Purple Galaxy Tomato

[maf]

Norfolk Healthy Produce (the originators of the snapdragon based GMO tomato) are reporting on their website that Baker Creek's Purple Galaxy was found to be GMO after testing and confirming that this is the reason it has been removed from sale.

We have received many questions about the purple tomato marketed by Baker Creek as “Purple Galaxy” in their 2024 catalogs. We understand from Baker Creek that they will not be selling seeds of this variety. Given its remarkable similarity to our purple tomato, we prompted Baker Creek to investigate their claim that Purple Galaxy was non-GMO. We are told that laboratory testing determined that it is, in fact, bioengineered (GMO). This result supports the fact that the only reported way to produce a purple-fleshed tomato rich in anthocyanin antioxidants is with Norfolk’s patented technology. We appreciate that Baker Creek tested their material, and after discovering it was a GMO, removed it from their website.

[Cranraspberry]

What a mess.

[DriftlessRoots]

Wow. Just wow. I had settled into the “I guess we’ll just never know” mindset

[MissS]

This is not good that someone was trying to sneak GMO products onto the market without declaring it to the public or the vendor. This practice of deceiving everyone only confirms to me that I will be avoiding this product.

[DriftlessRoots]

I just reread Norfolk's statement and noticed that they say the BC ones were GMO but didn't explicitly state they were Norfolk's genetics. I wonder where they did come from. Maybe some day it will all be revealed. In any case this is a purple black eye on BC's reputation.

[Mark_Thompson]

In any case this is a purple black eye on BC's reputation.

ICWYDT!

[maf]

I just reread Norfolk's statement and noticed that they say the BC ones were GMO but didn't explicitly state they were Norfolk's genetics. I wonder where they did come from. Maybe some day it will all be revealed.

Probably just polite legalese. There is no doubt the GMO germplasm originated from the Norfolk tomato. It has been trialled in the USA in previous seasons so there will have been seeds floating about here and there. If Purple Galaxy contained a different GMO than the patented Norfolk snapdragon germplasm, then it wouldn't have been covered by the patent and BC wouldn't have had to take it down when they found out Norfolk know what lawyers are. They would still have been caught in a lie, (by originally saying testing had proved it was not GMO) but they wouldn't have been compelled to pull the seeds from sale.

The best case scenario is that BC were incompetent by believing the story about the origin of the seeds from a supplier, and told a little white lie that genetic testing had proved they were not GMO.

The worst case scenario is that they were complicit from the beginning in a blatent attempt to steal a patented technology and got caught with their hands in the cookie jar.

I will be generous and suggest the truth is probably somewhere in the middle.

By the way, Norfolk are happy with people saving seeds from their Purple Tomato to grow again, and share with friends etc. What they are not OK with is individuals or companies using their patented IP to make money without their permission.

[maxjohnson]

Regardless if Norfolk are happy with sharing the seeds. The main reason I grow is to save heritage and while people I know thinks I'm a gardener I see myself more of a seed saver. It was Seed Saver Exchange that got me passionate about growing. I'm going to be extremely cautious about buying and growing purple tomatoes from now on. Maybe I already have enough purple variety anyway.

[maf]

Yeah, I probably wouldn't grow it either, seems overly artificial looking, like those GM dayglo tropical aquarium fish. A moot point because it is not available in my country yet, and maybe never will be.

I can see it being a big concern for seed savers (and tomato breeders) - even if they didn't share the seeds from the Norfolk tomato they might accidentally share the germplasm by sharing seeds from a plant that had been bee pollinated with Norfolk pollen.

[Labradors]

It's all very weird.
Was all of this a big policity stunt to attract a lot of attention and to get people frothing at the mouth to buy their seeds at 50 cents a piece?
I remember when Indigo Roses seeds were "illegally" released too......
Not worth the bother IMHO.

[Moth1992]

Statement from Baker, in summary, they say they did not know

https://www.rareseeds.com/faq

[MissS]

This helps to restore Baker Creek's reputation although I would like to think that they would grow something out of a new variety before they offer it. I wonder what genetic material was used in Purple Galaxy? While I find it all very interesting. I will not be growing any GMO's in my gardens.

[karstopography]

Isn’t it snapdragon genes in the Norfolk tomato? I believe the idea is Baker Creek’s purple tomato has Norfolk tomato genetics. Norfolk and Baker Creek have made their own statements regarding this, although I don’t believe Baker Creek’s possible, likely GMO tomato has been conclusively linked to have Norfolk’s particular patented genetic material, but if not, then what other genetic material was inserted into Baker Creek’s tomato? Then, if it was something besides Norfolk’s snapdragon genes what is the source plant and who put it into Baker Creek’s tomato? Baker Creek has made mission statements against GMO vegetables.

