GMO Tomatoes Now Available to Home Gardeners

[roadrunner]

I just heard about this news. Sorry if there was already a thread started, but I couldn't find it.

We've always heard not to worry about accidently getting GMO seeds, because they were only sold to farmers with thousands of acres.

However, now there seems to be a GMO tomato seed mixed with a Snapdragon available to everyone. I haven't really looked much into the details, so any input I'd be curious to hear.

Gardeners can now grow a genetically modified purple tomato made with snapdragon DNA

The plant gets its color — and a boost in antioxidants — from genes from an edible flower. It's the first time gardeners have been able to grow a GMO crop at home.

www.kgou.org

Excerpt:

Gardeners can now grow a genetically modified purple tomato made with snapdragon DNA​

As home gardeners in the U.S. page through seed catalogs and pick out their favorite heirlooms, there's a new seed that has never been available to them before: a tomato the color of a concord grape with plum-colored flesh. It looks otherworldly, maybe Photoshopped. But it's not.

This nightshade is purple because its creators at Norfolk Plant Sciences worked for about 20 years to hack color genes from a snapdragon flower into the plant. The genes not only provide pigment, but high levels of anthocyanin, a health-promoting compound.

This dusky fruit, named the Purple Tomato, is the first genetically modified food crop to be directly marketed to home gardeners – the seeds went on sale Saturday. Last year, a handful of small farmers started growing and selling the tomatoes, but until now, genetically modified foods were generally only available to commercial producers in the U.S.

By selling direct to gardeners, Norfolk hopes to get Americans to change their perceptions of GMO foods. A 2020 Pew Research study showed that most Americans see GMOs as worse for their health than a food that has no genetic modification and just 7% see them as healthier than other foods.

 

[Tetters]

NO thanks!!

 

[YumYum]

Unfortunately that will continue. Population going up, farm land (and farmers) going down. They need a super food to take up the slack and an engineered food will provide the specs they are looking for. I doubt taste and nutrition is a high priority while output per acre and disease resistance will be.

I haven't seen any GMO vegetables on any seed site and I don't want any.

 

[redback]

GM seed are banned in Australia, I think. I thought they were only for Roundup resistance. Now we find one that harmlessly only changes the color. Hmm? smells like an introduction to something worse to come.

 

[gdning8]

I think we should look at nuance more. GMO roundup resistance? That’s harmful and promotes more pesticide use.

GMO that increases cold tolerance? Not necessarily bad and could mean people in colder climates have access to fresh food more of the year.

That’s my take on it.

I would love a cold hardy avocado tree.

 

[roadrunner]

I didn't know we were eating GMO papayas

 

[Oliver Buckle]

These are genetically engineered in a lab. but it always strikes me that just about everything we grow has been genetically modified from the wild plants they originated from, just more slowly and less efficiently. I can see there might be by-products to it that are unwanted, but I would think it unlikely in most cases.
Artificial selection is older than agriculture, hunter gatherers picking melons in the Kalahari always leave the best one 'For the Gods', and the result of this seed selection shows.

 

[DirtMechanic]

I vote for a hardy GMO Meyer Lemon tree to keep the postings about them down to a low roar.

 

[Oliver Buckle]

I vote for a hardy GMO Meyer Lemon tree to keep the postings about them down to a low roar.

Yep, look at 'New posts' and there is nearly always one that says 'My lemon tree ...' How do commercial growers manage?

 

[cpp gardener]

Well, I guess that‘s why you don’t see a lot of orange or lemon groves in New York, Toronto or Chicago.
Since GMO plants won’t hurt people, I don’t have a problem with them at all.

 

[roadrunner]

Speaking of Meyer Lemon...Mine has been doing very badly for the last couple years, because of an attack by the invasive insects that cause Citrus Greening disease.

This winter I cut back all the crappy looking wood, including all foliage, to about a meter high, leaving only a stump.

And so far the leaves are looking very good and dark green and I don't see the insects anymore...Where did they go? I hope I didn't jinx myself


Link to more info on this insect (Asian citrus psyllid, Diaphorina citri Kuwayama) https://entnemdept.ufl.edu/creatures/citrus/acpsyllid.htm




Here's a pic I took a few years ago of the invasive insect that causes the disease; it's a major problem for all citrus in Florida.