Differentiate between a transgenic fruit and a normal one

 The other day I made lemonade with two types of lemons (and I took a picture of them) :

So, which of the two is the transgenic?

If it's because of color or size, I'll tell you that any of us could grow greener lemons or redder tomatoes or bigger apples, through a practice that has been around since the dawn of agriculture: selecting the best seeds .

Even those who want lemons with reddish pulp can also get them naturally. It's all a matter of mastering the technique. The one below is a blood lemon (the photo is from Google) .

The blood lemon is a hybrid fruit , that is, it is obtained by crossing the pollen of one variety of flower with another, in this case, lemon with tangerine-orange.

We can easily recognize hybridization in plant or animal species and most of the time they are a consequence of natural processes, although it is worth noting that the results are usually unstable and even produce sterile fruits/children (for example: mules, which are born from the cross between a mare and a donkey).

Only a few decades ago, in the mid-1980s, the first transgenic fruits began to be made, that is, whose DNA was modified in a laboratory and for precise purposes. Regarding this issue, I must say that Julio Cesar Beltran's response is excellent, moreover, because he explains the human conventions that have been determined to indicate when a product has been generically modified in a laboratory.

However, I would like to add something and it has to do with the initial photo . Which of the two lemons is transgenic? Is it the small, spotted yellow, or is it the large, bright green. Well, in reality this is irrelevant when we notice that one of the two lemons has no seeds and there is the trap, the scam, the last and true change.

What happens when we don't have seeds to grow again?

A genetically modified food can be something delicious, nutritious and beautiful, harmless to our body. However, its large-scale cultivation generates an imbalance in the adjacent ecosystems, putting the survival of many other species at risk. And what I fear most is that lack of seeds, where did they go? who took them?

Although genetic modifications do not condition the fertility of the altered organism, it is possible to influence that quality, ie . The privatization of food is possible. Because of this, the power and the market must be watched and, luckily, today more than ever we have the means to achieve bilateral communication between them and us.

So, after this long tirade about power and lemons - I would like to conclude by saying: genetic modification does not necessarily have to be a negative thing. Just as contraceptive methods were rejected at the time, or as today there are people who view the arrival of 5G with mistrust, there are many other developments that walk hand in hand with uncertainty and a long list of ethical questions. Let's remember that in the end everything will depend on what society does with them, because if life gives you lemons...