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> why not produce plants with, e.g., much bigger seed heads? How about "Why not produce plants that don't taste like shit?" The worst thing about living in Be
by ino 11y ago
> why not produce plants with, e.g., much bigger seed heads?
How about "Why not produce plants that don't taste like shit?"
The worst thing about living in Berlin (coming from Portugal) is that I can't find tomatoes and other vegetables that have a good taste (or smell).
Why not use GM to make a tomato with a great taste that you can smell from a distance?
- a_bonobo 11y agoOne of the first commercially sold GM plants was the "Flavr Savr" (yes that title!) tomato. This tomato used GM tech to reverse some things we humans introduced in the tomato breeding process (lack of taste due to a short ripening process, for example). It was available in the US (after FDA approval) from 94 to 97. The company went under due to mismanagement and a bit of GM apprehension. There are many, many more similar projects underway, but nowadays the public apprehension is even bigger, so investors are reluctant to invest in such technology.
- timthorn 11y ago> nowadays the public apprehension is even bigger Really? The mood in the UK feels much more accepting than it did a decade ago.
- collyw 11y agoAs you have noticed, there are fine tasting tomatoes already, so its likely not a genetic thing, more that they get picked too early.
- david-given 11y agoI have it on good authority (i.e. I heard it on Radio 4) that the enzymes that make tomatoes taste good break down at low temperatures; which means that if you refrigerate your tomatoes they taste painfully bland. Of course, you have to find tomatoes which haven't been refrigerated anywhere in their supply chain before this becomes worthwhile. But you might want to check out your local farmer's markets. (Growing up in Britain, I had to go to Cyprus before I realised that tomatoes didn't have to taste like little bland paper bags full of mucus.)