So often, many of us go to the grocery store, pick out produce, and put it in the crisper. Then a few days later, we take it out of the crisper, notice it has gone bad, and throw it straight into the trash (or compost). Rinse and repeat. To call that a waste would be an understatement, especially considering the food scarcity crisis all across the world.
Now Tropic, a biotech company in England, is helping to solve this issue by genetically engineering bananas that don’t go bad for 12 hours after they’re peeled.
Tropic’s website lists their goals and procedures quite transparently: “By fast-forwarding natural breeding techniques, we develop improved varieties of tropical crops that are easier to cultivate and healthier for people and the planet.”
They also provide some pretty shocking statistics that might help put the importance of what their researchers are doing into perspective: “Tropic’s non-browning bananas have the potential to significantly reduce food waste and CO2 emissions along the supply chain by more than 25%, as over 60% of exported bananas go to waste before reaching the consumer. This innovative product can support a reduction in CO2 emissions equivalent to removing two million passenger vehicles from the road each year.”
With the world’s population growing at a massive rate, scientists have been eager to find solutions to food shortages and rising CO2 emissions. It’s why researchers are so excited about the continuous breakthroughs in GMOs (genetically modified organisms)—though some have been skeptical in the last few decades.
In a 2015 piece for Scientific American, writer Stefaan Blancke explains why some people might fear it, citing the “Frankenfood” controversy: “In the context of opposition to GMOs, genetic modification is deemed ‘unnatural,’ and biotechnologists are accused of ‘playing God.’ The popular term ‘Frankenfood’ captures what is at stake: by going against the will of nature in an act of hubris, we are bound to bring enormous disaster upon ourselves.”
But he hopes the tide is turning: “Emphasizing the benefits of current and future GM applications—improved soil structures because herbicide-resistant crops require less or no tilling, higher income for farmers in developing countries, reduced vitamin A deficiency, virus and drought resistance, to name a few—might constitute the most effective approach to changing people’s minds.”
In the 2021 article, “Can gene editing reduce postharvest waste and loss of fruit, vegetables, and ornamentals?” on Nature.com, they take an even stronger stance on the importance of genetic modification: “Plant gene editing may be the greatest innovation in plant breeding since the Green Revolution.”
The Green Revolution was led by agronomist Norman Borlaug, who was awarded the Presidential Medal of Freedom, the Congressional Gold Medal, and a Nobel Peace Prize in 1970 for “his contributions having such an impact on food production, particularly in Asia and in Latin America.” He later went on to help course-correct the effects of severe drought in many African countries, literally saving millions of lives.
But it doesn’t just stop with bananas. In the article, “Gene-edited non-browning bananas could cut food waste, scientists say, “The Guardian notes, “Other research teams are working on lettuce that wilts more slowly, bruise-resistant apples and potatoes, and identifying the genes that determine how quickly grapes and blueberries shrivel.”
The article also shares that researchers at the Khalifa Center for Genetic Engineering and Biotechnology aim to use gene-editing to help the growth of other food, specifically with the ripening process. Senior research associate at the Center Martin Kottackal Ph.D. shares, “We’re working on tomato, lettuce, eggplant. They’re all in the pipeline.”
