Imagine an apple that never goes brown. A company has found a way to turn off the gene that makes apples go bad, so that they can be shipped, stored, and used more easily in cooking. But what’s the cost?
The kind of fruit you might see in a television ad, glistening and unblemished, is a rarity. A large percentage of all produce (40%) never even makes it to the grocery store or farmer’s market because of damage. This problem, compounded by the fact that apple consumption has been on the decline for decades, led Neal Carter, the founder and president of Okanagan Specialty Fruits, to search for solutions. He came up with the Arctic Apple, a genetically-engineered apple that doesn’t turn brown, even when bruised or cut open. It’s the closest science has come to creating the perfect apple specimen. But not everyone is happy about it.
