Genetically Modified Food

What do you do when you're under attack? Call for help, naturally. Unfortunately, if you're an ear of corn, and you're being attacked by parasitic beetle larvae, you have nothing to call for help with. Until now.

Scientists at the University of Missouri have genetically modified corn to release a chemical distress signal when under attack from beetle larvae. The chemical 911 call attracts droves of parastitic roundworms that naturally attack the larvae. Within three days of receiving the distress signal, the worms had killed them all.

A team of Russian scientists has developed a reason to milk rodents other than defrauding Springfield Elementary School. According to National Geographic, the scientists have genetically engineered mice to produce human proteins in their milk, opening the door for healthier infant formula.

When genetically modified (GM) crops were first introduced, they were met with quite a lot of skepticism, not only in regards to their unproven long-term safety and efficacy but to their potential to be high-yield super crops. A three-year University of Kansas study has now confirmed the findings of a previous University of Nebraska study as to the yield abilities of the GM soybean from Monsanto: not only is the crop not a super-yield producer, it actually produces less than conventional yields, even under optimal conditions.

To photograph our story on the uncertain future of the world’s favorite fruit, New York photographer Jeffrey Weiss traveled to Honduras, where he documented the banana´s life cycle-from fertilization to fruit market.

Ed Note: In 2005 Dan Koeppel traveled to Central America to begin his research on the banana—a fruit whose ubiquity, he discovered, may very well prove to be its downfall. His book, Banana: The Fate of the Fruit That Changed the World, was recently published to much acclaim. Here's the feature that started it all.

"A Banana," says Juan Fernando Aguilar, "is not just a banana." The bearded botanist and I are traipsing through one of the world's most unusual banana plantations, moving down row after row of towering plants and ducking into the shade of broad leaves in an attempt to avoid the Central American midday heat. In an area about the size of a U.S. shopping mall, Aguilar, 46, is growing more than 300 banana varieties. Most commercial growing facilities handle just a single banana type-the one we Americans slice into our morning cereal.