Eat More Healthy Fruits and Vegetables

This is Tim Hammerich of the Ag Information Network with your Farm of the Future Report.

Genetics has carried our agricultural productivity a long way. But with new genome editing tools, we may still just be at the tip of the iceberg of what’s possible. Pairwise co-founder Tom Adams sees opportunities for genome editing to grow the average consumption of healthy fruits and vegetables.

Adams… “ The opportunity with genetics is huge and it's always been what's driven the improvements in our lives and especially produce and food. So, I mean, it's amazing when you go into a supermarket today and you see the variety of things that you can buy in the middle of winter, and that's because of great contributions made by genetics. There's still plenty of things to be done and we still have lots of opportunity to drive more consumption of healthy fruits and vegetables. And it's great that actually in the world now, I think we're, for the first time in ever on a trend to have people consuming more and more fruits and vegetables. And you know, that comes from creating more variety as well as, you know, more awareness of the health benefits of doing that. So I think what gene editing does and what's important to recognize is it's just accelerating what's happened and what's been so beneficial to us. And you know, who can be against doing good things faster? So I think it's a really great opportunity.”

Pairwise has been behind innovations like pitless cherries and seedless blackberries.