Comments on: Designing the Perfect Fruit

By: Anne

Anne — Mon, 04 Mar 2013 06:01:59 +0000

I loved this series of articles, and it would be great to have an easy way to navigate to the rest of the articles from this first post.

Any chance you could add a list of links to the rest of the articles, maybe at the bottom of this post?

By: MirmQ

MirmQ — Sun, 20 Jan 2013 17:38:52 +0000

I’d like to hear the “more on that later” in regards to Cuties not truly being a GMO?

By: Sarah C. Rich

Sarah C. Rich — Tue, 03 Apr 2012 23:53:03 +0000

Hi Caren,

Thanks for your comment. I did write about the cross-pollination issue and the conflicts between beekeepers and orchard managers here: http://blogs.smithsonianmag.com/design/2012/02/design-specs-for-a-genetically-ideal-snack/. I did not directly address the lawsuits by Paramount Citrus regarding trespassing honeybees, though indeed there have been some (and indeed it’s remarkable to think you could threaten legal action for an instinctive behavior by a non-human creature by framing it in terms of human acts). I spoke with one honeybee expert connected to the University of California who did not expressly connect the breeding of sterile trees with the depletion of bee populations, but there’s no shortage of controversy and opinion about it.

By: Caren Q.

Caren Q. — Tue, 03 Apr 2012 02:04:01 +0000

Sarah,
I heard your piece tonight (4/2/12) on Marketplace. I was chagrined that you neglected to mention the fact that growers of Cuties do not want bees to pollinate their orchards. Or else the Cuties would have seeds.

This, I would suspect, would not help bees (or us) to thrive. And certainly would not help those responsible growers who relied upon and knew the value of bees.

Could you please comment?
Thanks, in advance,
Caren