Behold, a Blue Strawberry?

March 14, 2012 // 4:01 pm // By: Lucia Phan

According to some convincing sources, a blue strawberry does exist! Yay or nay? On the one hand it looks awesome, that atomic blue color is quite a novelty and is extremely attractive. But at the same time, would you feel safe eating it?

After all, it is a Willy Wonka-esque creation. This blue was purely unintentional as scientists wanted to figure out a way to protect strawberries from frost and found that a gene in “Artic Flounder Fish” produced antifreeze properties to protect itself from freezing waters. The result of genetically modifying this gene created a shockingly blue fruit that can withstand very cold temperatures and won’t turn into mush in your freezers.

Cynthia Blu Jawdeh uses a few different references to support the existence of the Blue Strawberry. On the other hand, there have been several other ‘Photoshop enthusiasts’ who have called out some of the inconsistencies in the featured image, and some of the choppiness around the border.

What are your thoughts? Would you eat one if it existed? Is the possibility of a Blue Strawberry that outstanding that you’d be hard-pressed to believe it exists?

Speak on it in the comments!

[via strawberrryblue.com]

Lucia PhanTwitterFacebook

Lucia Phan has a Bachelors Degree from the University of California, Berkeley in Food & City Culture and Environmental Economics. She is the founder of Banana Slug Edibles, where she bakes specialty cakes and cupcakes for patients in Orange County & Los Angeles. In her free time she likes to collect recipes and will forever be searching for the best chocolate chip cookie recipe known to man.

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In this article: blue • strawberry

Bmil

Cool!
TacoKiller11

hellllll yeah suckas!
http://www.facebook.com/profile.php?id=1591084587 Brenton Alexander Reeder

time for human trials
reproman

this is PHOTOSHOPPED!! look at the red reflection on the white material.

Proffoto

Right.
ChristopherColumbus

Yeah, and the smoky shadow coming off the bottom of the thing. Also the outline of the fruit is too sharp when it should be artfully out of focus like the rest of the background. Too bad, though. It’s pretty cute looking.

xXCeleste

I’d totally eat it!:)
http://twitter.com/AmberSpeck Amber Speck

I don’t want to eat any genetically modified products.

Michaelclay2378

Almost all the food we eat anymore has been genetically modified in some form or another, for better processing, longevity and quality, I worry more about processed foods, we just give mother nature a helping hand, but food processing plants are run by min. Wage workers who could care less what goes in that can or bag,
JoshP

well Amber you do already, with out even knowing it. Do you really think that Carrots were orange back in the day, doubt we have GM the vegie over the years, so when you think of a carrot you think orange. It’s the same with lettuce, a wild lettuce has fur on the outside so that bugs have trouble eating them, but we have GM the lettuce so that it doesn’t have fur.

http://twitter.com/DingleberryPie1 DingleberryPie

Sir, as a farmer, let me please explain the difference between genetically modifying a plant vs. selective breeding.

No, not all carrots are/were orange. I have a 300 yr old variety of carrot, and trust me – it’s naturally orange. The orange carrots you see in the store today are not genetically modify, they are a particular variety that has been favored by consumers, thus grown by farmers. The same goes for lettuce, not genetically modified. I also grow lettuce with and without fur – none of it genetically modified.

Genetic modification involves the insertion or deletion of genes. In the process of cisgenesis, genes are artificially transferred between organisms that could be conventionally bred. In the process of transgenesis, genes from a different species are inserted, which is a form of horizontal gene transfer.

Lilo

your name is dingleberrypie……..doesnt sound like a reliable sourse to me

http://www.facebook.com/rhuen.stone.9 Rhuen Stone

but he is technically correct. Although personally food and pets I consider gene modifying simply a sped up process of selective breeding. Instead of hoping the mutations and phenotypes can be made dominant, you select the genes. Both require care yes, but its alot less sloppy and quicker to modify.

http://www.facebook.com/jake.robbins.advisory Jake GreenPlanet Robbins

Josh you are so ignorant on the subject of GMO’s it’s dangerous for all of us. You seem to have confused (1) farmers ‘modifying’ particular varieties through selection, with (2) labs ‘modifying’ varieties through splicing crossed traits from other species that would not occur in Nature, including defensive traits such as ‘Round Up’ ready corn. Shame on you.

