Buzz
"GMO" foods might seem like a recent development, made possible by cutting-edge labs and advanced genetic research. However, what many people don't realize is that the majority of today's crops were already genetically altered thousands of years ago. In fact, most of the fruits and vegetables we cherish today are drastically different from their wild ancestors, thanks to early genetic modifications.
10. Almonds
Almonds as we know them today are a cultivated version of several wild almond species, all of which are bitter, spiny, and contain dangerously high levels of cyanide. In their natural state, almond trees produce a sugar compound and an enzyme that, when consumed, combine to form cyanide in the plant's edible parts.
The exact strains that were used to develop modern almonds remain a mystery. However, it is evident that humans intentionally crossbred the sweetest varieties of bitter almonds until they produced edible nuts. This accomplishment is impressive, especially since consuming even a small amount of the toxic almonds could have been lethal for anyone testing the crops. Fortunately, a mutation that prevents cyanide production is dominant, and as a result, almonds became widely enjoyed as a snack.
Watermelon
The modern watermelon stands as one of the most extensively modified fruits in human agricultural history. The first domesticated varieties were created by Sub-Saharan Africans, who developed larger and more diverse fruits. After being introduced to Asia and Europe, watermelon evolved to become even juicier, sweeter, and significantly larger in size.
Unlike their wild ancestors, which were mostly seeds and weighed only around 80 grams, today's watermelons are predominantly made up of water, about 91.5%, and can weigh anywhere between 2 and 8 kilograms (4 to 18 lbs). Over thousands of years of selective breeding, the watermelon has grown an incredible 1,680 times in volume.
The red color of watermelons, which is now a signature trait, is a relatively recent development. It is a result of the overproduction of lycopene, a compound humans have intentionally enhanced through breeding. Interestingly, domestication has also made these fruits more vulnerable to diseases, and modern efforts focus on both restoring and further enhancing their natural resistance.
8. Broccoli, Cauliflower, and Their Other Varieties
Broccoli, cauliflower, cabbage, Brussels sprouts, collards, and kale don’t naturally occur in the wild. They are all cultivars of the same plant species, created by human cultivation. These plants are variations of the mustard plant, Brassica oleracea, which in its wild form produces large leaves and small yellow flowers. By altering the gene expression that governs the plant’s growth, humans have created these distinct crops.
In broccoli, the flower clusters that would have naturally bloomed have been expanded into a dense, closed-bud structure. In cauliflower, the white head is composed of mutant, undifferentiated cells that remain almost entirely sterile. One of the most remarkable variants of this species is Romanesco broccoli, where a single modified bud is made up of smaller buds, arranged in a unique logarithmic spiral.
7. Bananas
Bananas seem almost custom-made for primates: They’re soft, seedless, fit perfectly in our hands, and even come with a convenient tab for easy peeling. In contrast, wild bananas are mostly inedible, and the plantains we consume today are the result of significant genetic modifications. Wild bananas are small, tough, and packed with hard seeds, though occasionally they produce seedless mutant varieties.
For over 6,500 years, humans have been manipulating a particular mutation to cultivate various seedless banana varieties. This genetic modification has become so widely accepted that the bananas we consume today are genetically uniform, which unfortunately makes them highly vulnerable to diseases. It seems that there's still more work to be done in this area.
6. Corn
The wild ancestor of modern corn is a grass called Zea or teosintes. Meso-Americans began selectively breeding this plant as early as 10,000 years ago, gradually transforming it into a crop unlike anything else in the world.
These soft, starchy plants made an unexpected and mysterious appearance in archaeological records. Their development was only recently unraveled through molecular and genetic analysis. A significant change was the suppression of stalk branching, resulting in fewer but larger ears of corn, each packed with long rows of kernels.
Interestingly, the plant's genome underwent minimal changes throughout its domestication. The distinction between its ancient and modern forms is limited to just a handful of genes, approximately five in total.
5. Pumpkins
Pumpkins, squash, and other gourds originated from small ancient plants. They belong to the genus Cucurbita, one of the key plant groups for human consumption. Domesticated in the Americas over 7,000 years ago, their original varieties were small, bitter, and had few seeds. Eventually, they were selectively bred for more seeds, and later for a diversity of shapes, sizes, and flesh types.
Pumpkins are indigenous to North America, and no wild variety is known to exist today. Thousands of years ago, when humans first reached the continent about 14,000 years ago, early pumpkin varieties faced near extinction. These plants were once loaded with cucurbitacins, some of the most intensely bitter compounds known to science. Initially, humans used these gourds as containers before eventually discovering their potential as a food source.
4. Strawberries
The strawberry, a sweet and succulent fruit, is a relatively new development. Although miniature ancestors of the modern strawberry were gathered in the British Isles during the Ice Age, the strawberry we recognize today wasn't cultivated until the 1750s.
Mathematician and engineer Amedee-Francois Frezier introduced a larger variety of wild strawberry while mapping Chile for Louis XIV. After years of experimentation, garden strawberries were finally created in France by crossbreeding this species with wild American berries.
In 1759, pine strawberries began to hold commercial value. Later, the large 'modern' variety of strawberry emerged unintentionally during hybridization trials in 1806.
3. Wheat
The cultivation of wheat began long before written history. In fact, human civilization itself began when early humans moved from a nomadic, hunter-gatherer lifestyle to one focused on agriculture. Wheat was one of the earliest and most crucial crops cultivated during this shift, with the first permanent human settlements emerging in regions where this crop could be grown.
Initially, prehistoric humans were content to collect wild seeds from scattered plants. However, over time (even before pottery was developed), they began gathering plants from areas with larger seed quantities and replanting them in their homes. Through this process, changes in seed size and nutritional value were achieved, but the most important trait that early humans encouraged in these plants was something called 'indehiscence.' Normally, the pods containing the edible parts of these plants would burst open, allowing seeds to spread by wind or ground. Thanks to prehistoric selective breeding, this trait was eliminated, enabling our ancestors to harvest the plants along with their seeds intact.
2. Coffee
The coffee bean is a relatively recent addition to the world of cultivated plants. It makes this list not because it has undergone significant changes from its wild ancestors, but because so many varieties have been developed to satisfy our desire for new and diverse flavors.
First cultivated in India during the 1600s, this African plant now boasts several dozen varieties and cultivars, continually evolving alongside human preferences. Not even considering the various subspecies, there are currently around 10 distinct coffee plant species. Want your coffee less bitter? More bitter? With a buttery texture? Caffeine-free? Or perhaps sourced from frost-resistant, self-fertilizing genetic stock grown in civet feces? There's a coffee bean for that. All modern, genetically modified coffee varieties trace their roots back to ancient Arabica beans, which themselves are a hybrid of unknown origins.
1. Avocados
The earliest versions of the avocado were more akin to 'avocado-like fruits.' Unlike the smooth, leathery varieties we are familiar with today, most wild avocados were covered in hard, tough skins. These uncultivated fruits were small enough to sit comfortably in the palm of your hand, reaching about two to three inches in diameter. The flesh of these wild avocados was gritty rather than creamy, with very little of it to be found, as the pit occupied nearly all the space inside. In 1927, agricultural researcher Wilson Popenoe remarked that 'the flavor is strong, not pleasant, and the fruit is scarcely considered eatable.'
For much of its history as a domesticated crop, the avocado remained largely unchanged, revered as a sacred plant in the tropical regions of Mesoamerica. Large avocado orchards, and at times entire forests, were carefully cultivated and maintained, often over ancestral burial sites.
