There’s a woman at the grocer who quite possibly has the most obnoxious voice on earth.  “Excuse me, sir, where do you keep the non-GMO carrots? I see the organic, but are those certified non-GMO?”

I’m a hair’s breadth from killing everyone there who stops in an aisle as if it isn’t a thoroughfare and dawdles inexplicably. “Excuse me, but all carrots grown today are GMO. All produce grown today, in fact.”

She stares at me and starts to put on a dirty look. Before she can vocalize her “How do you know?” I cut her off and say…

“I’m a food historian and you really ought to educate yourself about produce lineages if you’re so concerned about GMO. Go buy some purple carrots and leave this poor man lone so that he can do his job.”

And then I walked away…I get testy when I am hungry and she was between me and the butcher. A bad place to be.

I’m not sure if you realize this…but orange carrots like the ones she had in her hand…are a GMO.

The carrots used in most of Europe from the beginning of the Spice Trade up until the 17th century were of Asian stock and were reddish purple in color–rather more like a beet or the purple carrots of today. It was the Dutch who crossed them in hothouses with yellow carrots using new farming methods of fertilization and small beds. The yellow carrots were created by selection among hybrid
progenies of yellow Eastern carrots, white carrots and wild pale subspecies grown in
the Mediterranean. The first orange carrots originated by intentional bred mutation.

Now…all you non-GMO people blocking the aisles can finally stop harping on, yes?

No…I thought not.