Soon you will be able to fill your grocery cart with the Arctic Apple, a non-browning apple developed by Neal and Louisa Carter. Would you hesitate though if you discovered this product was a dreaded "GMO" or genetically modified organism? Many consumers avoid GMO products due to fear, yet in reality everything on your grocery's shelves has been genetically modified in some way. For instance, none of the fruits and vegetables on your grocery list resemble their wild counterparts. Wild bananas are a far cry from the modern banana we consume today. Humans have indirectly and directly selected plants since the beginning of civilization. 

Today's plant breeders have a whole toolbox of different breeding methods they can employ to improve a plant for human benefit. Arctic Apple was developed using a method called cisgenics, where a gene from the same species is inserted into the plant's genome. In this case, the gene modification shuts off the polyphenolic oxidase (PPO) enzyme, the culprit behind browning, through a process called RNA interference. This precise genetic transformation aims to reduce food waste and encourage fruit consumption. 

As a consumer myself, I understand the confusion circulating around GMO products and hope this has helped open your mind (and palette) to the fruit of modern plant breeding!

I encourage you to seek more information about how the Arctic Apple was developed.

Written by TPS Fellow, Stephanie Karhoff