How are organic seedless grapes GMO-free?

While I was trying to get out of a corn maze the other day, my friend and I were discussing GMO crops. Her question was: How are organic seedless grapes not GMOs?

(Photo by: tribp)

Well, it's a matter of growing techniques verses laboratory techniques.

Seedless grapes have been developed by selective breeding, grafting, and specific cutting methods within the grape family. 

Sometimes, it's assumed that because the original food product is altered (after all, grapes should have seeds so this is altering them) the new food product must be a GMO product. But, that's not the case.

A food is genetically modified when a gene from a different species is introduced into the food in question. For example, if a grape had a gene from a lime to make it seedless, then it would be genetically modified.

The best example I can think of is dog breeding. Dogs have been bred over the centuries to create all sorts of breeds of dogs, but they've only been bred with dogs. Therefore, the dogs are not genetically modified, but they are definitely bred. (Please don't ask about wolf dogs because that requires a heck of a lot more theory and history!)

Organic seedless grapes are the same: they have been bred with other grapes of the years to create a seedless grape but not with any other variety of food/plant so they are not GMO.

Make sense?

1 comment:

Jason T said...

Very thhoughtful blog