Swiss researcher proves
that natural selective breeding works better than GMOs
Monday, May 09, 2011 by Ethan A. Huff
Monday, May 09, 2011 by Ethan A. Huff
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| Picture: This shows the RedLove apple, which is a breakthrough in foods. The fruit was created safely with only natural breeding, and is practically versatile in taste, growth, and safety. |
Summary: After 20 long years of
research and development, Swiss orchardist and researcher Marcus Kobelt has
been able to produce a new kind of apple called RedLove. This spectacular new
form of fruit has been designed to be resistant to disease, delicious, and easy
to grow, and this has been successfully achieved. More importantly, however,
this apple was made without any use of any GM’s (genetic modifications) or GE
(genetic engineering). "These varieties of new apple have been created through non-GE (genetically engineered)
techniques which is fantastic," said Claire Bleakley from GE Free NZ in
Food and Environment, which is a non-profit organization attempting to make
people aware of the dangers of genetically
modified organisms (GMOs). For years, other researchers have been trying to make
a GM apple with the same characteristics, but luckily Kobelt was the first to
create the fruit. Kobelt only used natural breeding and cross-pollination techniques.
This means that the fruit bears no serious health risks that GM foods can. The versatility
of this fruit is amazing—it’s sweet and tangy flavor makes it delicious, it can
be cooked or raw, beautiful and rich in color, high amounts of antioxidants, and
cannot be affected by scab disease. Overall, this creation of the RedLove apple
is an example as to why GMOs are not needed and should not be pursued. GMO’s
are harmful to humans, animals, and the environment, and also has no known
predominance over natural-grown foods.
Reflection: This is definitely my favorite article of all the ones
I’ve read so far. I think it’s so cool that through only cross-pollination and
some natural breeding, someone was able to create such a magnificent fruit!
Also, I feel that nearly all the articles we study in these blogs deal with
depressing problems, which I understand because there are many environmental
issues we need to become aware of. But this article, on the other hand, was a
celebration of success and I was engaged when reading it. I have always been a
picky eater and I’ve heard about GMOs and they really gross me out. I watched
FOOD, INC. in health class recently and we learned about harmful GMOs and how
unhealthy and scientifically engineered foods are practically everywhere; that
they are nearly impossible to avoid. This is really reassuring that there are
others trying to make better foods the right way. I really want to try the RedLove
apple now, it looks so good!
Expansion:
1. Why are GMOs even used at all if natural breeding is so much
better? In other words, what’s the advantage?
2. How was the RedLove apple able to be formed merely by natural
cross-breeding; how did they know to get those exact traits within the apple?
3. How can we try to support the production of foods like RedLove
and rid of the GMOs that are being made throughout our country?
Reflection:
ReplyDeleteSo cool, this is a break through! Not only do they look so delectable they also are good for you! I wonder if they will be selling these in grocery stores soon! Knowing that they are naturally made is so reassuring too. I applaud them for sticking with the project for 20 years. I don't know if I would keep going after so many years. I really think that this could even allow people to live longer. With all the antioxidants in the new fruit if people would even eat just one a day could help prevent new diseases and sickness from occurring.
Expansion:
I found out that the makers of the Redlove apple are now selling them. We should plant some on the school ground so that everyone knows about the Redlove. We could even plant some in the Jarret nature center, we do have 5,000 dollars to plant a rain garden if we have any money left over we could plant some Redloves. Check out the article here: http://www.bbc.co.uk/news/uk-england-devon-10671631
Reflection:I agree with Haley that this is a very nice article! Though I have not watched the Food Inc. yet, I have, instead, read quite some articles that details the threat of the GMO crops and fruits. I am glad that selective breeding was used to enhance the quality of the fruits and I never knew that it was possible. I wish that I do understand that breeding the fruit to have better quality is an extremely hard work to achieve with many failures and repetetive experiments. I do wonder when that apple is going to get sold though. All I do know is that I will be buying it as soon as it comes out!
ReplyDeleteExpansion: Answer to question 1. The reason why GMO is used instead of crossbreeding is because some of things cannot be achieved in the means of crossbreeding. Achieving things like producing special kinds of bacterias out of plants takes something above the limits of cross breeding as it is not a natural process. In short, it takes something above natural selection to achieve what GMO can.
Reflection: I think that is actually really cool! Its also great that it does not need any Genetic Modifications to look like that. I am really curious as to where you can get them or if they even sell them anywhere yet. If they can change apples by using cross pollination, then maybe eventually they can start using cross pollination to alter other things instead of genetically modifying or engineering the food.
ReplyDeleteExpansion: Answering Haley's question number 3, we can support the production of foods like the red love apples and get rid of GMOs by doing more research on the types of foods that do not use GMOs and buy more of those foods.