GMO Purple Tomatoes:
As home gardeners page through seed catalogs and pick out their favorite heirlooms, there is a new seed that has never been available to them before: a GMO tomato the color of a concord grape with bright fluorescent-like plum-colored flesh.
This purple fruit, named the ‘Purple Tomato’, is the first genetically modified food crop that is now directly marketed to home gardeners. Historic.
The tomato 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.
You won't find these GMO tomato seeds in our collection. But you can find a better, natural alternative:
Traditional Purple Tomatoes:
Traditional breeders were the first to release a non-GMO purple tomato to the public with boosted levels of anthocyanins. More than two decades ago, Jim Myers at Oregon State University began using traditional plant breeding to cross genes from wild tomatoes with modern varieties.
In 2011, they released the 'Indigo Rose,' which has a deep blue skin and a pinkish inside when ripe, and more anthocyanin. This was done naturally through traditional plant breeding, not in a test tube. The goal was to develop a tomato with high levels of anthocyanins, the compounds that give blueberries and blackberries, eggplant and purple cabbage their color and their status as superfoods.
Anthocyanins have been shown to have anti-cancer and anti-inflammatory effects. They're antioxidants, which can help neutralize unstable molecules in the body that can damage healthy cells and are linked with aging and disease.
GMO Purple Tomato:
In a research paper published in Nature, Norfolk Plant Sciences found that mice who ate a diet supplemented with the GMO version of the Purple Tomato lived 30% longer than those who didn't. Yeah mice.
I choose the Traditional Purple Tomato:
As for me, I am going to eat more blueberries and blackberries, eggplant, purple cabbage and the heirloom Indigo Rose tomato. I will NOT grow or eat the GMO Purple Tomato. I wonder if this new GMO tomato will cross-pollinate with heirloom tomatoes in home gardens? We hope not, but if you are saving seeds, don't grow the GMO Purple Tomato as it's possible it will cross.
