Practice 4: Did you ever think a papaya could get a vaccination? It turns out that it can, sort of. While genetically modified fruits and vegetables remain fairly rare, the papaya is one exception. Most papayas in the United States are grown in Hawaii, where they are important and profitable for the state’s economy. After a papaya virus devastated Hawaiian papaya production in the 1990s, papayas engineered for resistance to the virus were approved and brought to the market. Now, more than 80% of Hawaiian papayas are genetically modified. What are the benefits of this example of GM food?