Rumor That Seedless Grapes Are Treated with Contraceptives: Who Really Gets Hurt?
Q: What's the story with seedless grapes? A: They're dipped in a drug.
Q: What drug are they dipped in? A: Contraceptives.
Q: Is it bad to eat them?
A: We don't even eat them ourselves; eating them causes infertility.
……
At the end of August, such shocking claims appeared online. A month has passed, and similar rumors have not faded away; instead, they have evolved into various versions that continue to spread wildly through "friend circles." "Seedless grapes are treated with contraceptives" - is this the truth or a rumor? If it is a rumor, why does such a rumor keep coming back? In this battle of "true or false," who gets hurt? Who will put an end to the rumor? After receiving reports from large growers, reporters recently traveled to Chenzhou City, Hunan Province, and other places for an in-depth investigation.
Online rumor: Seedless grapes are "treated" with contraceptives?
Investigation: The rumor hurts farmers! A grape cooperative in Chenzhou lost 1.6 million yuan in 1 month
On September 26, Chenjiawan Village, Liangtian Town, Suxian District, Chenzhou City. With the "October 1st" Golden Week approaching, this should be the peak sales season for late-maturing seedless grapes, but Zhou Waiqing's grapes were getting no buyers. Zhou Waiqing is the chairman of the Chenzhou Ruixiang Fruit and Vegetable Planting Professional Cooperative. He grows 200 mu of seedless grapes, ranking first locally in both scale and output. But now, looking at grapes that are fully ripe yet hard to sell, Zhou Waiqing is extremely anxious.
"In previous years, the orchard was packed with people; now even the number of visitors is pitifully small. Look, this new 'Shine Muscat' variety has run into a 'black September' for sales." Zhou Waiqing's large-scale switch to seedless grapes had sold well in previous years, and in April this year they obtained "green food" certification, but unexpectedly, when they hit the market, the grapes met with a cold reception.
What pushed him into a corner in the market was a video that spread wildly online at the end of August: seedless grapes are "grown" with contraceptives. News like this "exploded" among major grape growers in Hunan. Zhou Waiqing and his peers used "friend circles" such as "Xiangnong Grape Gathering" to clarify the matter again and again, but with little effect.
Under the impact of the rumor, sales of seedless grapes, which had always been positioned in the high-end premium market, were greatly affected. August and September are precisely the peak season for seedless grapes to hit the market. The 3 main varieties "Summer Black, Pearl, and Beet" were the first to run into a sales slump. Seedless grapes that sold for 10-12 yuan/jin at wholesale last year had their prices cut in half this year, selling for only 5-6 yuan/jin. Not only did prices fall, but sales were also blocked. For example, 1/3 of the "Beet" grapes remained unsold. In Zhou Waiqing's cooperative alone, more than 160,000 jin of the 3 varieties were removed from the orchard because they rotted due to unsold inventory, causing direct economic losses of more than 1.6 million yuan.
Not only did the seedless grapes of Ruixiang Cooperative, which mainly relies on wholesale sales, run into sales difficulties, but the seedless table grapes of Suyuan Cooperative, which mainly relies on on-site picking, were also hit. Duan Jinhong, chairman of the Suyuan Grape Planting Professional Cooperative in Sumutou Village, Aoshang Town, Suxian District, said: "Blue table grapes were usually all picked by August, but this year, by the end of August, nearly 40,000 jin were still rotting in the fruit bags, and we could only cut them down bag and all and throw them away."
Duan Jinhong told reporters that more than 10 member households in the cooperative are poor households. They had originally hoped to escape poverty by the end of the year by producing and selling seedless blue table grapes. Now it looks like some members not only have no hope of escaping poverty, but cannot even recover their costs. Poor household Duan Qingxian invested 5,000 yuan per mu to plant five or six mu of table grapes and grapes, and at least half rotted in the ground, with losses of nearly 30,000 yuan.
"The rotten ones had to be cleared away, but there are still more than 20 mu of seedless table grapes and grapes hanging on the vines. Who will help us sell them?" Duan Jinhong and the members are gazing out in desperate hope.
Online rumor: Eating "seedless grapes grown with contraceptives" causes infertility?
Investigation: Absurd! Consuming an appropriate amount of plant hormones is even safer than eating salt
How did contraceptives get pinned on seedless grapes?
