GMO Updates
GMO Update: The Purple Tomato
November 2024:
Last February seed for a genetically modified variety became widely available to gardeners in the U.S. for the first time—a purple cherry tomato simply named the Purple Tomato. Bred by Norfolk Healthy Produce in Norwich, UK, the Purple Tomato was created by inserting two snapdragon genes into the tomato genome. This allowed the tomato plant to produce high levels of anthocyanin, an antioxidant and pigment naturally occurring in purple-blue foods like blueberries, cherries, red onions, purple carrots and red cabbage. While some long-available hybrid tomato varieties produce anthocyanin in stems and fruit skins, the Purple Tomato is a shocking deep purple throughout the flesh and gel surrounding the seeds.
Historically, genetic modification of commercial crops like corn and soybeans has been aimed at creating plants that are tolerant of harmful agrochemical herbicides like glyphosate, but Norfolk states its main intention was to bring a healthier high-anthocyanin tomato to the table.
In an alarming mix-up last winter, Baker Creek Heirloom Seeds, which claims to sell only open-pollinated non-GMO seeds, offered what was likely the GMO Purple Tomato as an organic variety under a different name. When questions were raised about the suspiciously purple tomato’s origin, the company immediately stopped selling it and destroyed the seed stock.
Given this significant new development in GMO seed availability, and the confusion surrounding it, we believe it is worthwhile to reassert Fedco’s longtime stance that we will not knowingly sell GMO seeds because the gene technologies pose unacceptable risks to the environment.
Are all purple tomatoes genetically modified? No!
In 2011 Jim Myers of Oregon State University bred the first purple tomatoes on the market by crossing a cultivated tomato with a wild tomato, then selecting for flavor, yield and growth habit. These purple varieties, including the popular Indigo Cherry Drops, are not the result of genetic modification; rather they came from an original cross via hand pollination, followed by a decade of diligent crossing and selection. Other breeders have now used these genetics to create more purple tomatoes with anthocyanin in the fruits. (Older purple tomatoes such as Cherokee Purple, Black Krim and Black Prince get their color from another pigment called pheophytin.)
This year we are excited to offer Wild Mountain Seeds’ tomato Cosmic Purple Rain, which builds on Myers’ breeding work. Although the GMO Purple Tomato is still the only tomato to have intense blue-purple flesh, traditionally bred Cosmic Purple Rain has gorgeous deep purple shoulders and is full of healthy antioxidants.
Oregon Senate Bill 789,
Small Victory for Willamette Valley Seed Producers
November 2023:
The Willamette Valley in central Oregon is a phenomenal place to grow seed, and Fedco partners with many seed growers in that region. The area is particularly important for Brassica seed production, supplying more than 90% of many brassica seed varieties to growers all over the world.
Unfortunately, it is also a desirable place to grow genetically modified canola. GMO crops pose serious threats to seed crops due to cross-contamination as well as increased pest and disease pressure. A protective cap that limited canola production in the region to 500 acres expired in June 2023. On June 25, the Oregon Senate Bill 789 passed, extending existing protections. The original goal of this bill was to make these protections permanent, but the legislation was amended—as part of negotiations to end this summer’s Republican walk out—to add another sunset of July 2024 and mandate that the Oregon Department of Agriculture lead a work group of stakeholders on both sides of the issue to come up with possible “co-existence” solutions by September 30, 2023.
Fedco endorsed SB789. Unlimited canola production in this area would be detrimental to many seed farmers with whom we have longstanding relationships. In addition, sourcing GMO-free affordable high-quality Brassica seed would become substantially more difficult for Fedco because we would have to do expensive GMO tests on the majority of the Brassica seeds we carry. Therefore, we strongly support the limit and mapping of GMO canola production in the Willamette Valley.