A selection of heirloom tomatoes.
Image: STU SPIVACK
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Editor's Note: This is the first in a series of six features on the science of food, running daily from March 30 through April 6, 2009.
Famous for their taste, color and, well, homeliness, heirloom tomatoes tug at the heartstrings of gardeners and advocates of locally grown foods. The tomato aficionado might conclude that, given the immense varieties—which go by such fanciful names as Aunt Gertie's Gold and the Green Zebra—heirlooms must have a more diverse and superior set of genes than their grocery store cousins, those run-of-the-mill hybrid varieties such as beefsteak, cherry and plum.
No matter how you slice it, however, their seeming diversity is only skin-deep: heirlooms are actually feeble and inbred—the defective product of breeding experiments that began during the Enlightenment and exploded thanks to enthusiastic backyard gardeners from Victorian England to Depression-era West Virginia. Heirlooms are the tomato equivalent of the pug—that "purebred" dog with the convoluted nose that snorts and hacks when it tries to catch a breath.
"The irony of all this," says Steven Tanksley, a geneticist at Cornell University, "is all that diversity of heirlooms can be accounted for by a handful of genes. There's probably no more than 10 mutant genes that create the diversity of heirlooms you see." But rather than simply debunking a myth about the heirloom’s diversity, Tanksley's deconstruction of the tomato genome, along with work by others, is showing how an unassuming berry from the Andes became one of the world's top crops. Genetics work will also point the way to sturdier, more flavorful tomatoes—albeit hybrid varieties whose seeds cannot be passed down from generation to generation but must be purchased anew by growers each season.*
New World Discovery
The cultivated tomato is a member of the nightshade family that includes New World crops such as potato and chili pepper, which spread around the world after Christopher Columbus brought them back to Spain in the 15th century.* But whereas scientists have uncovered a wealth of archaeological evidence—including microscopic starches on pottery shards that point to the taming of many crops from the Americas as far back as 10,000 years ago—the record is blank when it comes to the tomato.
Known scientifically as Solanum lycopersicum, the modern tomato seems to have its wild origins in the Peruvian Andes and may have been domesticated in Vera Cruz, Mexico—an agricultural hot spot. Primitive varieties still grow throughout the Americas. All told, botanists call some 13 species "tomatoes" and consider an additional four to be close allies. One might assume that one of these known wild species became today's cultivated crop, but that's not the case: the Mother Tomato has never been found. The closest relative is the currant tomato—Solanum pimpinellifolium—which, based on genetic comparisons, split from today's tomato some 1.4 million years ago.
So researchers like Tanksley have to work backward, crossing tomato varieties and species in order to understand how various genes influence shape and size. Once isolated, Tanksley later inserts those genes into other tomato varieties to make his case with a dramatic transformation.
See what we're tweeting about
98 Comments
Add CommentThese new "Heirlooms" will be patented if Monsanto is involved. Which means it will be ILLEGAL for you to save the seeds (if indeed they actually produce seeds). And if their patented gene gets in your Heirloom tomato varieties, even by accidental cross-polination, they can sue you. If you don't believe me, just Google Percy Schmeiser and Rodney Nelson.
Reply | Report Abuse | Link to thisPeople do not eat tomatoes because of genes or good breeding.
Reply | Report Abuse | Link to thisThey eat tomatoes because they taste good.
I've grown heirlooms for years so I'm confused by the statement that they usually only set two fruits per plant. While perhaps not as great as the hybrid vatieties, my heirloom tomato plants have always produced a satisfactory crop level. I have the pictures to prove it!
Reply | Report Abuse | Link to thisThis is the sort of nonsense that gives science a bad name. As has been noted, people do not eat or grow tomatoes owing to their gene package: they eat and grow them for their eating quality. No heirloom gardener needs or wants a rock-hard tomato that ships well, nor a water-inflated one that is "bigger" and tastes like a vegetable sponge. The casual disdain for fanciers of heirlooms, that they're just cultists with no basis for their preferences--stand aside please while we wise scientists do the job--is highly insulting, and counter-productive. But it is, alas, to be expected from folk who work for commercial seedsmen.
Reply | Report Abuse | Link to thisI will use nor pay anything to Monsanto. They come on my farm, I will treat them to some bacon rind and rock salt in the old 12ga. I have been hearing about their bs t and ruining small farms. They really need to be taken down. and their influence in our government ENDED.
Reply | Report Abuse | Link to thisThere's nothing wrong with wanting a bit more disease resistance in our tomatoes. However, there is something wrong with patenting plants. I would argue that the lesson learned here isn't that the heirloom gardener should invest in these new hybrids, but rather that they find wild plant varieties and make their own hybrids.
Reply | Report Abuse | Link to thisPersonally, I can't understand how you can patent something that makes copies of itself at nature's whim. The government should step in and tell them that what they're proposing is preposterous. I understand that they worked hard to make these new varieties and they certainly deserve to make money off of it. They do not have the right, however, to terrorize people just because some bees went from their patented crop to the heirloom crop of another. It's insane!
Here you go, I think that these companies that sue people for replanting patented plants or for their crops being pollinated and hybridized by their patented plants should go directly to the source. First, they need to sue the plants for making illegal copies of themselves and disseminating material that facilitates their reproduction (pollen). Additionally, they should also sue bees, butterflies and various bird species as well as the sun (which causes the wind to blow because of temperature variations caused by solar radiation) for causing the wind to blow which can also spread this illegal pollen. I think that's perfectly reasonable if we use the same logic they are for penalizing people for illegally reproducing their patented material. The crops should be burned, all insects and birds gassed, and the sun should be blown up. The alternative is that their patents are infringed upon, and we simply can't have that.
Reply | Report Abuse | Link to thisI've had a small garden for the past 55 years, just a backyard kind. Only once did I try an heirloom, and was very disappointed. Beautiful leaves,
Reply | Report Abuse | Link to thisbut I didn't try eating them...I've always been very happy with the
beefsteaks and cherry.....Chuck, Portland OR......
Hybreds produce and look good but I prefer straight breds that are adapted for my garden and taste good. Most heirlooms are somebody else's bad idea and do poorly in my garden.
Reply | Report Abuse | Link to thisFirst, the author makes several errors. Beefsteak, cherry and plum describe tomato shape, heirloom as well as hybrid. Heirloom tomatoes set many more then two fruits, and so on. Second, I am not against modern methods of hybridizing, but think it much better for ecology to develop open pollinated instead of sterile varieties. And while some hybridizers think big is good, lots of heirloom varieties are big enough and taste better than commercial hybrids.
Reply | Report Abuse | Link to thisIf you are only getting 2 tomatoes per plant, then I question your credentials. Clearly the article was written by somebody who has never grown a tomato.
Reply | Report Abuse | Link to thisEven in Houston, one of the most challenging places to grow tomatoes, I get 15-30 large tomatoes per plant off heirlooms and hybrids alike. And I have compared the flavor of them side-by-side, both grown in my own garden until fully ripe. There is no comparison.
Productivity is a small part of the equation. You make it sound like it is the only part. Hybrids make you dependent upon the seed company and upon labor in 3rd world countries which is rather socially irresponsible.
If you would like some gardening advice so you can correct your article, and correct your misconceptions about heirloom tomatoes, I'd be more than happy to help out.
There are many errors in this article. First of all, F2 seeds saved from hybrid (F1) tomatoes are not sterile. For the author to say such a thing shows the shallowness of his tomato knowledge and puts into question the rest of his assertions.
Reply | Report Abuse | Link to thisSecondly, every single trait exhibited in a modern hybrid tomato was derived FROM vintage cultivars or wild tomato species, which demonstrates the diversity of the types of tomatoes the author asserts are not diverse.
