Strange Fruit
In the mid-1980's, celery growers in the US came up with what they thought was a better strain of celery that was highly resistant to bugs. Imagine biting into a juicy celery stalk and not having bugs all over it! The celery workers said that it would boost yield dramatically, but there was one tiny problem. The people who touched it got skin rashes, and people who ate it had stomach cramps. In truth, the celery was shedding psoralens, natural chemicals which become irritants when exposed to the sun.
In Europe, campaigners have been working to prevent genetically engineered crops being grown on the same scale as in North America. The campaigners have branded all genetically engineered crops called "Frankenfood". Disaster broke out in Britain, in August, when a food scientist falsely claimed that he had invented a type of potato that was toxic to rats.
The question that really matters in cloning fruit is, "How do specific genes and the proteins they encode behave in the body? Do the types of genes that are in the crops affect the body in any ill way? The answer lies in the biotech industry.