Today, even in the dead of winter, you can head to your local grocery and find any number of wondrous varieties that have no natural right to exist. Huge, somehow crispy blueberries; seedless grapes with vivacious flavor and a light, low-tannin skin that snaps in your mouth; enormous, hydroponically grown strawberries that make no sacrifice of flavor in their pursuit of gigantism; and so on. From stone fruits that somehow manage to taste like confections to exotic oddities once exclusive to National Geographic magazine, a world of wonder is at our fingertips.
A 2023 study published in the journal Food Chemistry identifies our time as the outset of the “fourth industrial revolution,” which is busily augmenting the quality, safety, and availability of fruits and vegetables. Genetic engineering — a practice that has many detractors but is little more than a speedier form of the selective breeding that gave way to the otherwise unnatural produce we now regard as staples — yields an ever-growing bounty.
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In short, you’re not imagining things. Refined consumer preferences, technological innovation, and the globalized marketplace have combined forces to deliver us into a world of flavor of which previous generations could only dream.