Lastly, if round, red, tasteless, hard, delayed ripening, thick-skinned, low Brix are so desirable and diverse (compared with vintage type tomatoes), why then is the current trend in tomato breeding to re-incorporate vintage traits regarding shape, color, texture, skin quality, and ESPECIALLY enhanced flavor ... which is the most recent attempt at rehabilitating the modern market hybrid and making it palatable again ... THANK GOODNESS!
There are many errors in this article. First of all, F2 seeds saved from hybrid (F1) tomatoes are not sterile. For the author to say such a thing shows the shallowness of his tomato knowledge and puts into question the rest of his assertions.
Reply | Report Abuse | Link to thisSecondly, every single trait exhibited in a modern hybrid tomato was derived FROM vintage cultivars or wild tomato species, which demonstrates the diversity of the types of tomatoes the author asserts are not diverse.
Lastly, if round, red, tasteless, hard, delayed ripening, thick-skinned, low Brix are so desirable and diverse (compared with vintage type tomatoes), why then is the current trend in tomato breeding to re-incorporate vintage traits regarding shape, color, texture, skin quality, and ESPECIALLY enhanced flavor ... which is the most recent attempt at rehabilitating the modern market hybrid and making it palatable again ... THANK GOODNESS!
Whose toady are you Borrell?
Reply | Report Abuse | Link to thisFirst of all, clarify your use of the term heirloom tomatoes. The statement heirlooms are actually feeble and inbred... is about as scientific as saying Americans are obese.
Are you trying to say that open pollinated tomato varieties are universally inferior to hybrid and genetically modified varieties?
And, what do you mean by archaic breeding strategies? Your pug analogy could be relevant to particular open pollinated or heirloom tomato varieties, but once again, its a foolish statement applied to the broad category, as is stating that heirlooms typically bear only 2 fruits per plant. It sounds to me like you are using the Brandywine tomato as a representative of all heirloom tomatoes. Thats not good science.
Open pollinated and heirloom tomatoes have come through the hands of thousands of breeders, who run the gamut from backyard gardeners to those who derive a salary from breeding plants, and the quality of their work is diverse, reflecting diverse needs, goals, abilities and intentions.
I have been involved in growing (and seed saving) open pollinated and heirloom vegetables for 30 years, and this includes tomato varieties of fine culinary quality and excellent plant vigor. I am not a luddite, and I dont have romantic delusions about heirloom varieties. There are robust heirlooms and yes, there are feeble heirlooms.
Its a good idea to try to improve disease resistance using some of the more primitive lycopersicon species. However, I do not care to have Monsanto deciding for me what constitutes a better tomato, and I certainly dont want to have to buy seed from them in order to grow tomatoes. We grow all the tomatoes we eat all year, and have very specific needs and preferences that may not be relevant to anyone else. Our varieties are adapted to us and our garden in our little corner of the planet.
The Seminis toadies may, with their manipulations, increase genetic diversity within some tomato plants. What scares me is the lack of diversity of people doing plant breeding. That this activity is becoming increasingly centralized should set off alarm bells for anyone who is concerned about the future of food and who will control access to it.
Its not bad enough that Monsanto has control of the entire 3rd world planting stock, but now they want to extend that control to all other food plants also. Anyone that gardens knows the extent of the mistakes in this article. Something must be done about these giant corps before they make the entire world over in their image.
Reply | Report Abuse | Link to thisAs a hobby gardener, I tried for years to grow those tomatoes that one can buy as plants in big box stores or local nurseries. You know the types; the ones with "big", "better", and "early" in their names.
Reply | Report Abuse | Link to thisThey were prolific and very disease resistant (hurray!), but they had tough skins and bland flavors and, more often than not, a mealy texture. Every year I'd try something new to get better flavor - more water, less water, different fertilizers, no fertilizers. All with the same results. Healthy, plentiful, almost perfect plants and fruits, but very flat tasting.
From the consumption perspective (eating, that is), the so-called hybrids left a lot to be desired.
Last year, at a farm stand, I purchased some tomato plants with names that were unfamiliar. I found out later that they were "heirloom" tomatoes. Yes, they were lacking in disease resistance and less prolific, although the "one or two" fruits statement is an exaggeration (is exaggeration encouraged in a "scientific" publication?).
The fruits that were harvested were tasty; a pleasure to eat, despite the unusual colors and shapes and, yes, some with imperfect skin or cracks.
Previously I never shared homegrown tomatoes with others because they were embarrassingly flavorless, but these were a big hit.
Most heirlooms may be impractical for the professional farmer, but they are perfect for hobby/backyard gardeners who don't mind putting in the extra effort to enjoy an excellent flavor. The delicious, juicy tomato tastes are worth the extra labor.
Sweet, salty, complex, tangy -- there are a great variety of flavors to experience with heirlooms.
I have purchased organic "hybrid" tomatoes, grown locally, at farmers markets. They are every bit as uninspired in the flavor department as almost all the other tomatoes that can be purchased at a supermarket in the dead of winter.
They're ok if they are the only choice available, but I'd don't purchase them myself. However, if someone comes up with hybrids that possess the richness and range of flavors available in the heirlooms, I'd be willing to grow them and buy the fruits in markets. For now we'll continue to grow these inferior plants with superior flavors, and give those supermarket tomatoes a miss.
This article is ridiculous. I am glad nobody told my heirloom tomatoes that they are poor growers or set few fruit, because I have an abundant crop of delicious tomatoes every year from heirlooms, and unlike the hybrids, I can save the seeds year after year. Promoting what Monsanto is doing is very very sad. Purchasing hybrids leaves gardeners chained to the process of buying new seeds or plants every year, keeping a continuous stream of money going out the door. Which is of course what Monsanto wants, I hope nobody thinks they want to 'help' growers out of some inherent altruism. If one grows heirlooms or open pollinated plants, and saves the seeds, then the grower can select plants that do well in their climate, plants that are resistant to the local diseases and conditions. That makes more sense that buying a lab produced tomato that is resistant to what Monsanto thinks it should be resistant too.
Reply | Report Abuse | Link to thisReferring to the following excerpts from the article above: "Tanksley concludes from his analyses that, in their effort to make bigger, tastier and faster-growing fruit" and "The selection of these traits has taken a toll on the heirloom's hardiness: They are often plagued by fungal infections that cause the fruit to crack, split and otherwise rot quickly."
Reply | Report Abuse | Link to thisYou're assuming that gardeners (ancestral and modern alike) selected ONLY for taste, size, and earliness.
You seem to have forgotten that they (and we) also select for things like disease resistance and climate-specific performance. If gardeners selected ONLY for the qualities you cite, there would be an ever-dwindling supply of heirloom or open-pollinated tomato seeds, because plants would get weaker and weaker and produce fewer and fewer fruits from which we could harvest seeds for the next crop. And yet, there are hundreds if not thousands of open-pollinated and/or heirloom tomatoes and other vegetables. The plants which are healthiest are those which live longest are those which pass on the most seeds for future generations of plants. It's simple natural selection, with the added help of a gardener's needs and preferences.
I think some big corporations are just afraid that we can get along without them and their genetically modified products.
This article is an embarrassment to Scientific American. There are numerous incorrect statements and factual errors.
