Taking the risk on a GMO tomato seed

[Chew Toy McCoy]

With spring crop planting season quickly approaching I’m going through a ton of growing tips videos and articles and I came across these GMO purple tomatoes mentioned by several sources.

https://www.norfolkhealthyproduce.com/

While GMO is usually associated with industrial farms and possible health risks due to chemicals used for high yields and disease resistance, these tomatoes are modified for higher health value, the purple color from the snap dragon flower, and are marketed direct to home gardeners. I haven’t done a ton of research but any negativity I found was just over the admitted “GMO” stigma. There wasn’t really anything directly alarmist. It’s kind of unheard of for seeds to go directly from the lab to home gardener and that's where the buzz is mostly at.

Anyhow, I decided to pull the trigger on the seeds and I’ll post here more information on my growing and quality experience.

 

[Nycturne]

Honestly, the bigger gripe to me is how GMO seeds can come with what common folks would consider increasingly bizarre requirements, and open up farmers to lawsuits due to the patentable nature of the modifications. Farmers are used to saving seeds from one harvest to use with the next planting, but that behavior gets you sued by Monsanto if you are using their patented seed stock.

You can see some of the weird restrictions here as well. A non-commercial license for seeds is just weird.

 

[Chew Toy McCoy]

Seeds arrived today and I planted 4 of the 10, not just because they are $2 a pop, but also if all 10 germinated I wouldn't know what to do with them. I'll be happy to get just 1. I always plant more seeds than I need in case some don't germinate and to give surplus to others I know who will probably appreciate and care for them, but in this case I wouldn't be happy giving them to people who just let them die from neglect. I give those people sun gold cherry tomato plants. Their loss for missing out on a great tomato but they aren't exactly rare.

 

[Hrafn]

Honestly, the bigger gripe to me is how GMO seeds can come with what common folks would consider increasingly bizarre requirements, and open up farmers to lawsuits due to the patentable nature of the modifications. Farmers are used to saving seeds from one harvest to use with the next planting, but that behavior gets you sued by Monsanto if you are using their patented seed stock.

You can see some of the weird restrictions here as well. A non-commercial license for seeds is just weird.

Monsanto is way worse than that. If there's a Monsanto field near you, and your crops get pollinated by them, you are in violation, and they'll sue.

 

[Nycturne]

Monsanto is way worse than that. If there's a Monsanto field near you, and your crops get pollinated by them, you are in violation, and they'll sue.

Well aware. I was just trying to give one example off the top of my head at the time.