New veg leaves bitter taste

[unhappycamper]

http://atimes.com/atimes/Central_Asia/CEN-02-190913.html

New veg leaves bitter taste
Sep 19, '13
By Vesna Peric Zimonjic

BELGRADE - This year, summer in the Balkans has been nice and warm, leaving behind a land of plenty, and enough food on the table. Except that people are talking about tomatoes "that don't taste as they used to", watermelons that are too watery, cabbages that are hard to slice through and onions that do not sting your eyes.

It is an angry buzz, resonating across popular forums and social networking sites in Serbia. Farmers are being accused of surrendering to the pressures of seed importers and neglecting home-grown or indigenous species that had served them well so far.

~snip~

According to Zdravkovic and experts from the Faculty of Agriculture at the Belgrade University, indigenous species have lost the battle against the big international seed-producing companies. Native species have been reduced to being cultivated either in private gardens or in small local areas.

Since 2000, when the international sanctions imposed on Serbia following the 1998-1999 Kosovo war were lifted, imported seeds have made an unopposed, uncontrolled entry into the Serbian market. Hybrid seeds from biotech giants such as Monsanto, DuPont or Syngenta have taken over completely.

[Sunlei]

1. everyone in the world now notices how 'improvments' in distance shipping made veggies taste bad.

[independentpiney]

2. There has never been native or indigenous species of Serbian tomatos or watermelon.

What they mean is cultivars that were developed there for their particular climate and soils. New varieties are being bred for everything but taste these days, and most of them do suck.

[eppur_se_muova]

3. They're bred for rapid growth, superficially impressive appearance (mostly size), and durability.

The result is lots of cellulose and water with some minor nutrients thrown in.