Reply | Report Abuse | Link to thisGet the real story at:
http://www.tomatoville.com/showthread.php?t=10808
I might suggest actually growing some heirloom tomatoes in a healthy, natural, and maybe even organic environment and see if you get 2 fruit. Each variety is different, but even the pickiest varities perform FAR better than that when grown with the proper care. Monsanto is welcome to genetically engineer and sell all the frankematers they can, but for me, I'll take some of these "weaklings" that managed to survive for hundreds or thousands of years of natural selection and, most importantly, taste FANTASTIC, thankyou. Do you ever wonder why 5 star restaurants and gourmet places covet and pay two or three times the cost for heirlooms for their customers? Taste, regardless of whether they have 1 gene or 1m tha are different. I'm happy that some commercial producers realize the cardboard flavored tomato shaped lumps sold in supermarkets are vastly inferior to heirlooms and they are doing something about it. Still one wonders how many of the genetic modifcations they are making are for the purpose of copywrite protection vs. actual improvements?
Reply | Report Abuse | Link to thisLiar, Liar! Pants on Fire.
Reply | Report Abuse | Link to thisI have yet to come across a hybrid tomato that produces sterile seeds. There may be a rare few but I don't which ones they are, Perhaps the esteemed author can cough up the names of those he knows of, as well as some links to back up his assertions.
Even as a beginner I never had an heirloom crop just two tomatoes. What a freaking joke!
Let's have the links and footnotes to the sources for the information, Without a refernence set of info that the public can read for themselves this article is a complete sham.
Shame on Scientific American for allowing an article which has some agenda to it--what that agenda is I'm not entirely sure, but lying to make points is a disservice to the global community.
TG Davidoff, CEO
WinterSown Educational
WinterSown,.Org
USDA/NAL/AgNIC
Looks like everyone has Monsanto's number these days. This article is a complete obfuscation of the truth. I've grown heirlooms and I've grown hybrids. Heirlooms are better.
Reply | Report Abuse | Link to thisI can save my seeds year after year and do not have to worry about paying Monsanto for the right to do so. They can patent all they want, but the truth of the matter is, there is such a large following of seed savers, seed traders and heirloom mater growers that they'll never win this battle even with their battalions of scumbag attorneys. There are too many and believe me, when you start messing with someone's garden, you'd better be ready to lock people up. Gardening and the right to grow what you wish is inbred into the American psyche and there is no way Monsanto, the government or anyone else is going to be able to stop them.
The moment I saw the "two tomato" statement, this writer lost all credibility and since I know this is not true, then I have to assume that the rest of it is not true, either.
I hope Monsanto paid someone a whole heap of money for shilling for them, because it has cost you and this magazine dearly.
Please go back and do your homework, post your references and footnotes and if you do this, you are going to have to print a retraction. But we all know that retractions are not worth the paper they are printed on, you've probably convinced a lot of people who are new to tomato growing that you actually know what you are talking about and they'll never see it IF you have the integrity to do the right thing.
You have really hit a nerve with your inaccurate article.
Another thing abut the "two tomatoes" myth: Our forebears who grew food in their gardens and small farms in order to support their families would not have been able to afford such puny plants. Heck, *I* can't afford to grow plants which give only two fruit, and I'm not trying to feed a whole family on my crops. I need some "bang for the buck"--a high return for my effort and space--and so did gardeners and farmers of the past. Maybe there ARE heirlooms which habitually produce so few fruit, but they are not the norm.
Reply | Report Abuse | Link to thisLook, I'm not saying hybrids are inferior just by being hybrids. I'm growing a Big Beef hybrid in my garden right now, and it's performing quite well so far. But so are the Arkansas Traveler and Cherokee Purple next to it. I've also grown the heirloom Brandywine, which is supposedly a poor performer (in my area at least), and yet as Feldon up there will attest, it produced copiously for me. If you're only getting two fruit from something, it's most likely not the plant's fault. There are weather factors, fertilization factors, etc. to take into account.
I can't believe you're advocating GMO (genetically modified)
Reply | Report Abuse | Link to thistomatoes or any other plant. Check this out before you choose your seeds or plants http://blogs.healthfreedomalliance.org/blog/2009/03/26/crimminalizing-organic-and-home-growers/
Monsanto OWNS the rights to most of these plants and their seeds and they're being outlawed in more and more countries around the globe, for good reason. Check out how many farmers have been put out of business because of them.
I don't know where you got your information but countries around the world are outlawing your GMO (genetically altered) tomatoes and other plants and seeds and for good reason. Take a look at the newest info at http://blogs.healthfreedomalliance.org/blog/2009/03/26/crimminalizing-organic-and-home-growers/
Reply | Report Abuse | Link to thisand tell us again how great those new tomatoes are. Monsanto has put farmers around the world out of business because their patented gmo plants spread into other fields and they claim the plants are then theirs. The seeds are sterile and next year, the farmers (and you) will have to buy your seeds from Monsanto. How do you think that will affect US farmers who have always been able to save their seed for next year's planting.
"Heirlooms are the tomato equivalent of the pugthat "purebred" dog with the convoluted nose that snorts and hacks when it tries to catch a breath."
Reply | Report Abuse | Link to thisI have news for you Brendan, heirloom tomatoes can also be the tomato equivalent of the Labrador. Strong, sweet, hard working, and man's best friend in the kitchen.
This article is full of Monsanto propaganda. I have some serious doubts about the credibility of Scientific American and it's journalists.
I don't understand. I used to grow only hybrids, but since adding Heirloom tomatoes to my garden, it's like adding new colors to the palate. Sure, they can be tempramental and require a little more care, but the flavor is superior to all of my hybrids. Hybrids score an 80 on a scale set by heirlooms for flavor and I can also add that even the poorest producers of the heirlooms never had only 2 fruits. I had a Hybrid last year that did not produce even one tomato!
Reply | Report Abuse | Link to thisI know I haven't read all the comments, but am I mistaken, or was no discussion of nutritional values between tomatoes. Isn't that really the point?
Reply | Report Abuse | Link to thisThere was a good point in a comment about getting more disease resistance, but I still don't know why we can't get that with breeding instead of always being in a hurry and forcing a situation. Reports I keep hearing over the years are that "microscopically" Genetically Modified ends up bringing unwanted consequences in both health and ownership issues.
Reply | Report Abuse | Link to thisThis article is awful ! HOW DARE YOU !!
Reply | Report Abuse | Link to thisOBVIOUSLY this is an opinion piece. Heirloom is the ONLY way to go. There are so many beautiful tasty heirloom tomatoes out there... How can you lump them all together ?How can you state such opinion as fact ? Maybe you have an agenda - maybe you want people to think they can't save their own seeds. They can - they do - and will continue to without listening to this bunk.
Whoever wrote this doesn't know what they are talking about... AT ALL. I would never buy a store bought tomato. Anything connected to monsanto is tainted.
Thank you Tughillcam,
Reply | Report Abuse | Link to thisIt's really easy to save tomato seeds, you can ferment them
http://faq.gardenweb.com/faq/lists/seedsave/2002084456024410.html
or do a sanitizing scrub:
http://www.wintersown.org/wseo1/CleanTomatoSeeds.html
T
People who like heirlooms do so for many reasons- taste, beauty, their stories, etc. There are errors in this story which make me question the veracity of the whole. Eggplant, while related to tomatoes, aren't a new world plant. Evidence is that their region of origin is southeast asia. Most heirlooms produce many more than 2 fruit- seems the "researcher" tested only one. I have had beautiful (though boring) hybrids that looked perfect on the outside yet were rotting inside. I'd rather see if the fruit is rotting and plan to process or eat them before this happens. Hardiness of the plant doesn't have to come only from the genes of the plant itself. If the soil is healthy- meaning full of beneficial microorganisms as well as nutrients, the plants growing in the soil will be healthier and more able to resist disease. Many of the flavorful components present in tomatoes come from compounds that the tomatoes produce as part of their work to deter insects and pests. These are also some of the most healthful components for humans eating the fruits. Relying on genes to prevent illness may reduce the amounts of these components produced. Finally, developing more hybrid seeds is not the way to global food security. It's the way to provide for more profits to global corporations and makes people more dependent on outside sources for their food. I want no part of that, thank you.
