Alison Campbell, writing on BioBlog, has been alerted to–and challenged–an article purporting to tell consumers how to distinguish between GM and “regular” tomatoes.
An article headed “We’re Eating A Poison! Here’s How To Identify GMO Tomatoes In Two Simple Steps!” was published at babiesdailynews.com in 2016. This year variations of the article have been reproduced HERE and – the version at Foodatory drawn to Campbell’s attention – HERE.
Campbell, Associate Dean (Teaching & Learning)and Senior Lecturer (Biological Sciences) at Waikato University, thunders the claim is wrong, wrong, wrong.
There aren’t any genetically-engineered tomatoes on the market, she points out.
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Campbell then notes that the tomatoes we grow (or buy) and eat are themselves the result of centuries of modification by conventional selective breeding – and also techniques such as mutagenesis, which are not exactly “natural”.
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Then there’s the misleading image (above).
They’d obviously like us to think that one – perhaps the lushly rich red one to the left? – is natural/organic, and the other, a GMO. Especially when they ask, “can you tell the difference between a regular tomato and a genetically modified one?” But, as we know, all commercially-available tomatoes are produced by conventional means.
Read full, original post: Yes, we do have tomatoes – but not GM ones – says riled bio-blogger
