GM Self-Harvesting Olives by Penny Philcox (© 2013) 

Many thanks to Penny Philcox for sending me this great cartoon, which was inspired by a remark I made when I was moaning on about how much I dread the olive harvest in Podcast 10 (“I’d Rather Eat My Own Face”). This is what I said…

Although I’m generally in favour of preserving traditional farming methods and I’m totally against the idea of genetically modifying crops (or anything else for that matter), when it comes to olive trees I would be prepared to make an exception. A friend and I discussed this recently and decided that it shouldn’t be beyond the whit of some scientist or other to design the GM Self-Harvesting Olive. This would be achieved by equipping each olive with it’s own tiny machete, which it would use to cut through its stalk and detach itself from the tree. It could also have a mini parachute so that the fruit would not be bruised when it hit the ground as well as little legs to enable it to walk to the nearest sack and climb into it.

Until that glorious day comes, however, I will have to endure several months of nightmares about the impending harvest and then the pure hell of the harvest itself.

Thanks again, Penny. Maybe there’s hope after all. 😉