Reply | Report Abuse | Link to thisPeople who like heirlooms do so for many reasons- taste, beauty, their stories, etc. There are errors in this story which make me question the veracity of the whole. Eggplant, while related to tomatoes, aren't a new world plant. Evidence is that their region of origin is southeast asia. Most heirlooms produce many more than 2 fruit- seems the "researcher" tested only one. I have had beautiful (though boring) hybrids that looked perfect on the outside yet were rotting inside. I'd rather see if the fruit is rotting and plan to process or eat them before this happens. Hardiness of the plant doesn't have to come only from the genes of the plant itself. If the soil is healthy- meaning full of beneficial microorganisms as well as nutrients, the plants growing in the soil will be healthier and more able to resist disease. Many of the flavorful components present in tomatoes come from compounds that the tomatoes produce as part of their work to deter insects and pests. These are also some of the most healthful components for humans eating the fruits. Relying on genes to prevent illness may reduce the amounts of these components produced. Finally, developing more hybrid seeds is not the way to global food security. It's the way to provide for more profits to global corporations and makes people more dependent on outside sources for their food. I want no part of that, thank you.
Reply | Report Abuse | Link to thisI have never heard of an heirloom tomato plant that only produced 2 fruits per plant. I maintain dozens of old varieties and many produce 30 pounds or more in my short Minnesota summer season. That Monsanto, after their destroying the heirloom corn production in our area is now working on tomatoes honestly scares the heck out of me. Their spreading of rumors that somehow varieties that evolved to adapt to specific areas are inferior to what they grow causes me to think that their next target, after taking out the family seed-saving farms of the midwest, is the tomato gardeners.
Reply | Report Abuse | Link to thisTom Kleffman
I appreciate the scientific discussion you present but as a novice grower of both heirlooms and hybrids, I would point that the argument of 2 tomatoes per heirloom plant is specious. I had heirlooms that wouldn't stop producing for months (since they are indeterminites and will grow and produce continuously until frozen). I had some heirlooms, like hybrids, that had a bad year due to climactic conditions and did terrible, where the previous year both had been champions of the garden. I appreciate that a professional scientist working with for a for-profit company wants to monetize his research, but don't REPORT that heirlooms are terrible and have no disease resistance (did Monsanto copy edit your article?). Did your full scorecard take into account the difference between growers practicing sustainable, soil replenishing methods of gardening with good garden hygiene, which on a full report card is better for the earth than some franken-mater grown in using chemical practices.
Reply | Report Abuse | Link to thisI appreciate the scientific discussion you present but as a novice grower of both heirlooms and hybrids, I would point that the argument of 2 tomatoes per heirloom plant is specious. I had heirlooms that wouldn't stop producing for months (since they are indeterminites and will grow and produce continuously until frozen). I had some heirlooms, like hybrids, that had a bad year due to climactic conditions and did terrible, where the previous year both had been champions of the garden. I appreciate that a professional scientist working with for a for-profit company wants to monetize his research, but don't REPORT that heirlooms are terrible and have no disease resistance (did Monsanto copy edit your article?). Did your full scorecard take into account the difference between growers practicing sustainable, soil replenishing methods of gardening with good garden hygiene, which on a full report card is better for the earth than some franken-mater grown in using chemical practices.
Reply | Report Abuse | Link to thisSkeptical raises an excellent point.
Reply | Report Abuse | Link to thisPurely from a nutritional value viewpoint, for years now, commercial farming has produced fruits and vegetables with a fraction of the nutrients they used to have. One almost has to take a multivitamin just to keep up with the dramatic loss in nutrient value coming from large-scale produce grown in nearly sterile soil fed with super-concentrated chemical fertilizers, pesticides, etc.
Where is the scientific analysis of tomatoes grown in fertile, traditional soil (full of earthworms and beneficial microorganisms), and the nearly sterile soils of commercial farming with chemical fertilizers? The nutrient quantity would be nearly doubled I assure you.
I am a gardener who used hybrids until the day I discovered heirloom varieties. Heirloom seeds are the best thing that ever happened to my taste buds. I will never go back to hybrids or GM seeds.
Reply | Report Abuse | Link to thisThere are around two-hundred dog breeds recognized by the American Kennel Club. There are many hundreds more recognized tomato heirloom varieties. To boil that diversity down to a single false comparison is lazy and shameful.
Reply | Report Abuse | Link to thisThe better question on the comparison is how do you think dog owners would react if Monsanto said they were going to replace all of their feeble and inbred dogs with a genetically perfect dog? Would you describe dog breeders as archaic and backwards? Would you so easily dismiss the unique qualities of all those breeds?
The section on genetic diversity is also bordering on ignorance. Heirlooms don't have better or more genes than other tomato plants, they just have different variations. It is the combinations that make them special and unique not the number or quality. To discount the variety that can be obtained from just 10 genes shows a complete lack of understanding of genetics. Each gene can have multiple alleles which can provide many hundreds of thousands of combinations with just a handful of genes. A similar number of genes leads to all the many cat coat color types for instance.
At the end of the day the article attempts to make a subjective choice and objective one. To do that this article selects the worst possible examples and applies them to all heirloom tomatoes. In the end I want the variety of tastes that come from the many heirloom varieties I grow, not something with a comparable sugar profile.
SciAm has really shot itself in the foot with this article. Its so full of errors, it should be embarrassing to them. Many have responded to those errors, so I'll leave off commenting to that. I did laugh, however, at the comment that someone has been growing these "modern" hybrids for 55 years. Those of us who know the history of breeding know that one was good for a laugh!
Reply | Report Abuse | Link to thisDisinformation of the kind contained in this article means only one thing: the propaganda war has begun on local eating, growing, producing, and maintaining our food independence from big corporate interests.
We won't go quietly into the night on this one.
Absolutely appalling writing, full of inaccurate statements like: heirloom varieties are "weak" (utterly false, they are hardy and sturdy), "prone to disease"(also false, never had a single problem in 20 years of growing various heirlooms) and "produce 2 fruits per plant" (also absurd and false - more like 30 fruits per plant depending on the variety). The falsehoods were used here to bolster a weak argument for genetic engineering which is nothing more than pollution with a life of it's own.
Reply | Report Abuse | Link to thisThis article is an embarassment to your magazine.
Reply | Report Abuse | Link to thisWhat a bunch of hog wash! I can remember when all I ever grew were Hybrids. I thought that was all there was. Sometimes they did good sometimes not so good. I bought whatever plants the nurseries were pushing that year. I didn't know I had a choice. Then somehow I got introduced to Heirlooms. I tried one plant the first year and it did OK but the tomatoes that I got were really good. The next year I added a few more Heirloom varieties. Now heirlooms are all I grow with the exception of a few Big Beefs. The statement that you only get two fruits per plant on heirlooms reeks with the smell of propaganda. This was an article with an agenda. I never thought that Scientific American was like that.
Reply | Report Abuse | Link to thisAppears that SA has sucked the milk out of a sacred cow.
Reply | Report Abuse | Link to thisHeirlooms have become a much hyped market in of themselves. Inacurracies of the article aside, I am glad to see some challenging a heirloom myth (heirlooms are more diverse ) with the science of top experts who have spent their careers researching tomato genetics as opposed to ancedotes from hobbyists.
