• niucllos@lemm.ee
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      7 months ago

      Funny thing is they aren’t even GMOs, they’re hybrids between tetraploid and diploid watermelon cultivars. You could do it yourself in your backyard if you can find tetraploid seed for sale, or make it yourself with colchicine

        • ChicoSuave@lemmy.world
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          7 months ago

          Golden Rice is the most obvious example of how wrong you are on all your points. Golden Rice is GMO to be easier to grow in bad locations and provides a lot more nutrients than non-GMO rice. It is cheap and easy to grow, intended to bring food nutrition to parts of the world that suffer from nutritional deficiency.

          This one GMO food solved blindness, diabetes, and death from lack of vitamin A. Many MANY more foods are modified for our benefit that don’t attract people who are scared of the words Genetically Modified. Do you even know how things are genetically modified? Breeding programs that specifically target for traits. No one is going into the DNA to make 5G tracking chips or Super COVID.

          Did you know corn was genetically modified in the early 1900s to increase yield per acre?

          Did you know the other staple grains like wheat and soy are also GMO? You can eat food without eating GMO and you are absolutely fine.

          Stop spreading baseless fear.

          • Aceticon@lemmy.world
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            7 months ago

            GMO + Capitalism = Plants modified to be resistant to specific pesticies and herbicides, increasing their use; farmers being sued due to their plants being polinized by GMO plants and so on.

            The problem is not GMO, it’s GMO under low or no regulation Capitalism: it’s guaranteed that it’s going to be used in all the wrong ways even if a handful of examples are actually not (and even Golden Rice is patented, which opens the door to abuse if its use becomes widespread).

            Most distrust of some powerful new tools of Science is due to how the political and economic environment we live in tends to shape the use of such tools, much more than of the tools themselves.

          • what spreading baseless fear? You misunderstood my comment.

            I remember a GMO Tomato being modified to be as large as possible, leading to it having almost no nutrients anymore.

            That’s what i meant. Not some “DNA to make 5G tracking chips or Super COVID”

            I am actually insulted by this comment. I will have to ask you to stop jumping to conclusions and stop thinking that everyone is a conspiracy nutjob.

            Anyways, i am in no way against GMO. What i said is that they’re often less healthy than “traditional” alternatives. That has nothing to do with the procedure itself but rather how the procedure is used and what goals it has. Often the Goal is not to make it healthier, but to make it last longer, make it bigger, in short: make it sell more. And anything that doesn’t directly correlate to sales gets pushed back to save money.

            • Flummoxed@lemmy.world
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              7 months ago

              You remember a tomato? That is what you are basing your stance on? You got any sauce for that anecdote?

        • The_v@lemmy.world
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          7 months ago

          A. They have no significant difference in nutrition than non-GMO. In fact many GMO’s have been created to improve nutrition but sadly not used because of dumbfucks like Greenpeace who would rather have people go blind or die than accept GMO food. For example, rice that produces vitamin A and folic acid have been created but never used.

          B. The “Terminator” GMO gene was created by the USDA-ARS and was NEVER released. No seed on the market has ever had a GMO sterility gene. Contrary to public opinion, it was designed to be integrated with other GMO genes to prevent the outcrossing and spread into the environment, not as an IP control mechanism.

          • ZILtoid1991@lemmy.world
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            7 months ago

            Also don’t forget the elite side of the food industry (gourmet chefs, etc.), that needs to demonize the more cost-effective things in order to make their own alternatives look more appealing.

            Speaking of it, one anti-GMO organization actually shown expensive gourmet food as an allternative to the golden rice.

        • niucllos@lemm.ee
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          7 months ago

          Not to beat a dead horse but do you know how we get/got novel variation in crops before targeted DNA technology? It mostly wasn’t wild germpasm unless you happen to work with a crop with large amounts of historically documented pools, e.g. corn and wheat. No, most historical breeding programs use mutagens, either chemical or sometimes radioactive, to cause novel variation, grow the seed, see what looks interesting and not too weird, and cross it back into your gene pool. GMOs are significantly less mad science-y than what they replace.

            • Dontfearthereaper123@lemm.ee
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              7 months ago

              First off source for GMO tomato? Still havent given one that article had no mention of it 2nd why is it a bad thing if not every use of GMOs involves making food better? uve mentioned one example I can name one in the opposite direction, so what it seems is, theyre used for both and I’m wondering why thats a bad thing? Is painting bad unless painting something with functional use like heat dissipating paint onto something that needs it dissipated or is it okay to paint for both artistic and functional purposes

  • Smuuthbrane@sh.itjust.works
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    7 months ago

    I dunno, while I support everyone’s right to their own beliefs, some of their past actions and even current doctrine do not sit well with me.

