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A freaky-looking hybrid strawberry that tastes of pineapples is about to make its debut in Australia.
The white berry with external red seeds – the opposite of what supermarket shoppers are used to – was bred from nearly-extinct white strawberries that European colonists brought back from their conquests in South America.
Its Australian importer, United Nurseries, assured potential buyers that it tastes delicious, with a hint of citrus.
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The fruit, already sold in Europe and the UK, was the product of years of patient selective breeding by Dutch farmers in the early 2000s.
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One of the consumer concerns that the importer was keen to head off was accusations of genetic modification.
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Even concerns about genetic modification may be overblown. As noted by PhD student Diana Zanfirache, who recently wrote in defence of GM-food for the ABC, there is much confusion about the topic.
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“Simply put, it doesn’t matter if a new organism was produced by the merging of two different genes in a laboratory or by careful breeding. GMOs are simply a natural extension of what farmers have been doing for thousands of years.”
Read full, original post: ‘Reverse’ strawberry set to hit shelves in Australia
