Definitely a non-GMO tomato harvest.
Hello there, friends. This is a brief but vital public service announcement coming to you from small farmers and seed savers everywhere.
We’ve just passed the Ides of March and are rapidly approaching the spring equinox. As such, in most of the northern hemisphere it is time to start tomato seeds. You might have missed the grand pronouncement – the current news cycle being what it is – but last fall, the first GMO tomato seeds for home garden use were approved by the USDA, and the seeds were released for purchase early this year.
Allow us to be perfectly clear – this is a major shift in GMO technology and marketing, as this tomato represents the very first GMO food crop to be released as seeds for home gardeners. All other GMO crops (primarily canola, corn, cotton, soy and sugar beet) are only available to commercial growers and heavily protected. This tomato was developed in the U.K., where GMOs are illegal to grow (as in Europe). It can only be sold in the U.S. because we steadfastly refuse to regulate GMOs. This tomato is aimed squarely at American home gardeners and will likely show up in stores and farmers’ markets this year.
Press releases for this tomato tout its higher anthocyanin content. If you want higher anthocyanins in your homegrown tomatoes, grow any of the ‘Indigo’ tomato family bred by Jim Myers out of Oregon State University. ‘Indigo Rose,’ ‘Indigo Apple,’ ‘Indigo Cherry’ and more were bred through traditional multi-generational breeding techniques to display deep purplish-black coloration and high anthocyanin content. This is how new tomato varieties should be developed – not by splicing in snapdragon genes.
Respectfully and with great seriousness, we ask you not to purchase these tomato seeds and not to purchase these tomato plants, and if your local garden center or big-box store is selling these, to politely explain your opposition to these plants. The company’s goal here is clearly to reduce American gardeners’ opposition to GMO seeds in the home garden, bringing more and more to market. GMO seeds are not open-pollinated and cannot be saved nor shared. While GMOs may have no impact on human or environmental health (very much still up for debate), they certainly have a significant impact on seed sovereignty and therefore food sovereignty. Seeds, especially food crops, are to be saved and shared, not developed in a lab in a country where they can’t even be sold and then patented and flogged to the ignorant American gardener. Don’t buy these tomatoes.
Questions? Send ’em our way. This is a topic we are happy to discuss at length.
Wishing you all an abundant growing season, wherever you might be in the world.
Finding Quiet Farm 
Is there a specific name or label we should look to avoid? Will any labels clearly state “This seed is a GMO seed?”
I scanned your warning, and did not see anything specific…or would that get you in trouble?!
Thank you very much for this PSA!!!!!!!
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Good morning, Elise. Great question! As of January 1, 2022, all GMO food in the U.S. is legally required to be labeled as ‘bioengineered’ or ‘derived from bioengineering.’ However, those crafty ag lobbyists managed to find a way around that by eliminating the requirement if the DNA is ‘mostly undetectable,’ such as in soda and cooking oil (i.e. most GMO products on the shelf). As for these tomatoes, the company just released them as ‘Purple Tomato,’ and since they’ll be sold as either seeds or plants, the labeling law likely doesn’t apply. With fresh tomatoes at the supermarket, I would assume they’d have to be labeled as bioengineered – but we’re in a totally new frontier here, and everything is a grey area. My ultimate response is, I don’t know. Ask a lot of questions, and read labels carefully. How’s that for unhelpful? Hope you’re doing well!
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Here in southern Missouri all we have is ‘big box’ stores. The nearest actual nursery is an hour away. When it comes to seeds Burpee has an ‘Organic’ or ‘Heirloom’ line of seeds, but not much variety. I usually look for the ‘non-GMO’ somewhere on the envelope. Thanks for your warning! It’s just a sad time for the American home gardener.
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Hi Susan! Yes, heirloom or organic seeds are a great choice; buying from small seed companies or Seed Savers Exchange is a good option too! And saving and sharing your own seeds with your community helps everyone! Have a terrific growing season and thanks for reading!
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Gads! I wish I had not read this. Well, fortunately, I do not try new varieties, and I trust my sources.
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Agreed, Tony. It’s not an uplifting story.
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Elizabeth, what is the purpose of GMO seeds and plants and what is the actual harm to us and the food industry? Sorry if this is an elementary question, but I really don’t understand the GMO thing.
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Good morning Kathy, and thanks for your question. It is a tricky subject! At the risk of presenting a lengthy lecture on GMOs, the basic issue is that the technology of GMO seeds is owned by a specific company, so control of our food supply is then privatized. Since the dawn of modern agriculture (about ten thousand years ago) seeds have always been in the public domain, freely available to be shared and saved each year. GMOs have transformed that. Growing food is a basic human right and should never be exclusively in the hands of corporations.
Additionally, most (but not all) GMO technology changes the crops’ genes to make them more resistant to insects and disease. The best example of this is Monsanto’s Round-Up ready crops, including soy, canola, corn and cotton. The fields can be doused in Round-Up (glyphosate) which won’t kill the crop, only the pests. Unfortunately, this means that humans and animals are consuming a staggering amount of glyphosate, a known carcinogen, and the plant and its pests continue to evolve to become resistant to glyphosate – which means new GMO seeds have to be developed, and on and on and on. Other issues: GMO technology hasn’t existed long enough to thoroughly study its impact on humans and the environment at large. GMOs are banned in Europe but not in the U.S. because they’re hugely profitable and agriculture represents a significant portion of our GDP. Biotech companies have steadfastly resisted labeling any of their GMO crops because they’re well aware of the public’s legitimate questions regarding what is in our food.
In the case of this purple tomato, the biotech company used snapdragon genes to give the tomato its color and ostensibly increase its antioxidant content. But tomatoes and snapdragons would never cross naturally, and there are plenty of ways to get antioxidants without inserting unrelated genes. I cannot support the company’s argument about this purple tomato being “healthier” – it doesn’t stand up to scrutiny, in my opinion.
There is of course much more, but I’ll leave it there for the sake of brevity and space. I hope this helps! Please let me know if I can offer additional clarification. Wishing you all the best!
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