It is going to be harder. I guess at my age, I have little concern. My dad when working with oil paints used to use gasoline to wash his hands. I know many 70 year old guys that still do! So if an eel gene is in my salmon, my stomach can’t tell and digests the gene to basic amino acids, just like the rest of the genes I consume. So far from about 30 years of study. Not one person was yet been harmed by a GMO. And they are considered dangerous, which I’m at a loss to understand in any sense of the word. Nothing is that safe, even water has killed people, Not what is in the water, the water H2o itself. GMO have a 100% safe track record, and well that works for me. Again nothing else I know of is that safe, most things are not as safe as GMO’s.
I use grape seed oil too, but only because I like it. I can cook at higher temps, and don’t have to use other oils.
Annie, due to Citrus Greening (HLB), the oranges grown that provide juice (Valencia oranges, grown almost exclusively in Florida and in Brazil) will eventually be GMO most likely, in order to thwart the devastating effects of HLB in the world. It is probably a safe estimate at this time to say 95% of all commercial citrus trees in Florida are affected with HLB. Research in how to control or cure HLB will certainly be a multi-pronged approach, and one of the most promising research studies right now is Dr. Erik Mirkov’s work at Texas A&M creating GMO citrus cultivars using a spinach gene spliced in, thus creating a resistant cultivar.
So, in the future, it very well may be all orange (and other popular commercial citrus cultivars) may end up being GMO, in order to survive HLB. So, if you’re buying Valencias, or even growing them, you may very well end up with a genetically modified tree or fruit. I think folks need to do more research regarding GMO products before they make a blanket decision to say, “No GMO products for me”. Something to consider - many of the spontaneous sports we see are actually genetically modified by irradiation from the sun. So, in essence, you are already more than not, eating something that has been genetically modified 
It happens all the time in nature.
Are you talking about Hybrid or GMO?? These are two very different concept. Hybrid do happen in nature, but not GMO as far as I know
No, GMO - genetically modified. Irradiation from the sun can cause genes to mutate and become something they were not. Some of those sports survive, others do not. We enjoyed a wonderful presentation a couple of years back on HLB presented by UC Riverside Professor Emeritus Dr. Allan Dodds. Dr. Erik Mirkov (and many of the other citrus researchers) were grad students of his. We had someone ask that very question, and this was Dr. Dodd’s example about GMO, which I thought was a very good explanation that we’re really already enjoying GMO’s and don’t even know it.
I would happily grow genetically modified fruit varieties capable of resisting humid region pests- even though I’d lose my spray income. I could come up with more enjoyable things to do for fruit trees than suiting up in hot weather and spraying them. It is always rather an intense activity because you have to keep your wits about you- especially during multi-ingredient mixes.
I’m with Alan! Just about anything is better than a spray suit and a full face respirator on a hot day lost in a cloud of chemical spray with so much fog inside the mask you can barely see where you are going. Bring on the GMO!
There have been reports of heavy infestations of SWD here this year. Indeed I relaxed the spray on my cherries as the trees were close to finishing up and sure enough they got infested badly w/ SWD after the spray residue wore off. This is the first time this happened. Fortunately it had been a while since I had sold any of these cherries, so the ones I sold were clean.
Blackberry season is just starting here. It’s going to require a lot of sprays.
Olpea
No reports of SWD in my area so far, but I’m carefully watching several “no spray” growers and waiting for a SWD outbreak at their farms. Its very hot and dry here and I’m not sure how that impacts the SWD on blue/blackberry.
I’m sick of questions like, “are your berries organic”. Once a tidal wave of SWD sweeps over the no spray growers in my area, many folks who use the term organic without any understanding about its meaning are going to get educated very quickly! As strange as it sounds, SWD could be very good for my PYO business.
Blueberry,
I was reading about this the other day in American Fruit Grower. Supposedly very hot dry weather suppresses SWD egg laying. If the weather is hot but humid, they can lay more eggs. The article stressed both sanitation and sprays are necessary to get good control. Obviously one can’t pick up fallen berries, but they did emphasize picking peach drops and picking the trees clean.
Have you ever had a problem with SWD on your peaches? I was hoping that the normal cover sprays would take care of them. Even with no rain, the humidity in my part of NC is normally very high, so the SWD are probably very happy.
I’m about 8 inches below normal on rainfall for the year, With the drip irrigation I can mature the fruit, but 14 days in a row with temps in mid to upper 90 and no rain, the quality is starting to suffer. May be time for a big sale next week, just in time for the 4th.
Blueberry,
I’ve not had any problems yet w/ SWD on peaches. I think the fuzz helps some. I’ve seen pictures of SWD larva in peaches. We pick fruit pretty near soft ripe, so that is a concern. Growers who pick the fruit fairly firm don’t have to worry about SWD on peaches.
There is more pressure where peaches are grown next to berry crops. Both this season and last season we pick up drops every day.