Gala Melons. GMO????

[Traceyraw]

I am 38 and this is the first time I saw Gala Melons. When I looked them up it says they are a cross between Honeydew and Cantaloupe. 2 for $3.00. Good Price but I didn't get them because I wasn't sure if this was a GMO crosshybridization. Does anybody know about these melons?????

[Living Food]

Technically, almost everything we eat is "genetically modified", in that farmers have manipulated the breeding of the plant/animal to produce desirable traits. This is NOT the same thing as "bioengineered", which is the correct term for GMOs. Bioengineered foods generally involve crosses between two very different organisms, such as tomatoes with fish genes (yes, they actually did that...it was taken off the market though). The melons are most likely just forced hybrids - I still wouldn't eat them (wouldn't occur naturally), but they are nowhere near as harmful as actual bioengineered foods. Have them if you want to.

[Traceyraw]

Thank you for the info. I am going to pass. I like to eat naturally as possible. I am on a watermelon kick but I picked up a honeydew for tonight. Yummy.

[MysticTree]

I don't worry about hybrids. Eat them if you like them.

[fastfreedom]

Hybrids are different than GMO's. Where-as most people who think of GMO's think of scientists in labs altering the genes of foods so they can spray more chemicals on crops without killing that crops. bad bad stuff there.

Most all of the produce that's in the market is and or was some sort of hybrid at some time. Even heirlooms were hybrids at one time. Apples are a sort of hybrid. Nearly every apple tree that's around now a days has been grafted onto the root stock of a different type of apple tree. If you were to save the seeds from the apples you ate and planted them you would find that the apples that those trees produce are typically and nearly always a type of crab apple. You may get lucky and end up with an apple tree with large fruits, but typically they will revert back to a crab apple.

Here's another quick example...... if you plant different types of hot peppers near each other in your garden then the seeds from those peppers will be a type of cross/hybrid. You may have a really spicy pepper next to a mild sweet pepper and save the seeds from the sweet peppers only to find out next season that they may produce peppers that are a bit spicy.

I guess in short what I'm really trying to say is....... I'm in the same boat as MysticTree...... hybrids can be delicious. :-) Ever had a canary melon????

[Living Food]

fastfreedom, I agree with everything you said there, with one exception; Traceyraw was talking about a cross between cantaloupes and honeydews. I might be wrong, but I don't think that two different species of melon would breed together in nature, thus making that an unnatural food (in my estimation). But as I (we) already said, that is nowhere near as bad as GMOs (correct term "bioengineered organisms"). Really, everything we do to try to get desirable traits from plants via breeding results in them being less nutritious in the long run (all of our common fruits and veggies were once as nutritious as weeds and wild plants, for instance - thousands of years ago). My ultimate goal is to live of "weeds", wild fruit, wild grasses, and sprouted "weed" seeds, but I don't really expect anyone to join me lol.

Hmmm, maybe when I have more time I'll start a thread on why GMOs are so bad. I would have thought most raw foodists would know that, but it seems like quite a few people come here straight from SAD and have little knowledge of many health topics.*

* That is NOT meant to be derogatory, I am just frequently surprised at the general lack of knowledge sometimes displayed (in my opinion). It is more likely that it just seems like that to me because I have spent years learning everything I could about health. Then again, "health" has been the prerogative of doctors here in the US and most other industrialized nations for quite a while now (they know very little about actual health, unfortunately, although they know quite a lot when it comes to how to sell drugs) so it's not surprising that most people wouldn't have thought to learn about health on their own.

[fastfreedom]

fastfreedom, I agree with everything you said there, with one exception; Traceyraw was talking about a cross between cantaloupes and honeydews. I might be wrong, but I don't think that two different species of melon would breed together in nature

as far as I know those two will cross breed if planted next to one another. Not every single flower on the plants will end up with a cross bred fruit, but some will. And if those seeds are planted next season then you will end up with a hybrid of the two.

edit: I suppose I just wanted to say that IMO the nutritional value has to do with the genetics of the parent plants and the environment it is raised in. If I grow fruits on chemically fertalized, devitalized, nutritionally depleted soil and save the seeds then plant them in my garden the genetic potential will have fallen a little compared to if that same seed had come from fruit that was grown on fertile rich alive soil. And it would be even better if all the fruits grown before that were raised on this same type of rich, active, and alive soil. The genetic potential of fruits from alive soil that have been raised that way for thousands of years will have a greater nutritional profile compared to fruits raised for thousands of years on dead soil.

this is making me excited to get the garden going. :-)

[pixie_333]

from what i've learned all melons can cross breed except watermelons onto other types like cantelope. it's done by the bees, flies and wind and of course humans who do so themselves. each type of melon should be planted in seperate fields far away from the other.

so it is done naturaly in nature, but there are heirloom seeds and produce available... yet it's an argue by some, but there are seeds of "same" strands stemming since the 1700's that i see offered for sale frequently. some earlier.

[MysticTree]

I think nutrition and to quite a large extent flavour is as much to do with the substrate that plants are grown on. Good soil is very important.

[sport]

Gala Melons are one of the most eaten melons on this side of the world for a long long time and we do not allow GMO here.

[Living Food]

edit: I suppose I just wanted to say that IMO the nutritional value has to do with the genetics of the parent plants and the environment it is raised in. If I grow fruits on chemically fertalized, devitalized, nutritionally depleted soil and save the seeds then plant them in my garden the genetic potential will have fallen a little compared to if that same seed had come from fruit that was grown on fertile rich alive soil. And it would be even better if all the fruits grown before that were raised on this same type of rich, active, and alive soil. The genetic potential of fruits from alive soil that have been raised that way for thousands of years will have a greater nutritional profile compared to fruits raised for thousands of years on dead soil.

Yup...works the same way for humans, too.

Soil is far more important then breeding, but prolonged selective breeding over a period of centuries does decrease the nutritional value of plants as well.

[MysticTree]

I would like to see the evidence for this. It is certainly possible but I don't see why it should be inevitable.

[JoyceHollis]

I think nutrition and to quite a large extent flavour is as much to do with the substrate that plants are grown on. Good soil is very important.

I agree. Good soil is EVERYTHING. It's sad how most farmers treat soil nowadays.

Guess they'll wise-up when it's too late...*sigh*