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: Seedless Grapes are NOT produced by Genetic Manipulation
Recently read a blog by a supposed nutrition expert who claimed seedless grapes were produced by Genetic Manipulation (GM) and were a corporate plot. Since there was no contact information on the blog anywhere, perhaps this will get back to the person.
Consider, since seedless grapes have been around in the U.S. since the 1870's, and there have been people BREEDING new varieties of seedless grapes by conventional methods since the 1920's (see my March 15, 2007 entry), the likelyhood that they are GM plants is not even possible, since GM methods haven't been around anywhere close to that long.
How are seedless grapes produced? Short version, the seedless variety may not have seeds, but the flowers produce pollen, which passes the trait. Put the pollen of a seedless grape on the flowers of a seeded grape. When the fruit is ripe, grow the resulting seeds. SOME of the seedlings will be seedless. Depending on what you pick as the "mother" of the seeds, as many as 25% of the seedlings will have seedless fruit, though it's usually more like 10%.
Except for the fact that some of the seedlings produce seedless fruit, this is exactly the same method used to produce every grape since time began.
The full story can be found in The Grape Grower.
Granted, there IS work being done to produce GM grapes, but seedlessness is not the reason for it, and NO grapes currently being sold have been produced by genetic manipulation.
But that's another story.
Recently read a blog by a supposed nutrition expert who claimed seedless grapes were produced by Genetic Manipulation (GM) and were a corporate plot. Since there was no contact information on the blog anywhere, perhaps this will get back to the person.
Consider, since seedless grapes have been around in the U.S. since the 1870's, and there have been people BREEDING new varieties of seedless grapes by conventional methods since the 1920's (see my March 15, 2007 entry), the likelyhood that they are GM plants is not even possible, since GM methods haven't been around anywhere close to that long.
How are seedless grapes produced? Short version, the seedless variety may not have seeds, but the flowers produce pollen, which passes the trait. Put the pollen of a seedless grape on the flowers of a seeded grape. When the fruit is ripe, grow the resulting seeds. SOME of the seedlings will be seedless. Depending on what you pick as the "mother" of the seeds, as many as 25% of the seedlings will have seedless fruit, though it's usually more like 10%.
Except for the fact that some of the seedlings produce seedless fruit, this is exactly the same method used to produce every grape since time began.
The full story can be found in The Grape Grower.
Granted, there IS work being done to produce GM grapes, but seedlessness is not the reason for it, and NO grapes currently being sold have been produced by genetic manipulation.
But that's another story.