Mutant food!

I was watching a cooking show, because I do that when I get bored, and the woman was an interesting character. She was cooking some fun stuff but it soon became apparent that she had a soap box. And that soap box was to avoid all genetically modified food at all cost.

Which is not one of my soap boxes.

Every food we’ve domesticated has been genetically modified. Gregor Mendel discovered the science of genetics because he was following previously developed hybridization techniques to track traits of sweet peas. All of our plant foods have been genetically modified in some form or another by some farmer at some point. They are all a hybrid in one form or fashion. Sweet yellow corn is sweet and all yellow because some farmers used some hybrid techniques to make it both sweet and yellow.

Now, admittedly, there are instances where we’ve gone too far. In an effort to make tomatoes be all red sooner we’ve actually compromised their taste. But then we are a society that favors looks over substance in a lot of other areas too (Hollywood anyone?).

However we’ve also made plants more hardy. The tomato plant we’re growing in our yard has been bred to withstand the weather we get here. Which is great because I love garden fresh tomatoes. And some plants have been bred to be resistant to diseases that used to destroy them.

Each of us is a hybrid if you really think about it. We’re just random hybrids of our parents rather than specifically bred hybrids like our plums. And yes, I can’t wait to see what kind of a hybrid we get from combining Brett and my genes together, although I’ve been told that having kids isn’t a science experiment. (I know it’s not a science experiment, don’t worry. It’s obviously a social experiment! 😉 )