• wonderingwanderer@sopuli.xyz
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    2 days ago

    The problem is that the way GMO is used in practice is to maximize profits: get giant fruits that weigh a lot and catch eyes on the shelf, but are low in nutritional value and have shitty taste/texture.

    Like huge strawberries that taste like water, or taste unripe even when they’re ripe. Or giant asparagus that’s as tough as sisal twine.

    I have a theory that if you GMO to prioritize nutritional density, it’ll taste better, because the photonutrients phytonutrients are the stuff that taste good.

    • Captain_Patchy@lemmy.world
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      2 days ago

      nutritional value

      Is not a consideration either way (and that’s part of the problem) time and “viability” from pick to market are even more important than that and even flavor. Hence, hothouse tomatoes, the most tasteless tomato on the planet.

    • Aniki@feddit.org
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      2 days ago

      wth are photonutrients?

      also yeah, optimizing for looks is a real issue and i’ve encountered it too often, but that’s just supermarkets in general and has nothing to do with GMO.

      • wonderingwanderer@sopuli.xyz
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        1 day ago

        Phytonutrients, it was fucking autocorrect’s fault.

        But no, GMO has a lot to do with it. I know supermarkets were shady about this before, but the same applies to GMO, and it extends all the way up the supply chain.

        Monsanto engineers their crops to maximize profit. That means high-yielding plants with giant fruits. It minimizes low nutritional density because the plants have to distribute the same amount of nutrients over more crop. And it makes the taste and texture worse.

        I remember when asparagus was around 5mm in diameter, and tender. Now it’s more like 10mm, and stringier than celery. It’s like the whole stalk is made of that inedible part of the greenbean

        • Captain_Patchy@lemmy.world
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          2 days ago

          asparagus

          Aldi’s in Chicago has wonderfully thin and crisp asparagus almost all the time. Don’t ask me how, I just buy and eat it.

                • Exatron@lemmy.world
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                  24 hours ago

                  No, not “barely”, sparky. And that reason is mostly out of a desire to maintain their own food industry, which is their right.

                  • wonderingwanderer@sopuli.xyz
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                    22 hours ago

                    It also has a lot to do with american-produced food not meeting European food safety standards.

                    If you’ve never heard of chicken chlorine bath “poop soup” then I suggest you read a little more. And that’s not the worst of it.