What Exactly Is A GMO Food?
The term GMO stands for Genetically Modified Organism.
It is typically used to refer to the process of inserting genetic material (DNA) from an unrelated organism into another organisms DNA.
However, technically most fruits and vegetables are genetically modified because we have modified them for thousands of years through selective breeding or crossbreeding. Although, most people see these techniques as more natural than messing with DNA and not done in a Lab.
Selective Breeding
Selective breeding is a process of selecting the desired traits of a plant (size, taste, color, etc) and saving the seeds of that plant, in theory, creating more plants with those desired traits.
For example, saving seeds from your tallest Marigold and planting them next year and then repeating the process will eventually give you a variety of marigold that will likely be tall and so will the seeds that come after.
Crossbreeding
Crossbreeding happens is when pollen from one plant, pollinates another plant. This can happen either naturally, or purposely. Gardeners usually do this purposely in order to achieve new seeds with combined desired traits. These new varieties are typically called hybrids.
For example, you have a tomato variety that has huge 1Kg tomatoes and another variety that is drought-tolerant. Through cross-breeding, the seeds found in the tomatoes of these plants might possibly produce a new variety that has both traits.
There are many hybrids out there and new ones accidentally happen all the time when pollen from one plant crosses with another plant, thanks to bees or other pollinators. Both of these types of hybrid modifications are considered natural but take time before you can see the results.
If Seedless Grapes Dont Have Seeds, How Do We Get More Seedless Grapevines?
When you buy a seedless grape vine to grown in your own backyard, you are technically buying a clone of the original plant that mutated years ago.
The seedless grape varieties you get from your nursery or local gardens are cuttings of an already established seedless variety. The cutting is planted and new roots will begin to grow and thus a new seedless grape vine is born, without having to mutate the genes over and over again.
Are Seedless Fruits And Hybrids Safe To Eat?
Yes, hybrids and seedless varieties are considered safe to eat and are just as nutritious as their counterparts.
How are Raisins made ?
Grapes are left on the vines and they ripen to their full
Conclusion
Seedless varieties are NOT made in a lab and they do NOT have genes introduced into their gene pools from other organism.
The main differences with GMO and hybrid varieties :
– Hybrid varieties can occur naturally and involve ONLY genes from the same species kingdom.
– GMO varieties, on the other hand, can have DNA genes from pretty much any plant, animal, or bacteria species and these varieties produced are modifications that would never occur naturally.
A piece of a vine or branch is cut off and then placed in moist dirt so that roots and leaves form. Because they come from cuttings, new grapevines are essentially clones of the vine they were cut from.
If you go to a grocery store today to buy grapes, there is a good chance that the only type of grape you can buy is seedless. Nearly all grapevines in production today produce seedless grapes. It turns out that most fruits today do not come from seeds. They come from cuttings instead. This is true of grapes, blueberries, apples, cherries, etc.
So go to a farm in Nashik between Jan and April, talk to the farmer and buy some Grapes.
