In the mid -twentieth century the nuclear was fashionable. So someone created “atomic” tomatoes and cucumbers

The human being has from the dawn of agriculture trying to improve their crops. Before the arrival of advanced laboratory techniques such as CRISPR or the tools that the transgenics gave them, our species tested with a retahíla of various strategies to obtain larger fruits and vegetablestastier or more resistant.

Some more successful than others. Some that bordered the demential.

To the latter group belongs to the atomic horticulture, Atomic Gardening.

The name of the technique speaks for itself. Atomic horticulture started from the idea of ​​bombarding radiation plantations. The objective of atomic horticulture, or at least the nominal objective of this, was to force mutations that improve the properties of food that were extracted from them.

For this, the orchards were arranged in concentric circles, in whose center the radioactive material was located (Generally cobalt-60) capable of emitting gamma rays. The disposition implied that the successive circles received radiation dose that could vary significantly. The closest plants ended up burned by radiation and many nearby developed lethal problems such as tumors.

The rest of the plants would receive more moderate doses that would introduce small mutations in their DNA. These mutations could be harmful or beneficial: the technique could Accelerate the natural process Of genetic modification, the selection, natural or human, would make the rest.

The origin of this practice is found in the first years of the nuclear era, in the 1950s. Behind this initiative could find an association called The Atomic Gardening Societydedicated to promoting this striking practice.

In An article Posted in 1962 the magazine Naturethis agrarian society was defined as “a scientific, educational and non -profit body, which carries out research in plants reproduction using radiative and chemically treated seeds and plants.”

The different members of the association could exchange through this different seeds and the organization also served to record the different genetic variations introduced into the plants. The Atomic Gardening Society He also published his own magazine in which members could share their experiences and knowledge.

We pointed out before the objective of this practice was to improve the qualities of plants and their fruits, make the most productive and resistant crops and their most nutritious or tasty crops. However behind this practice there was something else: marketing.

The 50s was the era of initiative Atoms for peacein whose bosom the atomic gardens were born. This initiative intended to show that the energy responsible for devastation in Hiroshima and Nagasaki could also be used for economic improvement, in this case, agricultural improvement.

Atomic horticulture in Spain

Atomic horticulture was not an exclusive idea of ​​great nuclear powers such as the United States or the Soviet Union but also various countries from Europe to Japan developed their own gardens. Spain also had Your own atomic garden.

The so -called Atomic Jarín of Alcalá is what remains of the Spanish tante in this nuclear agriculture, the then called El Encín Gamma Radiation Field. The origin of this experiment, which did not use Cobalt-60 but Cesio-137is in 1959, when Spain began to leave its isolationist period and could receive this radioactive isotope from US nuclear power plants for the exotic objective of building its own atomic garden not far from the capital.

Today atomic horticulture is history. As we pointed at the beginning, today we had less quirky techniques to introduce mutations into plants. The transgenic foods, despite all the controversy they generate, have been accompanying us for decades.

In fact, the development of the “scissors” of CRISPR genetic edition has given a new push to the genetic edition of organisms. This tool allows a control never seen before, notably facilitating The work of those looking for Improve the quality, quantity or resistance of crops.

Atomic horticulture is history, but their results still endure. They do it in the form of variants of fruits, vegetables and even ornamental plants whose origin is in one of the most unique agricultural practices in the history of humanity.

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