keccers
@keccers.eth
A banana that doesn’t brown? Now that’s bananas! 🍌 Tropic has developed some new bananas via gene editing that don’t brown after they are peeled, and have been approved for sale in the Philippines, Colombia, Honduras, the US and Canada “Bananas are asexual,” said Gershon. “There’s no real breeding in bananas. We’re eating today the same bananas as our grandparents were eating in the 1950s. The only real opportunity we have to adjust the banana to meet the challenges the industry is facing is through gene editing.” In addition to the bananas which are set to launch, the article touches on the myriad of ways in-progress teams are working on using gene editing to “update” our food supply. The team behind the purple tomato (remember that?) is working on super long lasting potatoes 🥔 https://www.theguardian.com/science/2025/mar/07/gene-edited-non-browning-banana-cut-food-waste-tropic-norwich
8 replies
0 recast
18 reactions
Chris Carella
@ccarella.eth
oh man one thing Honduras does not need is more bananas but I assume it means they will sell the seeds down here to be grown which can be an economic boom down here if it doesn't cannibalize sales. I wonder if this effects taste one way or another... ie the bananas I eat from my backyard are so much better then in the US every time I eat one I ponder what is wrong with the US food supply.
1 reply
0 recast
4 reactions
keccers
@keccers.eth
I mean, you may have answered your own question. There’s decay over the supply chain. Your supply chain is your backyard to you. How many steps does it take for a banana to get from the nice warm place where it is grown, to me?
1 reply
0 recast
2 reactions
Chris Carella
@ccarella.eth
true but its also true of things grown in the US like apples. Imagine if these things were engineered for taste instead of shelf life.
1 reply
0 recast
2 reactions
keccers
@keccers.eth
Yes by the time you get an apple in the grocery store it is often months from pick. Apples last a very long time What you are saying is possible but it would require radical reimagining of grocery. You couldn’t have stores. Would need to leverage a model like FreshDirect (grocery delivery service in the NE US) uses. Food comes from distributors to their warehouse where all food is stored in optimal conditions for that food — not on display - and then delivered to customers. Simplifying Farm - distributor - warehouse - you Contrast to current. There’s often lots of extra steps to distribute to many in-person stores, vs one centralized warehouse. Once the food gets to the store it is displayed to look attractive to you, not to stay fresh and tasty As it stands today Walmart has some of the freshest produce because they’ve nailed the supply chain piece of getting food from distributor to store quickly — they have extremely efficient supply chain
1 reply
0 recast
1 reaction
Chris Carella
@ccarella.eth
who has RFK's email address?
1 reply
0 recast
1 reaction
keccers
@keccers.eth
This one not the remit of his department. And to be honest, it’s a very hard sell. Despite articulating these benefits to people, they LOVE shopping in-store. People want to SEE the apple before they buy it. Sanitation arguments even fall on deaf ears, I mean think about how many more people’s grubby hands TOUCH the apple when you buy it that way
1 reply
0 recast
2 reactions
agusti
@bleu.eth
in europe we have local produce in store (also expensive lol, but yea tasty) america is bigger, but weird idk
1 reply
0 recast
2 reactions
