I first ran across an article on NPR that made me miss my Cherokee Purple tomatoes from last year. The article discussed a study in science (see abstract) about how choosing uniform ripeness in tomatoes also lead to a decrease in taste. The study was also discussed in this article in the NY Times. It’s big news in the horitcultural world, and another piece of evidence why modern agriculture stinks and heirlooms are wonderful.
Later on in the week I read this by Graham Rice at Transatlantic Plantsman. His response reminds us that not all modern bred hybrid tomatoes stink. For me, even the much deplored grocery store varieties have their place. I would rather go and buy a decent looking tomato than buy the mess of a shipped Cherokee purple tomato. (Sometimes just transporting them in the car a few miles left gooey soft spots.) If I really want the taste of a homegrown tomato, I’ll grow it. Hybrids and supermarket tomatoes can make great tomato sauce, cooked dishes etc, where the tomato is masked by other introduced flavors. There are times when sacrificing flavor for traits like uniform color make sense.
Heirlooms and modern hybrids are not competition, but are compliments. Something I do not agree with in the organic agriculture movement is a push away from modern-bred plants. I’m not even against all GMO’s. (For example, at the end of the Times article they mention re-engineering the lost flavor genes back into tomatoes, creating a GMO. Alternatively, breeders could cross different tomato plants, look for mutations and desirable gene traits and after many generations, and years of effort finally find a tomato that resembled or might even be identical to the GMO. The GMO took far less time and energy to produce, so I’d take the GMO.) The original research is not another piece of evidence why modern agriculture stinks and heirlooms are wonderful, but simply an interesting look at gene play.
Liz Braithwaite 
Good points, Liz. In my clime, it’s very tough to grow full-size tomatoes as we just get zero heat, so I am happy to buy a bruised heirloom, even at eight bucks a pound which I paid recently.
As for GMOs, the main issue I have with them is that most people do GMOs so they can dump herbicides on them. I object to that because I object to herbicides all over my food. I also have concern about GMO-ing things like grasses which spread so easily in the wild. I feel like we should be cautious and not create GMOs that will escape easily into the wild or into other farms where they may be unwanted. I’m not feeling a strong objection to scientific advances like this, so long as they’re done with respect to the above concerns.
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Not all GMO’s are good and the technology can certainly create some scary stuff…but I don’t like how they are all lumped together, where some GMO’s are useful.
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