Story Behind Our Papayas
During the 1990s in
Hawaii, there was a great deal of dead papaya trees all over. Disease was
striking the papayas making them difficult for famers to keep alive and harvest.
Many farmers had acres upon acres of land with endless papaya trees planted.
Lots of the farmers had their farms wiped out by the ringspot virus. This was
not only putting people out of jobs but making papayas scarce in Hawaii.
Luckily the papayas were able to be saved thanks to the genetically modified
papayas, also known as The Rainbow Papaya. The Rainbow Papaya carries a protein
coat gene from the virus which allows it to reject the pathogen and stay alive.
In 2010, there were 30.1 million pounds of papayas harvested in the Hawaii and
production is still going up. Without genetically modified technology, the
papayas would not have been saved. The papaya farms would continue to be wiped
out with only a few trees left standing. Now, everyone in Hawaii can enjoy
their eating their papayas!