    The Catholics aren’t much better.

    • The_v@lemmy.world
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      7 months ago

      Now why seedless watermelons suck is an interesting story.

      The first intentional creation of a seedless watermelon was done in 1939 in Japan. University breeding programs in the southern U.S. after WWII began using the technology to create the first hybrids. In the early '50’s and '60’s multiple tetraploids were created by the university programs and released to private companies to produce seed with.

      These tetraploid lines were “greys”. “Greys” were selected to have a thick hard rind for long distance shipping. They were barely red on the inside and tasted slightly bitter. They all sucked for flavor.

      A seedless watermelon hybrid is made by crossing a tetraploid female by a diploid male. The resulting hybrid (triploid) has 3 copies of every chromosome and is sterile.

      Fertile stable tetraploids take a long time to create - around 15 generations of you are lucky. Seedless watermelons also took a long time to gain popularity in the market. So nobody put significant money or time into creating more tetraploid inbreds for over 40 years.

      From the 1980’s when seedless watermelons were introduced until around 2010, everyone used those shitty old tetraploids as 2/3rds of the hybrid. Since 2010 companies have created new tetraploid to use, but a significant portion still use 70 year old shitty ones.

      .

    • Shadowedcross@lemmy.world
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      7 months ago

      I didn’t even know seedless watermelons were a thing, so it saddens me to discover that they are, and that they’re bad, since the main reason I don’t like watermelons is having to deal with the seeds.

      • The_v@lemmy.world
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        7 months ago

        They are not all bad. In the early 2000’s a breeder created a logistical method create tetraploids in 6 years (5 generations every 2 years). He used 3 countries to do it in if I recall correctly.

        He integrated some of the small seeded deep red fleshed Chinese germplasm combined with the old flavorful allsweet types to make dramatically improved tetraploids.

        Other companies have followed suit and the average quality of the fruit has improved. Some of the newer ones have really excellent flavor.

    • Dozzi92@lemmy.world
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      7 months ago

      They do. I had this conversation the other day, and it led to Bill Gates trying to to basically monopolize farming. It was right before a five-hour meeting and so I forgot to research it at all after, but you have just reminded me.

      Back on topic though, I can’t find seedless watermelons anywhere. I live in Jersey (New), and my local supermarket is and has been seedless for at least a decade. I can’t recall the last time I enjoyed watermelon with a seed. My presumption was that they’re stopping us from growing them at home. I’m sure it’s much more (or less) nuanced than that. I’m an idiot.

      • I_Fart_Glitter@lemmy.world
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        7 months ago

        Watermelons are not true to seed- a watermelon grown from a collected seed will not necessarily resemble it’s parent. But surprise melons are fun! Usually not as sweet as those with carefully controlled genetics though.

      • The_v@lemmy.world
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        7 months ago

        It’s all about profits. Seedless watermelons usually sell better with American consumers.

        In order to produce fruit on triploid watermelons there has to be regular seeded (diploid) varieties in the field. Traditionally they would use a large oblong traditional seeded (allsweet types). Mainly because there was a market for them and they looked different than the seedless varieties.

        The growers had to dedicate 1/5th of their acres to growing a seeded melons which they could sell at 50% or less than seedless varieties.

        That’s when seed companies introduced dedicated pollinators (non-harvested). These untilized several different dwarf genes and could be interplanted with seedless varities with no loss of space.

        With the exception of the big party markets like the 4th of July, most fields utilize the dedicated pollinators in the U.S. now. For production in Latin America, they export the seedless ones to the U.S. and sell the seeded ones l ones domestically.

        Bottom line, today you only occasionally seeded watermelons in grocery stores in the U.S. and Canada.

        • Dozzi92@lemmy.world
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          7 months ago

          That’s a thorough explanation, very much appreciated. I’d like to do more than just say thanks but I have nothing to add to the conversation.

  • Allonzee@lemmy.world
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    7 months ago

    If God doesn’t want us fucking with their creations, they’re more than welcome to hold a press conference.

    Until then, I’ll keep assuming they’re emotionally crippled howard Hughes style in the Heaven Penthouse drinking their own divine urine and shouting random conspiracies about which Angel is gonna pull a Lucifer next.

  • Etterra@lemmy.world
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    7 months ago

    I’m pretty sure there aren’t any eunuchs around anymore. Otherwise there would still be castrati.