Wouldn’t it be nice if you could slice an apple and not have the slices turn brown minutes later? Thanks to genetic engineering, this will soon become a reality:
An Okanagan-based company is thrilled that their latest trademarked non-browning apple has been green-lit for sale on Canadian shelves, after a history of public nerves surrounding genetically modified crops.
Okanagan Specialty Fruits is the developer and grower behind “Arctic apple” varieties, sold pre-sliced or diced with the promise of staying fresh and avoiding browning for up to 28 days thanks to bioengineering tweaks to the apples’ genetic codes.
They announced this week that Canadian regulatory agencies have approved their latest variety, the Arctic Gala, for food use in Canada, joining three others previously approved.
The company, while based in Summerland, has its orchards in Washington State, growing apples on more than 1,200 acres.
Company founder Neal Carter notes that bioengineered crops “are everywhere, in terms of the foods we eat. This technology has been around for 40 years. It’s not new. And, you know, the use of molecular biology and genomics is everywhere … this is really tried and true and proven technology. Hundreds of millions of acres of crops planted, never a health incident, so, it’s interesting or a bit frustrating that [worries are] still out there.”
Carter said his firm’s objective is a high-quality product with a longer shelf life, resulting in more consumption of a healthy fruit: “It’s well recognized that if you put a bowl of whole apples out, not that many people take one because it’s a big commitment. You put sliced apples out and everybody’s all over them, you know, they just get consumed.”
Castanet reports that
The Arctic apples will be treated no differently, under the eyes of Canadian food authorities, than any other apples, and Carter said they are close to agreements with a few major retailers.
There are no immediate plans to plant Arctic apple trees in the Okanagan, though that opportunity may be offered to local orchardists in the future.
When the Arctic brand first emerged, Southern B.C. fruit growers had concerns about the impact on their slice of the market, given nerves about genetically modified products.
Carter says that while this advance in agriculture “won’t make everybody happy,” it will benefit consumers and is part of an inexorable trend.
“It’ll happen at some point, and whether it’s us or somebody else, and whether it’s apples or some other crop, whether it’s gene edited or bioengineered, we’re gonna start seeing these crops get deployed,” Carter said.
“And I think from a consumer’s perspective, it’s good. These are crops that have the potential to reduce food waste and improve sustainability and, you know, help our climate and our environment and all the rest. I think it’s going to be a big part of the next 25 years in the agricultural business worldwide.”
Scientists have genetically engineered a cow that produces human insulin in its milk, which could one day make insulin much cheaper and more abundant.
Genetic engineering has led to a corn yield breakthrough in China.
Genetic engineering is providing other benefits. A gene-edited kidney transplant allowed a monkey to survive for two years, a scientific advance that could be used in the future to help increase the supply of kidneys for people who currently can’t get one. Earlier, the New York Post wrote about “How pigs will save thousands of human lives through organ transplants.” Last January, David Bennett, a 57-year-old man with end-stage heart disease, received a genetically modified pig heart at the University of Maryland Medical Center. The cost of a heart transplant in the US was around $1.66 million in 2022, while pig transplants cost less, about $500,000. Even without genetic modifications, a pig kidney worked for a month in a brain-dead man it was transplanted into.
