Topic: About purple tomatoes...

[goodlife]

Something I came across when browsing...
- http://www.ibtimes.co.uk/uk-scientists-develop-purple-tomatoes-amplified-nutritional-value-1433960
- http://horticulture.oregonstate.edu/purple_tomato_faq
- http://www.soilassociation.org/aboutus/newsandmedia/readtodaysnews/todaysnews/articleid/6435/todays-news-gm-purple-tomatoes-set-for-eu-legal-problems-over-human-testing

HMMMM....

[daveyboi]

I am fearful of this development .... but  this seems to be the way the future is headed.

[galina]

Just to clarify - there is good news and bad news in goodlife's urls listed above.

The bad news is that there is a genetically engineered purple tomato coming our way.  Which we don't need!!!  Because? - the same cancer fighting benefits - anthocyanins - can be found in any purple food, such as blackberries, blue berries and many more.

There is even a purple tomato, which is NOT GMO!!!  It was developed by Oregon State University and is commercially available.  It is called 'Indigo Rose'.  Seeds can be bought here and at other places:
http://www.plant-world-seeds.com/store/view_seed_item/4411  or send me an SAE for seeds.

Indigo Rose tomato is not a GM tomato (and neither is its pre-release version, which was called OSU Blue).  We don't need GM tomatoes at all.  We already have the same benefits in normal tomatoes and many other purple fruits and vegetables. 

[goodlife]

Yep..the idea of transferring snapdragon genes into tomato doesn't sound right..where as indigo rose is not 'manipulated' with different plant species.  Indigo rose is result being crossed with another solanum.

What I don't 'get'...why do we need to have these GM veg...if we need to get the essential things that are naturally in purple berries...why not concentrate to breed or find  existing varieties/species that have more of the anhocyanins in them...and get people to eat them...or get people to eat more berries that we have now...!

If some are not willing to eat lovely berries for their health..why would they have it in form of tomato juice..making some 'purple mary's' won't make them exactly healthy neither

Just for interest...who here actually buy tomato juice to drink? I have never ever bought tomato juice! Tin tomatoes, passata, plum, puree, paste, sauce, dried..I have bought almost any other form but never as juice. 

[galina]

  Indigo rose is result being crossed with another solanum.

What I don't 'get'...why do we need to have these GM veg...if we need to get the essential things that are naturally in purple berries...why not concentrate to breed or find  existing varieties/species that have more of the anhocyanins in them...and get people to eat them...or get people to eat more berries that we have now...!

.

I recently re-read the OSU info.  The original cross was made with a wild tomato which contains anthocyanin.  By the way, the only other tomato that contains anthocyanin is 'Purple Smudge', but that has far less than 'Indigo Rose'.

Why?  As there is no 'real' reason to have this GMO purple tomato, the reason has to be psychological.  To 'soften us up' to accept genetically modified foods and to think of them as superfoods, as edible medicine.  People are paying high prices for blueberries, because of the 'superfood' label.  People who unfortunately don't know that free hedgerow blackberries are just as good for them.  As are jostaberries, blackcurrants, purple beans, peas and broccoli (especially if the cooking water is used as well), honeyberries (which are a bit new, but gaining popularity) and many more. 

How do you get a high price for your tomato juice?  You turn it into a 'superfood'.  And in one fell swoop you can charge more and you can get people used to GM, which is a toe in the door for other GMOs.

Just another attempt at making GM 'palatable' to Europeans, who in the past have rejected all other attempts.  And as cancer is a big concern for many, this is a cynical attempt to gain market share by scaring people into buying GM. 

As gardeners we can get plenty of purple fruit and vegetable varieties.  Not a bad idea to keep 'purple' in mind at seed buying time   

Here is a list of foods that contain anthocyanin in meaningful quantities:
http://www.naturalnews.com/042540_anthocyanins_antioxidants_healthy_foods.html
or here:
http://www.healthdiaries.com/eatthis/12-foods-that-contain-anthocyanins.html

[Jayb]

I'd say there are quite a few varieties of tomatoes which now contain the naturally occurring anthocyanin which include Purple Smudge, Purple Smudge Orange Flesh. As Galina says from the work started at OSU Indigo Rose was officially released by them. But there are numerous other varieties now bred eg. Dancing with Smurfs, Indigo Apple, Blue Beauty, Bosque Blue Bumblebee, Blue Fog, Chocolate Blues etc. To my understanding many of these are bred from earlier breeding lines from OSU containing the anthocyanin (antho) gene.

One of the big differences is the antho from the naturally bred tomatoes isn't in the whole fruit and if you cut one open the purple/black is seen in the colour just under the skin. The GMO is coloured all the way through.

As we already have naturally occurring fruit and vegetables containing anthocyanin, it would seem it is another way to con money out of consumers.

I'm hoping to grow some black carrots this year, see how they taste!

[galina]

JayB, you are absolutely right - I forgot about the super anthocyanin tomatoes bred by Tom Wagner.  DUH!

Here is the website to order seeds:
http://www.newworldcrops.com/

I guess that purple potatoes (which are getting more popular and available, especially on 'potato days') must be full of anthocyanin too. 

[goodlife]

Couple of weeks ago I received some wheat seed samples from J.Innes centre..which I was very happy about. Then I received request, to give them some feedback how my growing experiments with them have gone, good and/or bad news...ok, understandable...but then the chap said.."this is to satisfy/justify our sponsors where they spend their money for" as they supplied these samples for free..ok, understandable again..

Now I wonder...who sponsors or the funding comes from for John Innes centre to do these GM tomato trials!!!???...I would love to find out....

[Chrispy]

You fund it....
You pay taxes to the government.
The government pays the EU.
The EU pays the Sixth Framework Program.
The Sixth Framework Program pays for research projects.
Some of there research projects pay the JIC.

or something like that.