Pam Moore wrote:

Yesterday a newly developed purple tomato hit the news. It has been
genetically modified with cells from antirrhinum, and has been shown
to be effective against cancer in mice.


I have another, somewhat cynical, take on this:
The purveyors of Genetically Modified plants are anxious to get the
technology into widespread use, so they produce "neutraceutical" materials
to sell the process. "Golden Rice" with a gene that made carotene was
roundly rejected by the Asian world, despite an intensive ad campaign.
So far, the main use of GM seems to be having an identifiable fingerprint
in your patented seed to prove theft if some evil farmer saves his own
seed. You may be familiar with Monsanto's actions against a Canadian
Canola farmer.
I'm not a big fan of huge seed companies controlling large parts of the
world's food supply. And there are lots of open pollinated tomato
varieties with a wide range of colors and flavors.

(This was just a mini-rant; re-lurking now).


Gary Woods AKA K2AHC- PGP key on request, or at home.earthlink.net/~garygarlic
Zone 5/6 in upstate New York, 1420' elevation. NY WO G