One can make up a story or pass off a line as an heirloom and some will automatically not question it (Green Zebra is a good example that even fooled the SA writer). It doesn't help that a few promoting heirloom tomatoes have had floating definitions for what is or isn't an heirloom.
I have gone into markets to do taste tests to compare store brought lines with heirlooms. When I switched them around and told people the store brought was the heirloom they would choose the store brought as "better flavored". In following years I observed people automatically rating anything labelled "Brandywine" as better without even trying others. The hype of heirlooms has created a bias.
I am not saying some heirlooms don't taste good or don't have value. I believe they do. I also think hybrids do. I would rather like to point out that if the heirloom only crowd wants to call out SA or these researchers for "inaccuracies" they best take the plank from their own eyes.
I look forward to trying Dr.Heath's line for myself and would like to know how to get seed.
I'm always open to developments, in history or in theory. This is a fascinating article. I wish there was a bibliography. There seems to be a wry slant, though. Two fruits per plant!? Really! I have grown heirlooms for 25 years;never saw that one. Make me wonder what else is wrong.
Reply | Report Abuse | Link to thisThis is an absolutely shameful piece. The focus of the advertisement, er, 'article' conveniently misses very important considerations.
Reply | Report Abuse | Link to thisIn genetic terms, we and other primates are not so dissimilar, and the fact that domesticated tomatoes utilize a rather small number of genetic markers to support an idea that they're all basically the same is asinine.
Even ignoring the exponential number of combinations in such a scenario, the reality is still the same - commercial crop varieties like those engineered, patented (?) and pushed by Monsanto and their ilk lead to monocultures that ultimately leave our food supply more vulnerable to disease.
Transparent propoganda like this only tarnishes what used to be a admired academic reputation.
Green Zebra is a great example. How many times have I seen it labeled as an Heirloom? Even on seed packets?
Reply | Report Abuse | Link to thisIn fact it was developed by Tom Wagner and released in 1983 through his seed company Tater-Mater Seeds.
Most americans have become accustom to prepackaged uniform food so any type of diversity is looked down upon. When you weigh in the factors of flavor and nutrients then the heirloom wins handsdown. Beauty is on the inside. Looking good on the outside doesn't mean that the quality is there. Besides if we become so dependant on hybrid seeds and the seed companies then how will we have food independance. Seed will become the new oil. Those who have it and are in control of it are in fact in control. Perhaps Monsanto or some other big seed company is financially contributing to this propaganda. Makes you wonder.
Reply | Report Abuse | Link to thisScientific American? I thought I was reading the Onion! Thanks for the April Fools Joke - uhm - this is a joke article isn't it?
Reply | Report Abuse | Link to thisMe thinks I see a bit of backyard gardener's paranoia here abouts. ;-)
Reply | Report Abuse | Link to thisOh, it's just Crackpot Organic Orren warning us of Big, Bad Science and the Big Bad Corpratocracy. Yes, we know his variety well, it's the tomato we call the Red State Loser. ;-)
I'd like to add my voice to the chorus of those who strongly disagree with Brendan Borrell's characterization of heirloom tomatoes as archaic, weak and wimpy, homely, feeble, inbred, and defective. The man has no case against heirloom tomatoes; his remarks are insulting and arrogant.
Reply | Report Abuse | Link to thisAmy Goldman
Author of The Heirloom Tomato: From Garden to Table
I share OP tomato seeds with individuals and small organizations, OP means Open Pollinated--only Mother Nature has been involved in their pollination. The
Reply | Report Abuse | Link to thistomato seeds have been donated by growers and gardeners around the country so that they can be shared with people interested growing OP tomatoes.
Please follow the instructions at this link: http://www.wintersown.org/wseo1/YourChoiceTomatoSASE.html
Thanks,
Trudi Davidoff
WinterSown.Org
Wow. I've been reading Scientific American for many years, and I've never seen an article from this publication littered with so many factual errors.
Reply | Report Abuse | Link to thisThe first is right in the very first paragraph: Green Zebra tomatoes are in fact not heirloom (and the tiniest bit of research would have shown this). It just gets worse from there, as already very well pointed out by the previous 52 posters ahead of me.
Hopefully this writer will learn in the future to actually do research and not just appear to be the puppet of a company like Monsanto which is renowned for making a buck, not making the world a better place through biodiversity.
I've been a reader of Scientific American for years, and I've never been more disappointed, or seen more factual errors in a so-called article.
Reply | Report Abuse | Link to thisIt's plainly evident in the first paragraph - Green Zebra's are labelled as heirlooms, when in fact they're not. The tiniest bit of research would have shown this to the writer in about 30 seconds.
It just gets worse from there - which many posters above me have commented on so well.
I hope this writer seriously thinks about doing some research before writing another article. It might prevent him from looking like a puppet of Monsanto in the future.
I find it a bit disturbing that the scientists are telling us why we grow heirloom. Don't they give us credit for researching and trying tomato plants ourselves? I would never go a summer without heirlooms as I find that they do better than their hybridized cousins, especially when you have a weird year of weather and here in the midwest, that is pretty normal. Genetically altered? Who wants anything genetically altered? And I would hate to think that I couldn't collect seeds from the best plant that produces and use the seeds next year. That plant did well here so I want it's babies. Why do I want something that has been altered for a place that is not my garden???? We aren't dumb, do not treat us that way. We choose tomato plants because of what we want. Personally, our criteria is: they taste good, slice the way we want them too, are nice and juicy and don't have a lot of membrane, don't have really tough skin, do well in OUR garden, and produce tons of really nice tasting tomatoes that dry well in our dehydrator, can well in sauces, and freeze well. They taste good right off the vine and we eat them right there in the garden when picking. So, why are you going to patent a plant? Are you mother nature? Why should I pay you unless you are planting in my exact garden and I know it will grow here?
Reply | Report Abuse | Link to thisHello. Full disclosure prior to my post - I work at Monsanto and participated with Doug Heath in his interview. I wanted to write in with some additional comments regarding our work in heirlooms.
Reply | Report Abuse | Link to thisFirst, we were contacted by Scientific American to participate in this story after Mr. Borrell learned of the work our tomato breeder, Doug Heath, was doing in heirloom tomatoes. Doug has quite a passion for heirlooms and is seeking to improve upon the valuable color and flavor characteristics that already exist. "Weak, wimpy and feeble" are not the adjectives we would have used, nor is the title "The case against heirloom tomatoes," the sentiment we hoped this article would convey. But you take your chances whenever you choose to participate in a media interview.
Doug's work has focused on improving commercial heirloom tomato varieties for protected culture, or greenhouse, production. His work is the result of breeding, not genetic engineering. Our customers for this product are large-scale commercial growers, not home gardeners. These growers have tried to grow the rainbow heirlooms, even on rootstocks, but they are not working. They are excited that we may be able to bring such desired products into a 12-month availability that some of the modern supermarkets are demanding. We know not everyone sees value in 12-month supply; but nonetheless, a portion of consumers and grocery retail want it.
Regardless of the outcome of our specific work, home gardeners and consumers still have access to the open-source, publicly available varieties. Our hybrids would have a different name and be sold directly to our customers.
Also, as a note of correction to an earlier post - seeds are not made sterile through hybridization.
Thanks for the opportunity to comment.
