HOT TAKE: The GMO Purple Tomato has entered the chat
The first ever bioengineered tomato seeds (or any GMO seed for that matter) are now available to the home gardener in the US. How worried (or excited) should we be?
Every year new gardeners everywhere raise questions about how to make sure they don't get GMO seeds and experts reassure them, "Don't worry, GMO seeds are not available to the home gardener, only to farmers". Oh how we laughed at the seed companies with their "No GMO" marketing… so unnecessary… until now. A week ago, the first GMO seed product available to consumers went on the market in the US.
I have some thoughts on GMO produce for the home gardener and what my plan is when it comes to these new purple cherry tomatoes specifically. First I should set the stage that I am not categorically opposed to genetic modification of fruits and vegetables. Conceptually, there are good applications that could, for example, help reduce allergens (if anything, to date, plant modifications especially in wheat may have increased these), increase nutrition, or improve tolerance to drought and extreme climate. However in practice, what we see is use for things like higher yields, better shipping, and storage. These changes also tend to correlate with a corresponding loss of nutrition and flavor. Worse, there are the scarier efforts that have made plants (typically grain and soybean crops) resistant to herbicides so fields can be sprayed to kill the weeds without damaging the money making field crop. The big one here is glyphosate (aka RoundUp brought to you by the crowd favorite villain, Monsanto).
I think we can all agree we don't want more chemicals sprayed on our food, or the food of animals we eat or use products from. If you're a gardener then you likely have heard of the issues with Grazon, a herbicide by Dow Chemical that is used on alfalfa/hay pastures. This has gotten a lot of attention in recent years because in addition to issues with herbicide drift from farmlands to adjacent properties when it's sprayed, Grazon persists through the digestive system of cattle into their manure where it can last for up to 3 years. There have been increasing cases of home gardeners purchasing compost that was contaminated with Grazon via cow manure and their entire garden dying. Home gardeners around the US are now testing soil, compost, and manure they purchase by planting bean seeds and watching for delayed, stunted, and deformed or burned leaves as a sign of contamination.
All that said, my hope has long been we'd see cases where food sources were improved not for shipping but for taste, health, nutrition or even medicinal purposes. Increased yield is great too if we aren't sacrificing quality.
What is this The Purple Tomato?
The “The Purple Tomato” seeds (as I try not to launch into a rant on naming) for sale from Norfolk Healthy Produce were created by using color genes from purple snapdragons (which is an edible flower) to trigger the development of purple flesh and skin. This is notable because while they are a number of tomatoes that are considered "purple" (sometimes called black or brown or blue) they all only have the color in their skin and not the flesh (typically red or at best, a chocolatey red). The purple comes from anthocyanin, an antioxidant, and is triggered by solar radiation so if a traditional purple variety is shaded from the sun that area of the skin will not be purple. Also many varieties like the famous Cherokee Purple really only have a slight blush of purple. Tip: never trust the color in a tomato name without research!
Norfolk worked with plant biochemist Dr. Cathie Martin who has been working in this space for decades. This particular variety was under development for about 15 years. They say their goal is to offer an antioxidant rich tomato, rich in anthocyanin. Note that red tomatoes already have another healthy antioxidant in the form of the carotenoid, lycopene, which is found in red and orange pigment of fruits and vegetables. However, while lycopene is fairly common, anthocyanins are much rarer with blueberries and blackberries being the primary sources. These can be pricey fruits and some consumers may want more savory options.
Eyes Wide Open
Norfolk is also clear that one of their other key goals is to demystify GMO produce by making it available to the home gardener and essentially swaying the negative sentiment. In the early 90s the Flavr Savr tomato was the first (and only) GMO tomato available in the US. It primarily offered a long shelf life and stable transport which was marketed as being a win to consumers as this means it could be vine-ripened rather than picked prematurely and artificially ripened. This didn't go over well with consumers and it was met with a public outcry that meant the tomato only lasted 4 years before it was gone for good. Personally, I think vine ripening, while great, is less important than other factors. Early in my gardening experience I thought tomatoes had to be vine ripened but I have frequently picked tomatoes before they are at peak perfection and let them finish ripening on the counter to no ill effect. They are still better than store bought. The main secret is that my varieties are selected primarily for flavor profile and not for transport or storage qualities. Some of my favorite yellow tomatoes are incredibly thin skinned and wouldn't make it even in a small scale market garden environment to the farmer’s market. Norfolk hopes you'll grow their tomatoes and decide this is great and GMO is good. Actually they are quite conscious to avoid the use of the term GMO and use the word bioengineering. You’ll see labeling in the US later this year that uses the bioengineering nomenclature over GMO.
Should you decide to gets seeds then just know that there is a corporate marketing strategy at play here. Also, can I just say for a moment, WTF Norfolk? Why would you use "The Purple Tomato" as the name?!? Did you think it would be more innocuous as purple tomato is an entire category? It's confusing! You probably have a dog named Dog? And don’t get me started on the “The”. It’s a garbage name.
Other Concerns
If you buy a GMO seed you have to agree to license rights of the seed company. This has caused controversy in big agriculture when open pollination from these large fields means high potential cross pollination (and potential legal action since you don’t own the rights to the GMO offspring). Norfolk confirms these tomatoes are NOT sterile so it is possible they could open pollinate with other varieties. Based on their site it doesn't look like you have to fear Norfolk coming after you as a home gardener and you are welcome to save seeds from your plants (which might be nice given how expensive they are… $20 for a pack of 10!) However, I believe if you want to grow this tomato in your garden you should not share saved seeds of, at the very least, any other tomato plants nearby as there is a possibility of cross pollination in offspring of another plant. Given the controversy around GMOs it would be irresponsible to donate seeds to a seed swap that had any potential of GMO cross pollination. Should you save any seeds from any neighboring plants I would recommend noting that you had GMO Purple Tomato growing that year so you can keep an eye on future plants. Further, if you have immediate neighbors, while distance decreases the odds of cross pollination especially at home garden scale, you should at least take into consideration how your neighbors might feel as we work our way through this. If I had an immediate neighbor I certainly would not grow a GMO plant against their fence that could easily cross-pollinate.
Since this is already long I won’t dive into some of the other potential issues but it might be worth, at some point, talking about how the modifications are done. It’s nothing related to fish or animal DNA though.
Other Options
If you want a more natural tomato with anthocyanin (in the skin only) then some popular varieties are:
Paul Robeson
Carbon
Black Krim
Cherokee Purple
Indigo Black Chocolate cherry
Indigo Rose (saladette sized, bred through traditional means at Oregon State University with the same antioxidant goal)
These won't approach the level of anthocyanin in The Purple Tomato or blueberries or blackberries but they are options. You also won't get purple juice or tomato sauce.
What Am I Doing?
Well friends, I have been on a many year journey to find more vegetables with anthocyanins to add to my diet. I even tried purple potatoes a couple times (the ones with purple flesh, not just the skin) and haven't really loved any of them so far but I'm re-trying Adirondack Blue this year after a long break since I think the grow bags I used a decade ago were not the best setup.
So yeah, I'm doing it. I'm growing the GMO tomato and I’m excited! I still have some decisions to make (like potentially containing it to the greenhouse) but I'm not super worried about cross-pollination. I've been growing tomatoes for many many years and have never had any accidental crosses that I know of and I have no nearby neighbor plants. I will do as I suggested above and not save seeds this year. If anything I have far too many seeds already! The only seeds I might save will be breadseed poppy seeds for eating and of course the purple tomato itself.
In fact The Purple Tomato will be my #singleseedchallenge2024!
(more on that in the future)