La Nena Preciosa

Truu I Wouldnt Want Tht Eitheir

Rick Santorum

Yes this is photoshopped
Nevin

… [via strawberrryblue.com]
[strawberrrrybluE.com]
[strawberrrrrrrrrrybluEEE.com]
…
it is actually strawberryblu.com
Kevin Folta

Absolute garbage. No such product. I’m a researcher in strawberry. There are no strawberry GMO plants in production. There is no blue strawberry.

Transgenic technology (GM) could be used to help nematode problems and many other issues. It is difficult to get permission to even field test such things, let alone commercialize them.

This story was made to whip the anti-GMO folks into a frenzy. There are no GM strawberries produced anywhere for human consumption.

You’ve all been fooled by this article. Kevin Folta

Tim Massar

whats’ a researcher in strawberry?

http://twitter.com/TerrorBite TerrorBite

I went and read the actual paper written about this experiment, and while it definitely talks about using the arctic fish gene to frost-proof straqwberry plants, nowhere does it mention the color of the fruit. The scientific paper:
http://webfortesting.com/journal/27-4/02-strawberry-gene.pdf
Ian

Haha… I went and googled Kevin folta as well just to make sure he was real. This is now making its rounds in Japanese with no one yet saying it is a hoax
Ms. Friendly

To see the major Photoshop errors, look in the top right edge of the berry. You can see a couple of bright red artifacts that Color Replace didn’t quite catch, and the blue mask spread over most of the seeds as well.

skip

your are on crack you see something cuz you want to see it if u look at the rest of the seeds they all have the same distortion caused by the diff shades of blue

http://profile.yahoo.com/BG3DDYZHFT37JRLQ2LQDNUOORA Shery

The color is fun, but a strawberry that might taste like fish? The story sounds like a sci-fi cartoon and that might be exactly how true the whole thing is.

GM in and of itself is not evil. I’m not intrested in eating hairy lettuce and color in fruit and vegetables can indicate nutritional virtues and be part of the whole. Selective breeding of ANYthing modifies genes toward a desired outcome . You can use an axe to help someone chop firewood or you can use it to kill.

skip

very true some tree farms have used GM to create trees that grow straighter and taller with less branches toward the lower part of the trees for lumber and paper so it doesnt always mean its bad

Aaron Anderson

sounds amazingly awesome!!!!
http://twitter.com/MizzSwing Crystal Kaulbars

Where can I buy them? Are they mainstream yet? Excellent for making a red, white, & blue cream pie for 4th of July!! (red & blue strawberries + whipped cream) mmm…..

skip

good idea crystal

http://twitter.com/MizzSwing Crystal Kaulbars

Actually I hope they come out with 100 colors of all my favorite foods!! If we’ve got the technology, let’s use it to get creative. C’mon people, live a little!
http://www.facebook.com/CameronAwesomeMiddlenameShirey Cameron Shirey

10000000/10 would eat.
Ben Miller

The strawberry has a red aura on my hd flatscreen sadly. i’m great at photoshop and i think this picture was shopped, but i do wantto believe its out there and i would gleefully eat it.

my guess is the selected “Red” —> transformed —> “Blue” easy trick. thats why it couldn’t perfectly get the edges, too fine.
http://www.facebook.com/profile.php?id=1803436289 Ben Hider

I just saw someone eating one in cali! They are real!
skip

fuck yeah i would eat it at one time people thought that a tomato was a deadly fruit to eat it would mean you die now tomatoes are in every house so just because its diff it is bad i think not
La Nena Preciosa

This Is Cool I Am Doin Research On It For Class
La Nena Preciosa

This So Cool I Am Researchinq For My Class Presantation
http://www.facebook.com/rhuen.stone.9 Rhuen Stone

yes, finnaly. It exists. on my world (which is kind of the future) this was my favorite food. Yes! make it available to the consumer, people who bitch about genetically modified food *well on the one hand check for allergens* but on the other if done subtle isn’t all that different from breeding controls, just check out the wild bannana vs the one you have in the supermarket. We made them the way they are.
Bec Noir

Rawst Berry!

Behold, a Blue Strawberry?

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