I was not happy with the rather elitist tone of this article. I was interviewed for this article since I am a traditional plant breeder working on created new tomato varieties with certain color and flavor traits from some key heirloom tomato varieties. I did not like the words "feeble", "wimpy" or "weak". I began working with these tomatoes because of the unique colors and flavors and because I also enjoy eating them. For sure these traits are controlled by very few genes, but my main goal was to improve upon a good thing. Some [certainly not all] of these varieties have very fasciated flowers [and subsequently fasciated fruits] so I have literally seen only 2-3 fruits setting on the entire plant as the gardener from Oregon concurred. My idea was to eliminate this by old-fashioned traditional plant breeding. This has been accomplished and please note that making hybrid seeds does NOT make them sterile! We plant breeders do this to combine two parents with complimentary great traits the same way a flower or animal breeder would. As Dr. Chetelat pointed out, all of the resistances modern tomatoes have to plant diseases have come from wild ancestors of tomato. My goal is to allow more gardeners to be able to grow these type of tomatoes by making them more disease resistant. My predecessors/mentors in our company have provided the home garden seed trade with most of the well-loved tomato favorites including Big Boy, Better Boy, Big Beef, and Celebrity just to name a few. My current work is a continuation of the same, only I have some new technical tools that help me work faster. Another example is eliminating fruit cracking which also prevents rotting organisms from entering the fruit. We are also working with key commercial tomato growers in the development of varieties so that we can ideally make these tomatoes available year-round rather than seasonal [which pushes up the cost to the consumer]. For those gardeners that prefer to stick with the original heirlooms there is no problem since they will still be availble. This is just another option.
Reply | Report Abuse | Link to thisHello - If you just received my comment, please go ahead and remove since Doug Heath just responded on his own. Thanks.
Reply | Report Abuse | Link to thisDr. Heath
Reply | Report Abuse | Link to thisJust to let you know there are some who understand the work you have been doing. I have been interviewed for articles myself and taken out of context.
I was wondering, how might one be able to obtain some seed to trail?
"Regardless of the outcome of our specific work, home gardeners and consumers still have access to the open-source, publicly available varieties. Our hybrids would have a different name and be sold directly to our customers. "
Reply | Report Abuse | Link to thisYeah, as long as their heirloom plants aren't cross-pollinated (infected) by a patented monsanto strain right?
http://www.sourcewatch.org/index.php?title=Goliath_and_David:_Monsanto's_Legal_Battles_against_Farmers
Heath,
Reply | Report Abuse | Link to thisIt's nice to know someone with compassion and brains is working toward increasing the availability of improved fresh market tomatoes. Thank you. Look forward to sampling your efforts.
Bill
I am a commercial grower of tomato plants specializing in heirlooms. I grow about 250 tomato varieties each year for sale on the internet. There are only 6 hybrids available today that I consider worth growing, Amelia, Big Beef, Sungold, Carnival, Ramapo, and Purple Haze. Of these, Purple Haze is a custom hybrid produced by Keith Mueller specifically for fabulous flavor. I am actively seeking a better flavored determinate tomato to replace Carnival which I consider marginal.
Reply | Report Abuse | Link to thisI give credit where due that Big Beef is a good flavored and very productive tomato. All other hybrids that I have trialed failed my flavor tests. I am trialing several new hybrids this year such as Bolseno, Sophya, Talladega, etc. These are worth considering because they have specific disease tolerances much needed in specific areas that are battling tomato spotted wilt or yellow leaf curl.
I take issue with anyone who claims that hybrids are the only way to go. The best way to prove this is by asking the people who consume the tomatoes what they prefer. The answer I get in overwhelming chorus is that good flavored tomatoes are preferred and most hybrids are not good flavored.
If tomato breeders want to make progress, the first thing they should do is start with really good flavored tomatoes and make retaining that flavor an absolute necessity of the breeding effort. Read the trade publications about tomato breeding and you find incredible amounts of effort to incorporate disease and pest tolerance but very rarely is an effort made to incorporate flavor.
I happen to believe that well designed breeding work can and will bring better flavored and better producing tomatoes to market. I even prefer growing hybrids when there is a significant advantage to doing so. The problem at this point is that tomato breeders are missing the key market requirement.
This entire 'story' is an apt example why I avoid reading SA. It is poorly researched, poorly written, and totally fails to appreciate the nuances of good flavored tomatoes. Here is to hoping the writer has to eat supermarket cardboard tomatoes for the rest of his life!
Darrel Jones
http://www.selectedplants.com/
Having grown tomatoes of both heirloom and hybrid tomatoes for many years, I really feel your article is totally ficticious. Heiloom tomatoes are certainly hardier than any of the hybrids I have ever grown. The heirlooms taste 100 times better, are generally larger, and the plants withstand many of the problems plagued by the hybrids. Most amazingly, the hybrids seem to have an "off" timeclock. They wither and die towards fall, while the heirlooms keep producing until the freezes set in. This article appears to be more of a promotion for Monsanto, than a reflection of the realities of the garden. As far as the "homeliness", beauty must certainly be in the eyes of the beholder. Those of us who know the difference, drool at the sight of an heirloom tomato with its rich deep flavor, smell, and color. I don't give a hoot whether it fits into a nice neat package. My message to you and Monsanto: hands off our heirlooms!
Reply | Report Abuse | Link to thisI'm not a tomato fan. However, to be fair, tomatoes are poison!
Reply | Report Abuse | Link to thisConsider this irrefutable fact: Every singly human that even a bite of tomato in 1862 DIED. DIED as in DED.
Seriously, look it up. NY Times had an excellent review of this natural disaster that killed thousands over the next generation.
Google: Who from 1862 is still alive?
Go ahead.
Hmmmm... this piece of writing is neither "Scientific" nor very "American", unless one's version of America now encompasses mass dependency on agribusiness. Open pollinated vegetables, including tomatoes, possess great genetic diversity. Planting different varieties, chosen for their adaptation to one's regional climate, provides safety against an entire crop being destroyed by disease or pest (different tomato varieties are also beautiful & have different tastes). My recommendation to the author, if she has had problems growing tomatoes (as it certainly sounded like she had given her weird statement about heirloom tomatoes producing meager fruit), is to put some effort into improving her soil & being attentive to the plants needs - sunlight (6 hours a day minimum), water & nutrition. Her county agricultural extension agent would be pleased to offer her assistance; she may consider starting with her local county agricultural extension service or Master Gardener group before committing pen to page and sounding like a blithering infomercial for agribusiness concerns.
Reply | Report Abuse | Link to thisMica, Doug thanks for your comments. Now we've got the original sources of the article saying this whole thing is bunk. That's pretty funny.
Reply | Report Abuse | Link to thisIf I may make some suggestion -- the problems with fruit splitting, cracking, only getting a few fruit, disease, etc. -- can be mitigated by best possible growing practices. Planting large transplants at the right time, protection from cold, a good amount of fertilizer (organic or not, your choice) distributed throughout the soil so the plant is never "without" food, and most of all, a thick application of mulch. The mulch helps regulate moisture, reduce root and plant stress, reduce soil temperature on hot summer days, and prevent soil splashback onto bottom leaves which is where fungal and bacterial infections typically start.
There are certainly differences between how much attention can be paid to a tomato plant in a home garden when you have 10, 20, or even 30 plants vs. commercial farming.
I was thinking that this article was complete crap until I read them say that an heirloom tomato only produces 2 tomatoes per plant, then I knew the article was a complete joke. Follow that with Monsanto working to save the heirloom tomato LOL LOL LOL. Now Monsanto is right in assuming that most people are stupid, but not all are stupid. Chemical companies main expertise is not natural human historic and cultural things like the passing down through generations of something essential to life like seeds, hence the name heirloom something that is passed down. I will continue to pass these seeds down and will resist the thinking that drives Monsanto and remain independent.
Reply | Report Abuse | Link to thisBoo Hiss to Scientific American. I browsed your site or print here or there before, now I know it is industry corrupt and unscientific and biased.
