Are Rainbow Carrots Genetically Modified

Purple is the new black. The original carrots were purple and yellow, and lately they've been coming back into style in America. Robert Couse-Baker via Flickr cc by ii.0

A few weeks ago my married man came abode from the grocery store with something mind-blowing: it was a handbag of carrots, but in technicolor. Mixed in with the usual orange sticks were yellow carrots, the color of potatoes, and others and so deeply purple they were almost blackness. We cooked them, and I turned over to the nighttime side.

Regal carrots have been around farmers' markets for a while now, but more recently they've gone mainstream. Pretty soon we might have a full-fledged food fad on our hands. So where did the plum-colored carrot come from, and why is it showing up in my grocery store suddenly?

A colorful history

purple carrot cross section — Many varieties of purple carrot are yellow or orangish on the inside. *Esali Alimentación via Wikimedia Commons*

While most of us in America have merely always seen orange carrots (at least until recently), the first cultivated carrots were purple and yellow.

Carrots were domesticated in Transitional islamic state of afghanistan and spread to the eastern Mediterranean about a thousand years agone. They reached Europe and China in the 1300s. By the early 1500s, orange carrots could be establish in Italian republic, Espana, and Federal republic of germany. Only purple, yellowish, cerise, and white varieties persisted in Asia and the Center E.

Nobody'south really sure how the orangish carrot came to take over well-nigh of the world. Early on reports suggested that purple carrots had a better season than white, merely majestic might have fallen out of favor because they tend to leach a dark pigment onto any they're cooked with. Later on that, orangish carrots might have got the jump on white carrots only because information technology was easier to grow them.

Purple power

Philipp Simon, a carrot geneticist with the U.South. Department of Agronomics, is partially responsible for bringing the purple carrot back into our lives. He and his squad began working with purple carrots from Syrian arab republic 35 years ago. They wanted to run across if purple carrots harbored any genes that could help make orange carrots resistant to diseases and pests, mostly to help farmers.

"In my wildest dreams I didn't think that this would come back as a color for consumers," says Simon.

Simon'due south team found several varieties of purple carrot that were resistant a type of soil nematode that attacks plant roots. Orange carrots have no resistance to these pests, and so the USDA spent more than a decade crossing the resistant purple carrots to the orange ones that Americans know and love. The diversity that combines the best from both worlds is now bachelor to seed companies and farmers big and small.

In addition to the orange carrot with nematode resistance, Simon and other cantankerous-breeders take produced offshoots in all shape and size combinations.

"The major purpose of my project is to prepare genetic stocks that carrot breeders will need in the futurity," says Simon. "I have no crystal ball, but we talk to growers and consumers. We look at carrots and say, 'Might this be interesting?'"

The Organic Seed Alliance did indeed find some of those carrots creations interesting. The organisation helped to introduce some of the new varieties to modest growers who were seeking novel products.

And then, seeing that the colorful carrots sold well and sometimes for higher prices, larger growers realized they could make a cadet off of imperial carrots equally well. And that'south how they got into the cooler at a supermarket chain near you.

Nutrition

The potential nutritional benefits of colorful carrots also helped to brand them appealing to consumers.

I study plant that, compared to orange carrots, purple carrots contain twice the amount of alpha and beta carotene, which the torso converts into vitamin A.

Regal carrots derive their colour from anthocyanin. "Those purple pigments are terrific antioxidants," says Simon. Antioxidants may forbid prison cell impairment and reduce the chance of sure diseases.

rainbow carrots — Compared to orange carrots, majestic carrots contain twice equally much alpha- and beta-carotene, which the body turns into vitamin A. *Mararie via Flickr CC by SA 2.0*

Although scientists are still debating the health benefits of antioxidants, it'southward generally a good thought to eat a colorful assortment of fruits and veggies every day to make certain you're getting a wide multifariousness of vitamins and minerals. Rainbow-hued carrots can certainly help in that regard.

Seeing red

Our color options for carrots volition soon get even more diverse. Simon and his squad are currently working on a cherry carrot—a project that'south more hard than it sounds.

Red carrots tend to grow woody and flower before than orange carrots. That'south not good because the carrot "puts all its energy into building flowers instead of a nice juicy root," says Simon. His squad is working on breeding that trait out of the red carrots, and they think they'll accept a dainty, juicy red root set up for consumers inside a few years.

After that, who knows? "In that location all kinds of colors out there that are actually pretty interesting," says Simon. "Nosotros're looking at more than combinations."