Sunday, June 10, 2012  Are Avocados GMO?!  A normal (yet large)
winter avocado next to a normal sized Hass I often get asked if
there are any genetically modified organism (GMO) avocados.  In
short, the answer is NO... not yet (as of June 2012).  Here's
the longer answer....   B. Avocados - like most agriculture -
has been hybrid throughout generations to make the fruit more
and more desirable for consumption and for marketing. The
"original" avocados found in South America were tiny, had huge
pits and not too much flesh. They sometimes had edible skins and
often the leaves and bark were edible too - or at least useful
as medicines or as a spice/flavoring. You can see
a descendant of an original avocado, with a thin edible skin,
and it's fresh & dried leaves below.  A "Mexicola" avocado with
it's leaves (used like bay leaves) C. Hybridization is NOT the
same as changing a fruit (or animal) at its DNA level. It is
also NOT the same as adding or replacing part of the DNA chain
from one species to another. Hybri