15 Common Foods We’ve Been Genetically Engineering For Centuries
![15 Common Foods We’ve Been Genetically Engineering For Centuries](https://s3.crackedcdn.com/phpimages/imageset/2/2/9/886229_320x180.jpg)
For centuries, humans have been tinkering with nature to create the perfect food. From the earliest days of domestication, we’ve been taking wild plants and animals and making them our own. We’ve changed the sour to sweet, the wild to tame, and the unpredictable to reliable. We’ve gone from wild apples to sweet citrus fruits, from deadly almonds to delicious ones, and from wild boar to domesticated pigs.
Today, we have a vast array of fruits, vegetables, and animals that have been shaped by centuries of human intervention. From the cotton candy-tasting grapes to the millennia-old superfood avocados, from the tamed wild boar to the domesticated chickens, and from the olives of the Mediterranean to the carrots of Central Asia, we have a world of food that is the product of human ingenuity.
This list is a testament to the power of human intervention, and the amazing things we can do when we work with nature. We can make something new, something better, and something delicious. Enjoy!
Wild boar stole the show?
![Foods we've been engineering for centuries PIGS Pigs were domesticated twice, in China and Anatolia. A 2007 study suggests they first came to Europe from the Near East, but were later replaced by domesticated local wild boar. CRACKED](https://s3.crackedcdn.com/phpimages/imageset/2/4/0/886240.jpg)
Deyana Stefanova Robova/Shutterstock,
Eric Isselee/Shutterstock
One mutation changed the sour to sweet.
![Foods we've been engineering for centuries CITRUS FRUITS Citrus fruits originated in Asia and were domesticated about 3,300 years ago, but they were too sour to eat. Eventually, a mutation of a single gene changed them to the sweet citrus fruits we know today, shortly after they were first grown as a crop. CRACKED](https://s3.crackedcdn.com/phpimages/imageset/2/3/8/886238.jpg)
Sweet success.
![Foods we've been engineering for centuries ALMONDS Humans found a mutation in wild almonds thousands of years ago that made them sweet and safe to eat. That mutation let us domesticate almonds, and we've been growing sweet almonds ever since. CRACKED](https://s3.crackedcdn.com/phpimages/imageset/2/4/6/886246.jpg)
Olives: the original Mediterranean superfood.
![Foods we've been engineering for centuries OLIVES Researchers traced olives back to Turkey and Syria, where they first became larger and oil-rich. They spread throughout the Mediterranean with the growth of civilization. CRACKED](https://s3.crackedcdn.com/phpimages/imageset/2/4/3/886243.jpg)
Rice: tamed by humans since time immemorial.
![Foods we've been engineering for centuries RICE Humans have been breeding wild rice for thousands of years, making it stouter and straighter, with bigger grains that don't shatter. CRACKED](https://s3.crackedcdn.com/phpimages/imageset/2/3/7/886237.jpg)
Mangoes: a 4,000-year-old global success story.
![Foods we've been engineering for centuries MANGOES Mangoes were first grown in India 4,000 years ago and spread to six continents. It's now one of the world's most important tropical fruits. As it moved east to Southeast Asia, it was exposed to over 35 other Mangifera species, making it more diverse. CRACKED](https://s3.crackedcdn.com/phpimages/imageset/2/3/6/886236.jpg)
Chickens used to be wild.
![Foods we've been engineering for centuries CHICKENS Domesticated chickens started in Southeast Asia 3,500 years ago, then spread around the world as exotic, respected animals. A 2020 study found their ancestor was the jungle fowl subspecies, Gallus gallus spaedicus. CRACKED](https://s3.crackedcdn.com/phpimages/imageset/2/3/2/886232.jpg)
Defying nature: a sweet, sugary grape.
![Foods we've been engineering for centuries GRAPES A company made a cotton candy- tasting grape by combining two types of grapes. It's 12% sweeter than the average grape. CRACKED](https://s3.crackedcdn.com/phpimages/imageset/2/4/4/886244.jpg)
Same difference!
![Foods we've been engineering for centuries WEED Experts say indica and sativa weed strains are pretty much the same due to decades of interbreeding and lack of regulation. CRACKED](https://s3.crackedcdn.com/phpimages/imageset/2/4/1/886241.jpg)
Taming the beast: one step closer to burgers and fries.
![Foods we've been engineering for centuries - 6402 00223 77197 DE 00223 0214 77142 your 273 CATTLE Domestication of aurochs likely happened multiple times, with evidence suggesting cattle were the first animals to be domesticated. Cave paintings from the Upper Paleolithic period show aurochs, which were huge herbivores. CRACKED](https://s3.crackedcdn.com/phpimages/imageset/2/4/2/886242.jpg)
Carrots have come a long way.
![Foods we've been engineering for centuries CARROTS Carrots were first grown 1,100 years ago in Central Asia. They were purple and yellow, not white like wild carrots. Orange carrots showed up in Europe in the 1500s. CRACKED](https://s3.crackedcdn.com/phpimages/imageset/2/3/9/886239.jpg)
Bigger, less shatter-y, and more predictable.
![Foods we've been engineering for centuries BEANS Domestic beans are less exciting than wild beans-they're bigger, less likely to shatter, and more predictable. They're also annuals, not perennials, for more reliable harvests. CRACKED](https://s3.crackedcdn.com/phpimages/imageset/2/3/1/886231.jpg)
Avocados: a millennia-old superfood.
![Foods we've been engineering for centuries AVOCADOS In Mexico, archaeologists found that avocado seeds got bigger over time, suggesting they were domesticated between 4,000 and 2,800 ВСЕ. CRACKED](https://s3.crackedcdn.com/phpimages/imageset/2/3/3/886233.jpg)
Humans have been apricot-picking for centuries.
![Foods we've been engineering for centuries APRICOTS Researchers studied the apricot genome to trace its domestication over 2,000-3,000 years. They found it originated from wild populations in central Asia, and humans have selected traits like life cycle, fruit quality, and disease resistance. CRACKED](https://s3.crackedcdn.com/phpimages/imageset/2/3/4/886234.jpg)
Apples: the original hybrid fruit.
![Foods we've been engineering for centuries APPLES Apples were first tamed from Asian wild apples, then crossed with European crabapples to create the modern apples you see in grocery stores. CRACKED](https://s3.crackedcdn.com/phpimages/imageset/2/4/5/886245.jpg)