Because you are designed to seek out salt and sugar as a survival trait; then decided to mass produce it and put it into everything. Now your tastebuds have been ruined, even the standard apple/banana has been genetically modified to have more sugar
iirc the modern banana is actually a less flavorful variety than centuries past, but not for selective breeding reasons. The more popular variety, the Gros Michel, was susceptible to a certain fungus that wiped it out by the 60s. Those apparently tasted closer to the artificial banana flavoring that is still used today and in fact are what that flavoring was based on (albeit probably quite a bit more sugary and concentrated since it’s still a candy flavoring).
And then you have other produce like apples and tomatoes being bred for size and yield, since that will both net more profit and feed more people. This often necessarily means that the produce will lose flavor in the process, as well as nutritional value by weight since the size/yield increase is mostly just the crop taking up more water. (I think the genetic modification you mentioned is in some part meant to correct that inverse relationship between yield and nutritional density, but I’d have to read up more on the subject.)
So I think you can just as much argue that it’s not our tastebuds being ruined so much as produce itself being considerably less appealing to them.
You can buy Gros Michel bananas still you just have to put in some effort. If you are in the USA and have the cash the Miami Fruit Co ships them when they grow them. I haven’t checked but I believe they are in banana season.
Like many other cultures, bananas and apples were selectively reproduced to obtain fruits with more to eat. Corn, carrots, every single kale and cabbage, potatoes, oranges and even strawberries can go into this basket.
The wild banana has almost nothing to eat, being filled with large seeds and we can still find wild apples, by nature very tart but still edible. Every single cereal we plant and harvest today was originally nothing more than a wild grass.
But to call the work of millenia and who knows how many generations of farmers genetic modifications is a bit over the top.
GMOs are very recent introductions and normally for obtaining pest, drought or disease (more) resistant plants.
The wild banana has almost nothing to eat, being filled with large seeds and we can still find wild apples, by nature very tart but still edible. Every single cereal we plant and harvest today was originally nothing more than a wild grass.
I cannot help thinking about the first proto-human that started munching on the tips of wild grass.
“Hey Unk, check out Krug over there, chewin on the grass. That shit’s messed up.”
Our ancestors were primarily leaf eaters, so moving to grass wouldn’t be that unusual. But let’s picture the first proto-human that decided to go for the carcass of another animal, either killed by a predator or by fire or lightning. That would have been an event.
If we are to go back far enough, we are bound to find an ancestor mostly herbivore. On that level, going for the scenario I mentioned would have been some event.
Selective breeding increases the frequency of a given set of genes, already present in a species, in order to better manifest specific, more advantageous - either nature or human chosen - traits.
Random mutations can occur when biological reproduction happens but unless extreme and radical - which often prove fatal for the offspring - are not relevant for the species in the immediate.
These principles are applicable to both plants and animals.
Now grafting takes a part of one plant - usually a small branch - uses another plant to provide the root system - usually something that grows much faster than the graft - and this process multiplies asexually the plant from which the branch was oroginally cut. No genes are carried over between the two plants.
This is valid to get a bunch of trees out of a single one in a very short time but it will not introduce new genes into the crop.
Quince trees are often used as root stock to graft other trees, like pear and apple. If the seeds from those grafted trees were to be sprouted, planted and nurtured to maturity, apples or pears would grow but of completely new varieties. The quince trees used to provide the root for grafting would provide zero genes to the new varieties.
Can you expand on why you consider grafting as a tool for genetic manipulation?
Last time I was taught about biology, selective breeding was a process through which, over a long period of time, individuals with favorable traits were multiplied in order to increase the prevalence of such traits.
The genes were already introduced, hence, no modification. Already existing characteristics were allowed to further express and refine.
Genetic modification, to my understanding, implies introducing genetic information into the genome of an organism to produce another with traits previously completely absent in the species.
Selection vs manipulation.
I’ll concede there are a few cases where the lines blurr, like the golden rice, where a gene that codified the production of vitamin A in the grain was/is already inactive or so receassive, in order to have it express again would require gene manipulation but I think a selective production program was put forward in an attempt to bring out that gene again.
I think you two have different images in your minds. You say “genetically modify” as in “modify the food through choosing which genes are to prevail”, while the other means “modify genes directly to affect the food”, and in that sense selective breeding isn’t GMO because no genes have been modified, but rather encouraged. You modify the genetic structure of future generations through natural means, not the organism directly.
Don’t know what scientists say, I just see the other comment downvoted when they have a fair point.
Unnecessary racist comment but it’s OK since its against the one group that its OK to be racist towards. This wouldn’t fly if it was about black people and a similar gotcha line
Well the scottish side have been here in southern California for about 150 years, the Irish for about 110 years, and the German for about 100 years. Also I can be under high UV and only start burning after about 2 hours.
We conquered that weakness, now if only we could get rid of the madness, actually nevermind on that one being able to go into a berserk fury by will alone is fucking useful. Good for cussing out shitty bosses and feeling high as a kite while at it, just gotta keep from trying to kill them.
As a Fitzpatrick skin type 1 living in Australia, zinc is my best friend.
I’m pale enough that you can’t even tell I’ve got white paste on my face, and I’m physically blocking the sun.
I have a 50 SPF moisturiser that I use daily before I leave the house, even in winter, and I reapply it several times a day in summer, but I still get sun burnt if I don’t also wear zinc.
Now that I’m older I’ve gotten a lot better at often wearing a wide brim hat and long sleeves in the summer, but it’s not always possible.
Zinc is also reef safe for beach wear, and doesn’t contain avobenzone so it will provide longer protection from UVA rays, and no risk of irritation if applied prior to swimming in a chlorinated pool. (avobenzone and chlorine are not friends)
I’ll be sure to pass this on to all my vampi… I mean, wow, that is a very fascinating thing to read, I’ll surely take what you said into consideration the next time I’m shopping for sunscreen.
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