Not just a Cold War-era relic... ...the use of radiation to
introduce genetic changes in food (aka "atomic gardening") is
alive and well today. What's more, the Times adds, nearly 2,000
gamma radiation-induced mutant crop varieties have been
registered around the world, including Calrose 76, a dwarf
varietal that accounts for about half the rice grown in
California, and the popular Star Ruby and Rio Red grapefruits,
whose deep colour is a mutation produced through radiation
breeding in the 1970s. Similarly, Johnson tells Pruned that
"most of the global production of mint oil," with an annual
market value estimated at $930 million, is extracted from the
"wilt-resistant 'Todd's Mitcham' cultivar, a product of thermal
neutron irradiation." She adds that "the exact nature of the
genetic changes that cause it to be wilt-resistant remain
unknown." The atomic gardening photos from Life magazine in 1961
are kind of great. A pair of farmers are growing a huge garden
on the top of a former bagel factory in the Greenpoi