That morning cup of joe is sometimes the only thing that can get a pep in our step before work, but what if that coffee was genetically modified?
That's the talk of the town — coffee that wasn't made by nature, but by science.
Scientists say they have the genome sequence of the Robusta coffee bean, which supplies roughly a third of the world's coffee. And they could possibly change things like its flavor and even modify it to ward off pests that commonly harm the crop.
The Washington Post spoke with Victor Albert, the lead author of the study. He made an interesting note about how scientists could use the findings for decaf coffee:
"This might make it possible to knock off caffeine production in a variety of coffee plant. ... So to make decaff coffee, you wouldn't have to go through the process of extracting the caffeine. You could just grow coffee beans that don't make it at all."
It sounds pretty great, but are genetically modified foods really the way to go?
Find out what those for and against genetically-modified foods have to say in this Newsy video.
