One thing I struggled with was splinters. Everyone who came near the cactus seemed to get splinters. I think I still have one or two in my hand. When we went shopping, we picked out a cactus pear. Klara handled the pear and ended up with tons of painful splinters in her hand. The perilous thing is that you don't tend to feel the cactus splinters until a few minutes after they're already in there. They are quite hard to spot in your hand. 5 or 6 people ended up with varying amounts of splinters in their hands. Sorry guys! This is a problem that may be hard to solve on a large scale. No one wants to get splinters every time they try to cook a meal... I'll have to think of ways to work with this problem. Is it possible to genetically modify cacti to reduce the number of spikes?  How can cacti be stored or de-spiked so that people are not injured by their food?

side note: they can spike you through plastic bags, clothes, etc. They are not noticeable until they are in your skin and you rub against something that disrupts the spine and creates discomfort and pain.