, if you are dealing with sterile plants and perennials, then GM is the way to go." 

We just can't let the banana become extinct. Summers would never be the same without banana splits, banana smoothies, and the chocolate-covered frozen bananas that made my childhood summers so glorious. 

To read more about genetically engineered foods, click below:

http://shelflifeadvice.com/content/genetically-engineered-food-safe

http://shelflifeadvice.com/content/will-genetically-engineered-salmon-be-coming-your-dinner-table

http://shelflifeadvice.com/content/nine-faqs-about-food-labels 

Source(s):

huffingtonpost.com "Non-Browning Apple Genetically Modified To Stay Crisp"

http://www.huffingtonpost.com/2012/07/13/noen-browning-apple_n_1671875.html

nytimes.com "That Fresh Look Genetically Buffed"

http://www.nytimes.com/2012/07/13/business/growers-fret-over-a-new-apple-that-wont-turn-brown.html?_r=2&smid=tw-nytimesdining&seid=auto 

Chicago Tribune "Sequencing genome holds appeal of a better banana" July 12, 2012

Banana: The Fate of the Fruit That Changed the World by Dan Koeppel. 2008.