Anyhow, people are really worked up about this Purple Galaxy and Baker Creek from what I have seen out there on some other tomato interest sites.

Never say never, but, I’m not currently all that fired up to grow a purple fleshed tomato. Maybe if I tasted one I might feel differently.

I guess there’s a lot to be said about GMO vegetables and crops. Maybe there’s a case to be made for GMO vegetables, but there’s a potential for trouble going there also. For now, I’d soon keep the GMO crops out of my garden.

[MissS]

@karstopography I'm not saying that this is true, but it seems more likely that someone got some genetic material out of the lab and cross pollinated with it, rather than creating their own GMO tomato. The article did say that they had similarities but were not identical. Cross pollinating with them would explain some of the genetic difference. Not sure that this is the correct answer though.

[maf]

From https://www.rareseeds.com/faq:

Also, we were contacted by Norfolk. At this point we decided to put production of Purple Galaxy on hold due to concerns of GMO contamination.

I think this is the telling line of the story.

The explanation from BC is very convoluted and IMO if there is a simpler explanation with equal validity then the simpler explanation is more likely to be true.

I would be very interested if anyone can identify their supposed European seed supplier of the Purple Galaxy seeds? If they did come from Europe surely there would be some background information on European tomato frums or social media?

The Norfolk tomatoes were developed in England and trialled here. (GM is banned for public sale but can be trialed for research under certain conditions). Were they also trialled in mainland Europe? Could seeds or pollen have leaked from UK or EU trials?

[alicej]

I would be very interested if anyone can identify their supposed European seed supplier of the Purple Galaxy seeds? If they did come from Europe surely there would be some background information on European tomato frums or social media?

Someone posted this on the video when BC first launched the tomato. I don’t know if it is entirely true. If there were real hundreds of comments it feels like someone would have outed the breeder by now?

@bakercreekseeds sorry not to trust You, but I happend to see fb post of one tomato-person in Europe, who happend to find this tomato in own fields claiming it's a
"chance mutation". The person got hundreds of comments, that this thing - purple expression in whole fruit - does not and can not happen by chance due to genetical specificity of tomato (one can read about it in pubmed). Now, one year later I happen to notice the same person visiting BC and then bam! you are releasing purple fruit tomato as a result of long selection work
And all that happens AFTER gmo purple fruit tomato has been published and the publication describes exactly how the modified tomato was modified in two steps to enable that whole fruit expresssion of anthocyanins. I personally have nothing agains gmo, but I have fun to read and understand what's bulshit. And now you will delete my comment

Edit: I took a screenshot of it because at the time I guess I sensed not all was as it seemed. I did not expect it to unfold like this though!

[NYTomatoNewbie]

I thought that a lab has to test specific genes and compare against the genes in known GMOs to determine if a sample is GM. BC made an assumption that because it came from Europe it was not GMO because of certain laws in place there related to GMOs. They said that a European lab tested it for 2 markers, but they don’t saw which specific markers. after they released the purple galaxy, BC continued testing. The way they phrased it makes it seem that they were testing it before NHP contacted them. I would be curious why they were testing after release, and what they were specifically testing for. It wasn’t until NHP provided BC seeds that they could do a direct comparison. So in reality, how could you ever say that a seed is GMO free if there is not an all inclusive test for GMO? Do all of their seeds undergo GM testing, and if so, how can they with 100% certainty say all their seeds are non GMO? They use the non-GM platform as a huge marketing point. And if they don’t test every seed they offer, what was it about this one that made them originally test it, and then further test after release? Was it the unlikelihood that you could achieve that interior color through crossing alone, of that there was a patent by NHP going back a decade?

Instead of just taking ownership of what happened, BC’s statement goes on the attack of GMO and tries to spin it as BC being a hero and “Big AG” being the villain. If you look at the comments, it’s quite clear the BC is deleting any hard hitting questions. There are a few questions left that BC responds to saying “contact us to discuss further” instead of just making their statement include the additional information up front and available to everyone. They are probably betting that most people won’t contact them and they can do damage control by deleting any negative feedback. The BC statement just raises more questions, and the way they have been treating people who raise concerns makes me not want to ever buy from BC again. There are so many other options.