More approaches on GM Tomatoes after Flavr Savr

Note

All the blog posts are in chronological order, so go on the column called

EnviroGirl's Posts on GM Tomatoes

[in chronological order]

It's underneath the about the EnviroGirl and Tomao and EnviroGirl column.

Back to the blog,

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Craziness never seems to end eh? As I said before too.

This blog post will contain a brief information on the all the Tomatoes that have been genetically altered in the recent years by various Organizations and Universities since the invention of Flavr Savr. I have chosen to blog about 3 tomatoes that I researched on and found quite interesting.

1. Purple Tomato

October 2008

No, I'm not talking about the Cherokee purple Tomato, but an actual purple colored tomato. It would help prevent cancer as well as heart related diseases.

British plant biologist, Cathie Martin created the tomato by "adding anthocyanins (red-blue plant pigments with disease-fighting antioxidant properties) found in blueberries, blackberries and cranberries."

(The picture below shows you how the purple genetically modified tomato looks compared to a normal one)

One of the environmentalist groups in follwing video says that, it's unnecessary since the same antioxidants can be obtained from "normal" fruits.

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=gs-DYWt0I0s (fast forward till 1:26 to watch the environmentalist groups comments)

Who really would want to eat tomatoes everyday? Not me. I would prefer a blueberry or a black berry over the "purple" tomato.

On the other hand, the creator herself mentions that" we can get the same benefits from eating berry rich diets".The following video shows where Cathie mentions about it.

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=KIJMpKnDiIY&feature=related (Fast forward till time 0:24 to watch Cathie mentions that)

Why waste so much research time in coming up with this?

HYPOCRITES is all I can say.

(yes, Tomao would walk away from this nonsense)

2. Another relative of Flavr Savr?

January 2010


I stumbled upon this article that mentioned "extend the shelf-life" and I thought to myself- "another flavr savr?"

However,for this tomato, no antisense gene was added like Flavr Savr, but instead two genes from the original tomato are being "silenced". It is also claiming that it going to remain fresh for "45 days" and does not need refrigeration.

(I made the same face expression, like Tomao)
Moving on into the details of how it was done. So, apparently the National Institute of Plant Genome Research (NIPGR), New Delhi (in India) have discovered two unknown genes within the tomato- "the alpha-Man and beta-Hex genes" . They say that these two genes get accumulated in the tomato as it's ripening. So why not "silence" it? And that's what they have done, "and found that those in which the alpha-Man enzyme was suppressed were 2.5 times firmer than conventional tomatoes, while those lacking in beta-Hex were two times firmer."
(Look at the picture below)
Asis Datta, the researcher says, "We lose a lot of harvest all over the world. In India ... we grow tomatoes which cannot last more than 10 to 15 days. But if you can enhance (them), you don't need any storage system and you can transfer from place to place,"

Should I take pity on this particular tomato? since India is still a developing country and has a huge population. The article says that the whole cultivation, approval of it and etc might take about "two years". So let's wait for 1 more year now, and then decide.

3. Miraculin gene in tomatoes

Jan-Feb 2011

It's called the Miracle Fruit grown in West Africa. However , since it's was discovered by Chevalier des Marchais , it has been widely known, grown and used by other countries.

Some of the uses include- selling it in the form of dried fruits or tablet form that can help Diabetes in Japan, inserting its protein gene into Lettuce as the Japanese have done (torture doesn't end eh). They do so because "a protein in the fruit works by binding to taste buds and altering the tongue's so-called sweet receptors to activate when sour foods are eaten"

The mighty Americans had to copy the idea right? (I'm obviously over exhareting this)

So,The University of Florida have inserted the "miraculin gene" into the tomatoes.

My question: why are you even trying to change the original flavor of the tomato? by inserting a different flavor/gene into it? What's is the difference going to be if they did that, between the actual miracle fruit and the a tomato?Where has common sense gone ? No one seems to have it now-e-days especially the GM Foods industry. I think that common sense is not being used at all. Just go eat the actual miracle fruit!

or if you really want it to look like a Tomato but taste sweet,Just try the Japanese Persimmon.

LOOK! It looks just like a Tomato

In conclusion, this blog post was done by me to show how I think that so much time is being wasted is being wasted genetically modifying food industry. We could always use that same amount of time, by coming up with things that can acutal help this world from this such as global warming, or even help the third-world countres/developing countries.

Plus, to DO all this non-sense is not free right? It's costs a lot of money. So use that reasearch money for a better cause. As well, be fair and equal. If you are going to sell your genetically modified product in a country, LET the country know about it, through food labellings.The consumers by all means have the RIGHT to know, if it contains genetically modified food.

Do not base your company like the company,Monsanto.I'm not saying not to stop the whole concept of Genetic Engineering, but use it rather for a USEFUL cause and BETTER purpose.

(Tomoa says, "I totally agree with the EnviroGirl")

So, I h

ope this blog gave you an insight to how genetically modified tomatoes stand in the industry as well as reflects upon the insanity of it.

GOODBYE SCIENCE GEEKS AND CHEERS TO YOU ALL!

-The Enviro Girl & Tomao

p.s: Mr. Vink- As for the references,I'll print it and hand it to you.