"Seedless grapes are treated with contraceptives." On August 27, the netizen "Taiyang Menglian de Mianzhao" first posted this video on Sina Weibo. On August 28, the officially verified account "Shijiazhuang Zixuntong" revealed that the video was filmed at a picking garden near Shijiazhuang, and the source was a "fan" tip. Under public pressure, in early September, the "fan" tipster finally admitted: the video was provided by a netizen, and acknowledged that "the fruit grower's statement is not entirely true." As for why this Weibo post was made, the tipster claimed in replies to netizens that he was also questioning it and had not confirmed it.
But the rumor did not stop there. Instead, it seemed to grow wings and fly everywhere. Helpless, Zhou Waiqing and his peers did some verification on the matter.
"Could 'forchlorfenuron' have been mistaken for contraceptives?" Major grape growers analyzed it this way. "Forchlorfenuron" sounds similar in pronunciation to contraceptives, especially in dialects in places such as Chenzhou, where the two can sometimes be easily confused. Zhou Waiqing listened to some voice messages in "friend circles": "Seedless grapes were treated with forchlorfenuron" sounds like "seedless grapes were treated with contraceptives." Perhaps the rumor spread through voice chats in "friend circles" and became distorted in the retelling.
"Although we used various channels to clarify, we were outnumbered. If we keep proving our innocence, it makes us feel a bit like Old Lady Wang selling melons and praising our own goods." Zhou Waiqing and other major growers are extremely helpless.
"Once again this kind of baseless rumor has appeared. We must clearly give society a positive response and must not break farmers' hearts." In an interview with reporters, Chao Wuji, president of the Grape Branch of the Chinese Association of Agricultural Science Societies, said.
Chao Wuji explained that there are currently two ways to obtain seedless grapes: first, through genetic breeding to select grape varieties whose seeds have already degenerated, such as Summer Black grapes; second, using gibberellin and other substances to make seeded grapes seedless so that they cannot form seeds. Some Kyoho-type grapes achieve seedlessness through this method.
Chao Wuji said that because seedless grapes have no seeds, they lack certain endogenous hormones that promote fruit set and enlargement, resulting in a low fruit-setting rate and small berries, which affects the appearance and quality of the fruit. Therefore, in seedless grape cultivation, plant growth regulators such as gibberellin and forchlorfenuron are often used to make grapes seedless and large, so that consumers find them crisper to eat.
Contraceptives are an animal hormone, while gibberellin is a plant hormone. Can contraceptives have any effect on grapes?
"No matter which plant hormone is used, the human body cannot grow grapes, and grapes will not become seedless because animal hormones are used." Chao Wuji, 74 this year, who has studied grapes all his life, said that so far no case has ever been found of animal hormones being used on grapes, and even if they were used, they would be useless on grapes. He believes that for a hormone to have an effect, there must be a target organ. Plant hormones are ineffective on the human body, and animal hormones are also useless on plants, because neither has the corresponding target.
So, is there a limit on gibberellin in grape production? Would excessive use affect grapes or human health?
Li Xianxin, deputy director and researcher of the Horticulture Research Institute of the Hunan Academy of Agricultural Sciences, told reporters that different fruits and vegetables require different concentration standards of gibberellin. The concentration of gibberellin in grapes is best within the range of 20-25 ppm, that is, dissolving 1 gram of gibberellin in 80-100 jin of water is relatively reasonable for use.
"Considering cost and benefit, growers generally will not deliberately use excessive gibberellin. But it cannot be ruled out that some farmers lack scientific common sense and add excessive gibberellin to grapes." Yang Guoshun, a position scientist in the National Grape Industry Technology System and dean of the College of Horticulture and Landscape Architecture at Hunan Agricultural University, said.
"If too much gibberellin is used, seedless grapes will drop berries, crack, and become deformed. During production, the fruit gets burned, falls to the ground, and simply cannot be sold." Duan Jinhong said that farmers add gibberellin in appropriate amounts according to expert guidance and manufacturer instructions.
So, if we eat seedless grapes with added gibberellin, will it harm human health?
Li Xianxin said that research shows that an adult weighing 120 jin would need to consume 180 mg of gibberellin per day for it to have side effects on the human body. According to the grape quality and safety risk assessment results of the Ministry of Agriculture, with the residual amount in detected samples calculated at no more than 0.1 mg/kg, that is, an adult would need to eat at least 1,800 kg of grapes per day for it to possibly affect the body.
"The reasonable use of plant growth regulators such as gibberellin is not only beneficial for improving grape quality, but is also safe for the human body. In terms of chemical toxicity, the toxicity of an appropriate amount of plant hormones is very low, safer than the salt and glucose we eat." Chao Wuji said.