Genetically modified tomato seeds?

[holliewould]

Has anyone here tried these types of tomato seeds? Apparently they don't get diseases or leaf curl and the such? Curious!

 

[katz]

I haven't tried them but I really don't want anything that's genetic modified and that's why I try to stick to the heirloom types to plant in my garden.
Seems to me that man could put forth more effort in to curing diseases than messing up our food sources as when the true seed is gone ... it's gone and never to return

 

[me&thegals]

No. In fact, I would avoid them if I knew which ones they were... :|

 

[silkiechicken]

I haven't, but sounds interesting. Before saying I wouldn't put them in my yard, I'd like to learn how they were genitically modified. Was it by traditional selective breeding, or hands on DNA manupilation with genes from other sources. If it was traditional genetic engineering, maybe I'd look into it if they were the short season variety.

 

[SewingDiva]

I have not heard of GMO seeds being sold for the home gardening market, only for agri-business production.

As for the whole Frankenfoods issue, a few weeks ago I heard the CEO of Monsanto interviewed on NPR, and he made a solid case for GMO from his perspective. Basically, he said that water and soil are in finite supply, and he didnt see anything wrong, for example, with developing strain of cotton that grew faster, required less pesticides and water than current strains.

That sounds reasonable I suppose for a plant like cotton, but when it comes to food Im reminded of the incident a few years ago when a GMO corn strain not intended for human consumption cross pollinated with a food variety. Wasn't there a huge recall due to concerns about people with corn allergies?

I guess I just don't understand what GMO will get us that traditional plants genetics methods won't.

~Phyllis

 

[simple life]

I personally don't like it. Its just very uncomfortable for me.
I think I'll use what God and Nature gives me and be grateful for it.

 

[me&thegals]

I haven't, but sounds interesting. Before saying I wouldn't put them in my yard, I'd like to learn how they were genitically modified. Was it by traditional selective breeding, or hands on DNA manupilation with genes from other sources. If it was traditional genetic engineering, maybe I'd look into it if they were the short season variety.

You bring up a good point. In a book I'm reading right now, the author points out that any traditional plant breeding methods are actually genetic modification. He calls the "lab slicing/splicing" method "transgenic modification" or something like that.

There are several large threads on BYC on GMO foods that really detail people's opinions on the pros and cons of each.

 

[silkiechicken]

Sounds like you are reading a good book. Transgenic plants (the correct name) are indeed the ones which people fear, but due to misunderstandings, think anything genetically altered is to be avoided, despite all our food crops have been traditionally genetically modified since man kind started the thing called farming.

I have pretty strong views on the whole genetic engineering thing and feel that the common public often misunderstands what the techical terms are and panic thinking that it's all the fault of scientists, government, big business, and unnatural DNA level mucking around. I blame the media.

 

[me&thegals]

It's called the End of Food by Paul Roberts. I guess my 3 main concerns about transgenic plants are the lack of good studies on their effects on humans and other animals (all studies have been done by those who produce them), their possible "escape" into the landscape around them through pollination, and the increased patenting of seeds that leaves too much of the food supply in the hands of a few enormous companies like Monsanto.

About the tomatoes, though, what diseases are the GMO tomatoes purported to avoid? I'd be interested in the taste of the tomatoes.

 

[patandchickens]

In a book I'm reading right now, the author points out that any traditional plant breeding methods are actually genetic modification.

There is a big difference, though - unlike what people term 'genetic engineering', traditional plant breeding methods (selecting on what is there, sometimes with mutagens to 'encourage' new variants to arise or to try to get polyploids) do not put genes into totally new contexts, at least not hardly at all.

When you put a gene from one thing into a new place in some other critter's chromosomes, two more or less new potential problems arise. There can be unexpected effects at the cellular level where you do not know what all ELSE the spliced in gene will do (besides what you intended), on account of being in the new genome and new regulatory environment thereof.

And secondly, at the level of the organism/population/ecosystem, you do not know what unexpected effects the new trait you've constructed will have. For instance IIRC nobody expected ahead of time the pollen from corn engineered to contain the toxin from Bt to be toxic to butterflies - it came as a good bit of a surprise.

Traditional plant breeding is almost entirely just a matter of reshuffling existing variation or embroidering on it, and thus tends not to have too much in the way of totally unexpected side effects. Whereas splicing in genes from other critters opens a MUCH bigger can of worms, the effects of which there is really no good way to guess.

Pat