It is the unanimous opinion of the tomato growers who commented on this article that the writer did not know anything on the subject and unfortunately the editors were not knowledgeable enough either to discard the article. I have been trying to save my vegetable garden from the invasion of so called F1 seeds and in the last 10 years I have continuously used heirloom varieties with excellent results both in yield and taste. I have followed the natural selection by picking the best fruits for improving the quality of the seed
Reply | Report Abuse | Link to thisand I am absolutely sure that the seeds created by the natural transferes and developments of the genes produce much better and reliable fruits than the ones created by the seed companies to protect and exploit their own market.
It is a pity that the Monsanto type companies now are trying to exploit the heirloom market too which so far has been protected by the growers.
The growers should come together and fight back by keeping companies like Monsanto out of their garden. These companies will pretend as if they are trying to keep the original genes of the heirloom types but in fact their only motivation will be to invade the last corner of the growers who enjoy the fruits of the nature developed by natural ways. For Monsanto and alikes there is only one motivation and that is commercial interest.
The growers should get organised somehow and exchange the seeds they have protected from the attacks of such companies. For one, I am ready to send untouched seeds to other growers who share my feelings.
It is the unanimous opinion of the tomato growers who commented on this article that the writer dis not know much on the subject. I have been trying to save my vegetable garden from the invasion of so called F1 seeds and in the last 10 years I have continiously used heirloom varieties with excellent results both in yield and taste. I have just followed the natural selection by picking the best fruits for improving the seed quality and I am absolutely sure that the seed created by the natural transfers and developments of the genes produce much better and reliable fruits than the ones "created" by the seed F1 companies to protect and exploit their own market.
Reply | Report Abuse | Link to thisIt is a pity that Monsanto type companies now are triying to exploit the heirloom market too which so far has been protected by the growers. The growers should come together and fight back by keeping the companies like Monsanto and their seeds out of their garden. These companies will pretend as if they are trying to keep the original genes of the heirloom types but in fact their only motivation will be to invade the last corner of the growers who protect and enjoy the fruits of the nature developed by natural ways. For Monsanto and alikes there is ony one motivation and that is commercial interest.
The growers should get organised somehow and exchange the seeds they have saved and protected from the attacks of seed companies. For one, I am ready to send untouched seeds to other growers who share my feelings.
Not that it matters, but I once sought out SA at newstands..less so the last few years as politics and supporting corporate America became more clearly one of their editorial policies.
Reply | Report Abuse | Link to thisAfter the blatant errors in this bit of "reportage", I will NO LONGER be purchacing a single issue of SA - NOT even if they were to issue a COMPLETE retraction. There have been other examples in the recent few years of gross mis-reportage on the pages of SA...this was simply the last straw.
If'n ya pays a person to gather material and report a story...shouldn't it better be just a wee bit accurate and verifiable as to the person coving more than just one base?
Earlier in this thread somebody wrote: "This is the sort of nonsense that gives science a bad name. "
Reply | Report Abuse | Link to thisExactly. I'm a scientist (in another field) and I think this type of article reflects the naive "modernism" of 1950s-era science. Haven't we progressed at all? Some of of us have, but apparently not ignorant journalists who parrot what corporate agriculture wants to peddle.
This article is very misleading. Hybrid seeds can be germinated and therfore are not truly sterile (just not the same as the parents). All hybrids can be dehybridized over several generations and become open pollinated and seeds can be saved.
Reply | Report Abuse | Link to thisAlso, my heirooms produce tons of tomatoes, not the 2 you discuss in this article. Sounds like Monsanto is at it again!
Some false statements in this article:
Reply | Report Abuse | Link to this1. Hybrids are sterile
2. Heirlooms produce only two fruits
3. Hybrids must be repurchased ever year (they can be dehybridized and grown as open pollinated varieties)
Hahaha. It's seldom a 'science' article has been able to make me so angry.
Reply | Report Abuse | Link to thisIt strikes at the core of what we are, doesn't it?
>reduction of genetic diversity (survival chances)
>dismissal of the old as underproducing, feeble (nevermind they've survived trials diverse, most notably time)
>profit to the one at the expense of the community
>slavery to an undeserving master
I wish there was a button here where users could incrementally increase or decrease the fitness level of the company being discussed.
"All hybrids can be dehybridized over several generations and become open pollinated and seeds can be saved."
Reply | Report Abuse | Link to thisBut when this is done they are no longer the hybrid. The offspring lose the gain from heterosis which is one of the main benefits of a hybrid over open pollinated lines.
Heterosis for flavor as well as yield, disease potential and vigor can be noted from some crosses. This is why some hybrids can have more to offer than open pollinated lines.
"heirlooms are actually feeble and inbred"
Reply | Report Abuse | Link to thisHang on a minute, tomatoes are natural inbreeders like peas and lettuces.
The vast majority of the time they self-pollinate. It's their normal method of reproduction. So how on earth can an "inbred" tomato be a bad thing?
Comparing tomatoes to dogs is ridiculous when they have entirely different breeding systems. And it isn't even the inbreeding per se that creates the problems - it's unscrupulous breeders who choose beauty over health in the parents.
Scientific American? This article isn't even worthy to be called pseudoscience.
Personally, I believe that some heirlooms are great, while others, frankly, aren't. But it's a matter of personal choice - my idea of a perfect tomato may well not be a big seed company's idea of a perfect tomato. And at the end of the day I want to save my own seed rather than paying ridiculous amounts of money every year for a few hybrid seeds.
check out this weedless garden mahttp://cgi.ebay.com/Weedless-Vegetable-Garden-Mat-tiller-plant-tool_W0QQitemZ220393179524QQcmdZViewItemQQptZLH_DefaultDomain_0?hash=item220393179524&_trksid=p3286.c0.m14&_trkparms=72%3A1205%7C66%3A2%7C65%3A12%7C39%3A1%7C240%3A1308%7C301%3A1%7C293%3A1%7C294%3A50t!
Reply | Report Abuse | Link to thischeck out this weedless garden mat http://cgi.ebay.com/Weedless-Vegetable-Garden-Mat-tiller-plant-tool_W0QQitemZ220393179524QQcmdZViewItemQQptZLH_DefaultDomain_0?hash=item220393179524&_trksid=p3286.c0.m14&_trkparms=72%3A1205%7C66%3A2%7C65%3A12%7C39%3A1%7C240%3A1308%7C301%3A1%7C293%3A1%7C294%3A50
Reply | Report Abuse | Link to thisScientific American getting funding from Monsanto these days?
Reply | Report Abuse | Link to thisScientific American getting funding from Monsanto these days?
Reply | Report Abuse | Link to thisI, for one, do not object to paying anyone for a good product that they spend time and money developing. If it performs as expected when I buy it, then he,she, or they should be able to recover thier investment and make a profit. In the case of tomatoes. most hybrids I've tried have been well woth it in resistance to "problems" alone.
Reply | Report Abuse | Link to thisJim F
I planted a 3" potted Heirloom tomato in a rolling 3 gal. pot. It's doing great and growing lower branches that lay on the potting soil. Let them root or remove?
Reply | Report Abuse | Link to thisMarv
I planted a Heirloom tomato that's doing great in a rolling deck pot. It's growing branches that lay on the soil. Should they be removed or buried to root?
Reply | Report Abuse | Link to thisAll these comments are great. I believe the author said that all the variation among all heirlooms can be accounted for by 35 of the 35,000 tomatoe genes. Don't genetisits also contend that we humans are genetically different from primates by a mere fraction of a percent of our DNA. The arrogance of science is appalling and counter productive. This artical is pure propoganda.
Reply | Report Abuse | Link to thisPugzly wrote, "...we all know that retractions are not worth the paper they are printed on, you've probably convinced a lot of people who are new to tomato growing that you actually know what you are talking about..."
