

2 years after nuclear disaster, Japan spawns freaky fruits and veggies - stfu
http://m.now.msn.com/fukushima-vegetables-mutated-in-viral-photos-possibly-due-to-radiation

======
yummyfajitas
I'm not sure what this proves. 5 minutes with /r/pics finds me all sorts of
weird carrots:

[http://www.reddit.com/r/pics/comments/d17jf/i_grow_some_weir...](http://www.reddit.com/r/pics/comments/d17jf/i_grow_some_weird_carrots/)

[http://imgur.com/7T7g3](http://imgur.com/7T7g3)

[http://imgur.com/TULjm](http://imgur.com/TULjm)

[http://www.reddit.com/r/pics/comments/da7t6/carrots_have_evo...](http://www.reddit.com/r/pics/comments/da7t6/carrots_have_evolved_we_are_screwed/)

[http://www.reddit.com/r/pics/comments/rjxkf/i_found_a_double...](http://www.reddit.com/r/pics/comments/rjxkf/i_found_a_double_helix_pair_of_carrots/)

And tomatoes:

[http://imgur.com/a/AeNuC](http://imgur.com/a/AeNuC)

[http://imgur.com/a/5luwR/mutant_tomatoe](http://imgur.com/a/5luwR/mutant_tomatoe)

[http://i.imgur.com/WGjZQ.jpg](http://i.imgur.com/WGjZQ.jpg)

[http://i.imgur.com/NrUh0jH.jpg](http://i.imgur.com/NrUh0jH.jpg)

A search for "peach" finds me primarily princess peach, primarily in cosplay
form.

~~~
gus_massa
With: peach fruit double

Siamese Twin Peaches; Double and Triple Peach Fruits:
[http://xtremehorticulture.blogspot.com/2012/04/siamese-
twin-...](http://xtremehorticulture.blogspot.com/2012/04/siamese-twin-peaches-
double-and-triple.html)

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ekianjo
Great, MSN journalism :"It might be wise to steer clear of vegetables from
Japan's Fukushima area for, oh, say a few hundred years. ".

Yeah, like you know what you are talking about. The radiation levels in
Fukushima are lower than in some other parts of the world where natural
radioactivity occurs.

These pictures don't prove anything. When you grow vegetables you always get
abnormalities. I have seen tons of discolorations, deformations, and other
freaky products of nature when I was a kid. You don't need a nuclear incident
to get that.

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ISL
Without a meaningful control and in the absence of any other information, it's
impossible to make a meaningful conclusion.

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account90
Is it possible to use such radiation for plant breeding purposes? Some of
those modifications (like gigantism) could be useful.

Yes. "Chemical mutagens like EMS and DMS, radiation and transposons are used
to generate mutants with desirable traits to be bred with other cultivars - a
process known as Mutation Breeding."
[http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Plant_breeding](http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Plant_breeding)

~~~
Scaevolus
Yes, it's very common. ~75% of rice grown in California descends from seeds
exposed to gamma radiation.

[http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Mutation_breeding](http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Mutation_breeding)

------
anigbrowl
I don't care for nuclear alarmism, and if you grow enough veggies some of them
are going to come out strange, but that is a pretty disturbing set of pictures
and suggests some systematic study of the fallout effects is warranted.

~~~
gcb0
the set of similarly weird peaches is the only one that ticked me off.

------
nitrogen
The article couldn't help but use the catchphrase of un-science, "You never
know," twice.

