by Erin Marissa Russell
UPDATE IN 2023: According to CNN, a purple variety of GMO tomato has been approved by the USDA. As of November 2023, we are not aware that it is actually for sale anywhere. There are still no GMO tomato seeds available to home gardeners.
Let’s start with the most important fact — when it comes to tomatoes, there are no GMO plants or GMO seeds out there in the food supply, so there’s no need to worry about avoiding GMO tomatoes at the grocery store or garden center. Tomato seeds may be either hybrid or heirloom, and we’ll discuss exactly what those terms mean..
The rumor that there are GMO tomatoes on the market may have gotten started with a 2016 advertising campaign from the iconic company, Hunt’s. The commercial announced, “You won’t find a single genetically modified tomato plant among our vines.” While this is true, it implies that there are genetically modified tomatoes or tomato products out there to be avoided, which there are not. Genetically modified tomatoes do not currently exist on the market so there is no danger of getting them if you are trying to avoid them, and no chance of getting them if you want one.
What Does GMO Mean?
There’s no regulation governing how the term GMO is used. When food crops or animals are selectively bred to promote certain qualities, their genetic material is being modified. However, most of the time when people use the term GMO, they are referring to genetic modification in a laboratory.
According to Forbes, “Even though the term has little meaning, ‘GMO’ has come to denote modern molecular genetic engineering methods used to achieve specific, targeted traits, from insect and disease resistant crops to apples that don’t turn brown.” By these standards, there are no genetically modified tomatoes or tomato seeds on the market. Instead, you can choose between heirloom and hybrid tomatoes and tomato seeds.
Heirloom Tomatoes
Heirloom tomatoes and tomato seeds are open-pollinated varieties, which means they’re naturally pollinated by bats, bees, birds, moths, rain, and wind. Heirloom varieties must be at least 40 years old to qualify as an heirloom.
During these years, traits the breeders find desirable are slowly developed. Heirloom plants are more likely to be resistant to disease and pests, especially if you can find a variety that was developed in your region.
You can find heirloom tomato seeds at local seed exchanges as well as at the garden center or nursery. We recommend trying the local seed exchanges first, as you’ll be more likely to find heirlooms developed in your area. You’ll get the best results from growing local heirloom tomatoes.
Heirloom tomato seeds are also often organic even when it does not say so on the package. It can cost a lot of time and money to go through the USDA certification to use the term “organic.”
Heirloom tomato seeds are never GMOs, and they are also never hybrids. The plants are often hardier than non heirlooms, and the tomatoes tend to taste better.
Hybrid Tomatoes
Some gardeners worry that hybrid tomatoes are GMOs, and this belief may have arisen because some hybrid tomatoes are created in a laboratory. However, hybrid tomatoes are made by manually cross pollination.
When heirloom tomatoes produce seeds, the gardeners who plant them can do so with confidence in how the plants will grow. This is because heirloom seeds will produce plants with the same traits as the parent plant.
Gardeners don’t have this assurance with hybrid tomato plants or seeds. Because hybrid seeds do not produce true copies, you can’t save them from season to season and expect to get plants that are the same from year to year. To put it bluntly, hybrids are safe to grow and you can plant them successfully for one year, but they cannot be depended on the following year because they do not produce true copies.
You may have seen hybrid tomatoes described as F1, F2, F3, and so on. This notation references how many generations away from the original parent plants the tomato plants or seeds are. F1 seeds are the first generation after the parent plants, while F2 is two generations away, and so on. The farther away from the parent plants a hybrid variety is, the more consistent and stable the plants will be and the less likely it is they will revert to the qualities of one of the parents. The farther away from the original parents a variety is, the closer it is to becoming an heirloom.
Now you understand that there are no GMO tomatoes or tomato seeds on the market to be avoided. But that’s not all. We’ve looked at exactly what GMO means. We also discussed the categories tomato plants and seeds fit into: heirloom and hybrid. Now you’re ready to shop with confidence for tomato plants and seeds.
Learn More About GMO crops and technology
https://www.gardeningchannel.com/open-pollinated-vs-hybrid-vs-heirloom-seeds/
https://gmoanswers.com/current-gmos-crops-dont-include-tomatoes
https://www.medicalnewstoday.com/articles/what-is-gmo
I haven’t had a good tomato in 15 years! I grow tomato’s but they are so so,. Where can I get great tasting plants
I have a Goliath F1 hybrid VFFNTASt tomato, that i have saved seeds on the last 4 years.
You have no idea what you are talking about your first paragraph is a total lie! 1994 was when the tomato was the first widespread genetic modified food available! Wheat corn and it’s in our foods it’s in every process food and it’s in the cattle in the poultry that we freaking eat!
JC my thoughts exactly, who wrote this garbage information? Don’t believe everything you read and half the things you see. I visited a farmer’s market owner stated all home grown, delivery guy I asked about tomatoes, he stated not home grown but gmo that’s why they stay looking good for months. He said your heirlooms will rot quickly in turn the owner would lose a lot of money! It’s all about the money not the taste of the tomatoes but the longevity on the shelf!
https://www.cnn.com/2022/09/17/business-food/purple-tomato-gmo-scn-trnd/index.html
What is this? Is CNN wrong?
Thank you for this link. We have updated the article.
Although the tomato was approved by the USDA, we do not believe that they are available for sale in the USA at this point.