Reply | Report Abuse | Link to thisYou are soooo right. I'm new to heirloom gardening and as I read this artical I smelled a rat but how can I argue with science? The last statement even said how there will be a few (implied "stupid") people who will reject these undeniable "facts" of science. I wouldn't want to be one of those ignorant souls like the religious zealots that blindly refuse to believe the earth is over 6000 years old.
However, thanks to the internet I was able to read over 80 articulate comments from readers that 15 years ago would have been impossible. Thanks to all of you for taking the time to fight back against Monsanto propoganda.
Google search "Codex Alimentarius" or search Youtube to find out about their ultimate goal which they are implementing via the WHO & UN. It is so insane it is actually difficult to believe at first but it is all true. Do your own research. There will be a food war and I will see you all on the battlefield. God Bless.
www.cottonfog.com
I wouldn't knowingly put anything into my mouth that monsanto or their ilk. had touched. I experimented with several varieties of heirlooms and commercial hybrids and the new hybrids didn't fair any better against the central NY tomato blight. The commercial hybrids didn't produce any more tomatoes and their flavor/texture pales in comparison to the heirlooms. I will grow ALL my own food if I have to so that I can ensure I'm not eating any GMO's . Patenting food s/be illegal. Eat local, eat organic!
Reply | Report Abuse | Link to thisThis is the worst kind of "modern science is best" dribble available. Heirloom tomatoes are *exceptionally* diverse in taste and form regardless of the "handful of genes" comment. Humans are also only different by a "handful of genes" - should we all be bred for certain traits that render us oh-so-much-better? ... by whose standards and judgments?? These "scientific" attitudes are actually pretty scary stuff - and a world without the lovely variety of humans... or heirloom tomatoes would be a bland world indeed--
Reply | Report Abuse | Link to this... and quit with this no-viable-seed hybrid stuff! talk about trying to control the world...
MONSANTO = THE DEVIL!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!
Reply | Report Abuse | Link to thisinfowars.com
Say no to GMO's!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!
The author is a bit credulous and at sea. Classical breeding is hardly "primitive," heirlooms exist because growers prized them for yield, no heirloom tomato produces only two fruits. Some heirlooms are prone to diseases, others are noted for resistance to diseases. Saving the seeds of open-pollination plants is the only guarantee of conserving a gene pool. Genetic modification and modern hybridization discards genes.
Reply | Report Abuse | Link to thisTwo tomatoes per plant? Wrong. Monsanto is going to breed better tomatoes? Look for GM tomatoes immune to herbicide, followed by tomatoes that kill hornworms. I'll stick with tomatoes that taste good, grow on healthy plants and are open-pollinate so I can save seeds.
Reply | Report Abuse | Link to thisIs the process of THIEVING tomatos important.
Reply | Report Abuse | Link to thisI agree that this story is an embarrassment for a journal with "scientific" in their name. The basic argument it makes, that heirloom tomatoes are flawed and that Monsanto can fix the problem, reads like a poorly-researched opinion piece by someone on the Monsanto payroll.
Reply | Report Abuse | Link to thisyES. MONSANTO IS EVIL AND WHAT THEY DO TO FARMERS AND GARDENERS IS WRONG. fOR FREE YOU CAN WATCH A DOCUMENTARY CALLED, "THE WORLD ACCORDING TO MONSANTO." JUST TYPE" WATCH THE WORLD ACCORDING TO MONSANTO FOR FREE.....VERY EDUCATIONAL.
Reply | Report Abuse | Link to thisIt's unfair to simply lambast this article. On the other hand it really was not well researched from the heirloom tomato end at all, and does seem to be subjectively written to support hybrid seed industry. Why would a breeder be working with an heirloom that yields only two tomatoes? Perhaps he's growing near the arctic circle? I've grown hundreds of heirloom varieties never had one yield only two tomatoes.
Reply | Report Abuse | Link to thisYes heirlooms are based on a very narrow genetic base as are most crops, and yes that can result in less disease resistance and other problems with fruit. Yet in direct comparisons in the field hybrids succumbed to late blight at the same of quicker or rate than many heirlooms.
If more resistance can be bred into heirlooms that would be great.
If creating more food is tied to the good of a single entity then there will remain a whole slew of problems. What is great about heirlooms is something the article didn't even begin to address--they represent a heritage, culture, taste, and a freedom of access that so far has never been approached by any hybrid. I'm not into the argument that hybrid=bad, heirloom=good. As long as positional is our approach to food and life then there will be no real solutions for people.
PS Green zebra is not an heirloom. Do your research.
The growing problem of starvation around the world is partly caused by genetically altered seed to guarantee profits for those who wish to control the food sources through this genetically altered material. Regardless of where the tomato (or any food producing plant) originated or how, is irrelevant in the face of hunger. It is seeds that are viable that make all of us around the world self sustaining and resilient. So I contend that no entity should be able to make food crop seed sterile, patent it, and then control the market so that it is the only seed available. This is why there is a growing, popular trend to grow and collect viable seed from non-patented, non-genetically altered (sterile after one crop), food crops. It is a matter of survival and in my opinion a right.
Reply | Report Abuse | Link to thisBindles8
Clearly written by someone who has not grown a tomato, heirloom or otherwise. I support my local csa and meat producers and organic farming in general. I work on a farm in trade for my csa and see heirloom tomatoes and other veggies growing side by side. The pollination, fruitset and health of the plants are most affected by external factors such as soil nutrition, weather, and local factors.
Reply | Report Abuse | Link to thisIt is generally accepted that mass produced grocery store tomatos are less tasty than heirloom tomatos, so it is no surprise that Monsanto wants to get their hands on this market.
The author needs to do some "field" work and research the huge varieties of heirloom tomatoes. They come in every shape, size and colors he probably has not imagined. Some even taste bad but have a unique shape or quality that appeals to some.
I scanned through all of the comments and honestly cannot believe the number of people who keep referring to the "2 tomato" reference that they perceive in the article. The tomato in question was obviously a floral mutant that had really good resistance properties. The breeder painstakingly back-crossed this line to get rid of the floral mutations and restore its taste and fruiting properties to normal levels (the 30 tomatoes he mentioned). The author did not mean to say that you can only get 2 tomatoes on any given heirloom.
Reply | Report Abuse | Link to thisObviously there's a big gap to making the public more aware and responsive to newly developed breeds, and it's my hope (especially now with the tomato genome sequence published) that we'll figure out the mechanisms behind the best flavor and texture combinations and introduce them into lines with good agronomic properties so we can get the best of both worlds.
The irony of this article is that the author is an idiot. I am a farmer and tomato breeder, so hear me out. Yes, heirlooms produce less. BY DESIGN!! A plant's root system only has so much energy it can put into its fruit, and heirlooms take great advantage of that. Less fruit, way more flavor. Not only that, but I guarantee that fruit is way more full of vitamins, enzymes, sugars, and secondary plant metabolites for health, that sterile mass cropped fruit will never have. Disease resistance is more related to locally adapted varieties, and good garden technique, not poor genetics, because as stated, the modern tomato does have a very narrow genetic set. Lastly, the idea that hybrids equal sterility again shows the ignorance of this article. I have bred several open-pollinated heirloom crosses that are now more productive with excellent flavor than their parentage. To stabilize seed genetics, you need to work with isolated plants for 4 years or so. Not hard, just requires patience. I guarantee genetics work in the lab will destroy and weaken the tomato. Honest, actual plant breeding in the field is the only way to improve this crop. I speak from experience, not theory. VIVA HEIRLOOMS!
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