The Purple Tomato that is Old News

Levon Biss for The New York Times

A few months ago I came across an image that caught my attention – a Purple Tomato. Is this an internet meme or is this a reality? The title of this article “Learning to Love G.M.O.s” shed new light on my knowledge about GMO (Genetically Modified Organism). 

This purple tomato, containing twice as much antioxidant than blueberries, is created in a laboratory in Norwich, UK. The high level of antioxidant is only possible due to its genome being altered to introduced a pair of gene from snapdragon – a type of Antirrhinum plant. However what is wrong with our normal tomatoes? Is diet so unbalanced that we need to temper with Nature’s produces? Could we not add another variety of food that will give us the amount of antioxidant we need to make us healthy? This are some of the questions that I found myself asking after reading this article. 

Reading further on the article, though this purple tomato has yet to be introduced into commercial markets due to the tremendous amount of documentation/manpower/money/hours required to pass the regulation of F.D.A (Food and Drugs Administration), there has been talks that it can be used primarily as extracts and active ingredients for medication and supplementary pills. Nevertheless the complication of all the lab work and experimenting is that if the gene editing is wrong, the tomato might end up producing harmful toxin for human consumption. All this information are very intriguing and fascinating, and I am not going to go about saying I am approve of GMO or not. 

On another level of this, I found a rather intriguing trait of ourselves – the will and resolve to ‘come up with a problem’ and the think of a solution to make our lives ‘easier’. This trait was first conditioned into me when I was studying design and technology – come up with a ‘problem’ and then find a solution to solve the problem. “I have a problem making the perfect boiled egg for my meal. No problem, here a machine designed to make the perfect boiled eggs to your liking”. So if a vegetable/fruit is not producing enough nutrients for our body, we shall alter its DNA to produce the necessary level. Consuming a wider variety of nutritious food doesn’t seem to come into the equation, mainly because the food that contains the necessary nutrition doesn’t taste good. 

Our ability to manipulate our surroundings and natural resources separate us as humans from other living species on this Earth. Our languages and conditionings further separate us from seeing, thinking and acting as being part of Nature. This particular relationship is something that I have been reflecting upon from both perspectives – being Human and being Nature. We are One with Nature, yet Others with Nature. 

To read more about the article, please click on this following link to redirect you to New York Times: Learning to Love G.M.O.s