An apple a day keeps the Dr away, right? Well...maybe not. This phrase may become obsolete if the powers that be allow Frankenfruit into our markets and onto our tables. With the developments of the newest GMO commodity, the Arctic Apple, this could be no further from the truth. If unaware, Arctic apples include varieties of apples that contain a non browning trait introduced through biotechnology developed through a process of genetic engineering and precision breeding by Okanagan Specialty Fruits Inc. (OSF) whom are based out of British Columbia, Canada. The advantage being marketed is that money can be saved due to the lack of natural "browning" seen in apples once the apple is cut for consumption. More specifically, this gene silencing is used to turn down the expression of polyphenol oxidase (PPO), thus preventing the fruit from browning. Very sci-fi eh?
President of OSF, Neil Carter created the new, non-browning, "Arctic" apples, and remains optimistic. Food service companies, he says, would no longer have to treat their sliced apples with chemicals such as calcium ascorbate to preserve the look of freshness. The non-browning trait was developed by inserting extra copies of genes that the apple already possesses. When extra copies of the gene are added, the apple reacts by shutting down all of them, stopping production of the enzyme and preventing the browning reaction. (It's the immediate "enzymatic browning" that's blocked.) OSF licensed this technique from the Australian research institute where it was initially discovered. So they will in a sense serve as the marketing driver behind the GMO fruit and not in the actual development of the technique. This is an obvious business decision solely contributing to profit for he organization as opposed to the health of the public and sustainability of agriculture!
Via The USDA’s assessment dated August 2013, it states several times that the cross pollination between GMO apples and non-GMO apples will result in GMO hybrid seed. According to the published article An Overview of Arctic Apples, published by Kenong Xu from the Department of Horticulture at Cornell University in Geneva, NY: a study specifically designed to investigate and predict transgenic seed contamination resulting from cross-pollination in apple, a physical distance of 600 ft separating transgenic and non-transgenic would be sufficient to prevent from cross- pollination. This is primarily attributed to the fact that apple is an exclusively insect- pollinated crop. Although the study did not use Arctic Apples Another important fact to know is that when cross-pollination does occur, the seeds will be the only part in fruit that will carry the trans- gene as the rest of the fruit, including the flesh, are all developed from the pollen recipient tree and therefore are non-transgenic. As bees cannot be contained within a certain property, cross pollination cannot be prevented. Non-GMO apples will be contaminated. Putting this GMO pollen source into our already delicate industry may put in question all the apple breeding programs around the world. Through natural, cross pollination hundreds of thousands of seeds are planted each year, and the fruit from those seedlings are then evaluated. Many of these all-natural selections show up having characteristics such as pink flesh, white flesh and non-browning flesh. Of course, like any non-organic apple, the new GMO Arctic Apple will be drenched in toxic pesticide residues, untested by the U.S. Food & Drug Association (FDA) and likely unlabeled. And of course these shiny new high-tech apples will be cheap, priced considerably lower than a pesticide-free, nutrient-dense, old-fashioned organic apple that turns a little brown after you slice it up.
These new apples are waiting approval from the U.S. Department of Agriculture. At the moment, there are currently non-browning versions of Golden Delicious and Granny Smith apples. The U.S. Department of Agriculture has allowed OSF to produce them in test plots covering a few acres in the states of New York and Washington. The is company now is working to put the trait in Fuji and Gala apples, too. Since the USDA has studied the apple and released a preliminary conclusion that Arctic apples are pretty much as harmless as conventional ones, I guess we should now all breathe a sigh of relief? We can view the assessment and it was also open for public comment until the end of January 2014, and thousands of people took advantage of the opportunity to speak out.
Even if the USDA approved the apples within a few months, as OSF wants, it would take several years before commercial quantities of non-browning apples could show up in grocery stores. This is bad news no matter how you slice it. We have to use our voice to make clear we do not want engineered apples in our markets, especially if distribution begins under the guise of not being mandated to label GMO products such as these! We like our apples as nature intends them to exist. If you want to lend your voice here is a link.
https://www.change.org/petitions/say-no-to-gmo-apples
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