
How Driscoll’s Is Hacking the Strawberry of the Future - hgennaro
http://www.bloomberg.com/news/features/2015-07-29/how-driscoll-s-is-hacking-the-strawberry-of-the-future
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bsder
The technology is kind of cool.

Unfortunately, I absolutely _loathe_ Driscoll's raspberries. I will buy
_anybody_ else's raspberries first, and I will simply not use raspberries if I
have to buy Driscoll's.

They're big and red, but they're too firm and fleshy. They have very little
juice, and, even if you get lucky and they're sweet, they don't have a robust
raspberry flavor. I used to fight with the yellowjackets to pick raspberries
in the Northeast US. I can't even imagine anything in nature wanting these
raspberries.

I'm not terribly fond of their strawberries and blackberries either, but
they're no different from the rest of the industry on those. Again, the fruits
are too big, too fleshy, and not juicy enough. Consequently, they are far less
flavorful.

This is standard across the industry. Water content == bruising and lost
sales. So, anything with water content gets bred until the water goes away.
Tomatoes, raspberries, strawberries, etc. have all gotten this treatment.

It's just like roses, we've bred them to last long when cut, but that breeds
_out_ the fact that it smells like a rose.

At some point, we have to accept that getting that last "9" of efficiency on a
biological organism isn't actually worth it.

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terravion
Reiter/Driscoll's is incredibly progressive and tech savvy as a grower. Their
research operation is truly first class. They are the only grower we've worked
with that has writen their own API client without any assistance--pretty slick
for a decades old company whose main expertise is in trucking, labor, land,
and plants.

~~~
mrfusion
Your comment made me start reading about your company. Really cool stuff! Do
you use drones or regular aircraft?

~~~
gabbycmcnabb
Ultimately we are platform agnostic: Once drones are economically efficient,
reliable, safe, we'll happily transition to them. Until then, we'll use
regular aircraft that have proven themselves as economical collection
platforms.

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Robadob
There is an interesting image[1] at the bottom of the article, about how to
extract the DNA from a strawberry, surprised (and partially sceptical) that
it's really that simple.

[1]
[http://assets.bwbx.io/images/iBaJbMBMgtrI/v1/-1x-1.jpg](http://assets.bwbx.io/images/iBaJbMBMgtrI/v1/-1x-1.jpg)

~~~
cwal37
It really is that easy. I did some very simple splicing in a genetic
engineering lab in undergrad with soybeans, and while there was less DNA
(which we extracted for PCR), the process was still mostly centrifuging and
alcohol.

Here's another source on the strawberry thing[1].

[1] [http://genetics.thetech.org/online-exhibits/do-it-
yourself-s...](http://genetics.thetech.org/online-exhibits/do-it-yourself-
strawberry-dna)

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Vraxx
I always find it fun and interesting to see all the complexities of other
fields that one would normally not think about. This did a great job of
bringing light to something I had considered pretty mundane.

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logfromblammo
The caption on panel #3 of the "DNA shot" graphic made me burst a blood
vessel.

Here's how I extract DNA with fun kitchen science.

    
    
      1. Freeze.
      2. Add dish detergent and NaCl.
      3. Puree in blender.
      4. Thaw.  Stir *very gently* from this point forward.
      5. Add meat tenderizer and/or contact lens solution.
      6. Filter the mess to get mostly clear fluid.
      7. Layer rubbing alcohol over the solution.
      (If you use ethanol, make sure it's high-proof.)
      8. Draw DNA and RNA up from aqueous layer through alcohol layer with a kebab skewer.

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mrfusion
Does anyone know how strawberries are harvested? I've been toying with the
idea of a produce harvesting robotics startup. But I guess the first step is
to talk to some farmers?

~~~
smt88
Humans are currently too inexpensive to make a harvesting robot worth the cost
(sadly enough).

Let's say you spend $10M on R&D (a very low number in my opinion), each robot
costs $50k to build, and maintenance/repairs cost $5k/year. You decide to
charge your first customer $100k because you have to cover some of your R&D,
and you pass all the maintenance costs on to them.

For that $105k per year, a farmer could hire ~8 people for an _entire year_.
But most growers only need labor for a few months at the most. So, assuming a
crop that requires people for about 3 months, you're actually looking at 32
humans vs. a single robot.

If the economics made sense, people would use harvesting robots. But at this
point, picking fruit is something humans are particularly good at and
computers are particularly bad at, and humans are still very inexpensive.

~~~
JoeAltmaier
More variables: picking only ripe fruit; handling the fruit more carefully;
picking more rapidly so you can share the robot with many growers;
refrigerating the fruit from the moment of picking. Any of these could make it
worthwhile?

~~~
mikepurvis
This is more an argument for an augmented human system than it is a slam dunk
for something completely autonomous.

For example an unmanned, refrigerated, follow-me cart with a soft hopper could
be a multiplier on picking productivity without all the hassles of actual
mobile manipulation and perception.

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frandroid
Alleging Labor Abuses, U.S. and Mexican Workers Call for Boycott of Driscoll’s
Berries

[http://inthesetimes.com/working/entry/17865/alleging_labor_a...](http://inthesetimes.com/working/entry/17865/alleging_labor_abuses_u.s._and_mexican_workers_call_for_boycott_of_driscoll)

[http://boycottsakumaberries.com/why-
boycott/](http://boycottsakumaberries.com/why-boycott/)

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crististm
I'd like natural strawberries, thank you very much!!!

Edit: The downvoters are free to be subjects for future genetic engineering
projects themselves.

~~~
trcollinson
All of the down voters are already subjects of genetic engineering projects.
Two specimens were brought together. Their dna was shared and 23 chromosomes
were combined from each of the specimens to create a new experimental
offspring.

I imagine that many of the down voters also are creating future genetic
engineering projects in much the same way. Attempting to, and occasionally
succeeding in, combining their dna with another specimen to create offspring.

If only we had more natural human creation as opposed to this GMO human
combination that seems to be popping up in the marketplace...

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vtlynch
this use of the word hacking makes me barf

~~~
baseballmerpeak
New for 2016: presenting the new iStrawberry!

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illegalsmile
Driscoll strawberries are disgusting when compared to a more natural and
naturally grown strawberry.

~~~
lostcolony
What kind is that, exactly? Since, you know, humans have been selecting and
cultivating plants for specific characteristics since the beginning of
agriculture. And that's all that this article is describing, saying "I like
this characteristic, lets try breeding it with this other strain and see what
comes about". I would be interested in these primitive, untouched by man
strains you seem to be referencing, as such, and where you found them.

~~~
henrikschroder
I found some brand of organic strawberries here in the US that tasted exactly
like wild strawberries, but were of course much larger and sweeter, surpassing
the original:
[https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Fragaria_vesca](https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Fragaria_vesca)

Also worth noting is that there is no such thing as a "natural" strawberry,
they're all hybrids:
[https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Strawberry](https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Strawberry)

