yes! they are all the same species, just different varieties! we’ve been selectively breeding the plant Brassica oleracea– aka wild mustard or wild cabbage- into specific stuff since (historians think) at least Greek and Roman times, which is why they look so dramatically different. people who liked the leaves or the roots or whatever part of the plant best started breeding the plants with bigger/more leaves or roots together. there are actually so many varieties that they need to be put in groups for classification, but some varieties include:
-Kale
-collard greens
-chinese broccoli
-cauliflower
-romanesco broccoli
-broccoflower
-cabbage
-brussels sprouts
-kohlrabi
-broccoli
-that one variety known as jersey cabbage that literally has the nickname “tree cabbage”. these are casually perrenial and also three feet tall:
because why not i guess
this is also an awesome example of ethnobotany, or the study of how people interact with plants and the role they play in our culture!
Remember this the next time you want to complain about GMO’s, we may not have done it in a lab but they still are that.
Bananas looked like lemons wtf
Isn’t this more of a combination of selective breeding and GMOs? Not just GMOs?
Yes. But people talk about how GMO’s are “unnatural”, yet for centuries humanity has been exploiting mutations in animals and plants to produce food for themselves.
GMO’s are simply the process of inducing these mutations reliably.
People hear “Lettuce being modified with scorpion DNA” and think that we’re now eating scorpions. But, in reality, they’re taking a tiny bit of scorpion DNA and splicing it into the plant. Why? So the plant will produce poison that is not harmful to humans but will deter insects, reducing the use of pesticide, which CAN be harmful to humans and the environment.
GMOs are producing rice that can survive flooding, which makes rice more reliable yields and will prevent food shortages in poor nations that rely on said crops for staple food.
GMOs are also creating spider-goat hybrids. Why? So we can splice web production into the goat’s udders. We’ll be able to spin huge quantities of spider silk, enough to reliably create spider silk cables and ropes, which have more tensile strength than steel.
I for one am glad I live in a time where watermelons aren’t giant tomato abominations
The issue with GMOs is that corporations like Monsanto are patenting GMOs and arresting indigenous farmers for cross pollinating with they seeds. But there is nothing dangerous about the science.
^This.
The problem isn’t the science, it’s what capitalism does with that science.
honestly it annoys the heck out of me when the discussion of palm oil comes up, people only talk about orangutans. i mean, YES, orangutans are really close to losing all their habitat.
but…have you thought about the fact that by cutting down these trees you’re destroying an entire forest, with SO many different (also close to extinction) animals, plants, insects,
an entire ecosystem that has existed for 55 million years?
i feel for orangutans but we’re talking about cutting the lungs of the earth here.
I don’t understand why native grasses aren’t used as yard cover when neighborhoods are built because not only is it better for the environment but it requires way less water (and thus money) and way less upkeep than St. Augustine or whatever shit’s been introduced instead. But no, let’s use water-loving grasses to cover yards in places relying on already overtaxed aquifers, sounds like a good plan to me.
I love how leftists are oh-so-smug about their support of scientific evidence, then they post images like this and pretend like they’re peer reviewed studies.
I’ll try my best to explain the biochemical differences between genetically altered corn and unmodified corn as well as other variables such as pesticide usage, overall costs, yield and the economic outcomes. Full disclosure, I’m better suited to explain the economic reasoning, but I consulted a biochemist over this who helped me understand the difference between modified and non-modified corn. This biochemist also promised to rip me apart if I get anything wrong, so here goes nothing.
Economically, GMO’s provide higher yields per acre. This isn’t too big of a deal for an industrialized nation like America, but in some countries like India, GMO crops are cutting losses in half.
More food, less hungry people.
So to answer the question, yes, I am smarter than a squirrel.
I wanted to add to this, because GMO’s are so misunderstood and the political controversy that surrounds them is based in scientific illiteracy.
One of the coolest GMO’s I know about is “golden rice.” Vitamin A deficiency is fairly rampant in parts of Asia. When children are deficient in vitamin A it results in blindness. Furthermore, Vitamin A deficiency contributes to 2 million childhood deaths each year (2012 Am J Clin Nutr, 96:658-64). Scientists genetically modified golden rice in order to provide vitamin A.
UNFORTUNATELY political opposition has delayed the release of golden rice for over a decade. And as @libertybill pointed out, no one dies from genetically modified food.
If you are against GMO’s because you think Monsanto is a big baddy (which I’m not going to pretend they haven’t done some asshole-ish things) or you think the GMO is going to cause cancer or some other stupid ass thing, please take time to educate yourself.
Some succulents have translucent leaves to allow sunlight to penetrate deep inside their tissues.The glass-like Haworthia cooperi ‘Dodson’ has taken this phenomenon to the extreme.
One GMO’d super plant = cabbage, brussels sprouts, kohlrabi, kale, broccoli, cauliflower.
Brassica oleracea
is a species of plant that, like the apple, has a number of different
cultivars. But these cultivars differ widely from each other: cabbage,
kale, broccoli, brussels sprouts, kohlrabi, collard greens, and
cauliflower. Nutty that all those vegetables come from the same species
of plant. (via @ajsheets)
Instead, Old Hill Ranch bypasses artificial irrigation, and relies on seasonal rainfall and working the soil in such a way that it holds on to water for the drier months.
“The hardest part about dry farming is actually convincing people it works,” Bucklin says. “But in places like Spain, France and Italy, pretty much everybody dry-farms.”
I know I just posted a pic of a flowering quince, but the period of time they are blooming is so brief and this one on our porch was perfectly illuminated today. I love the deepening of color as the blossoms age. Simply breath-taking.
PiraticOctopus 