A Look at Genetically Engineered Vegetables

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Plant geneticist John Stommel is trying to breed an orange tomato with higher beta-carotene content.
Plant geneticist John Stommel is trying to breed an orange tomato with higher beta-carotene content.
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The trend in gardening is towards more variety.
The trend in gardening is towards more variety.
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Seeds of the world's most unusual lettuces are safeguarded in an ARS gene bank in Salinas, CA.
Seeds of the world's most unusual lettuces are safeguarded in an ARS gene bank in Salinas, CA.

A meal of soup and salad is a healthy pairing–but either component can get boring very quickly. A bowl of red lentil soup might be more exciting, though. Or how about a tossed salad of bright orange tomatoes, chocolate-colored bell pepper rings, and wedges of blue lettuce garnished with maroon carrot curls? If that sounds more like your kind of meal, then you’ll love what agricultural researchers have in store for you.

“The trend in gardening–both home and commercial–is toward more and more variety,” says Larry Kampa, Advertising Manager at Petoseed Company, Inc., a commercial hybrid vegetable breeding corporation. “The selection in size, shape, and color will only get broader.”

Though maroon carrots are still under development, seeds are available to home gardeners for many varieties of vegetables you won’t see in the supermarket any time soon. Petoseed Company, which sells its seeds for home gardening through consumer seed companies like Burpee, is especially proud of two American Award Selections it introduced in 1994: the “Big Beef” tomato and “Fanfare,” a hybrid cucumber. Fanfare produces a large, better quality yield on compact vines, while Big Beef combines good taste and continuous setting with uniform size.

Taste, shape, and most recently, color variations make the new generation of vegetables as much a coffee table accessory as part of the afternoon meal. “Purple Blush” is an eggplant with a lavender shading on white skin and a sweeter taste, while “Roly Poly” zucchini is a round squash the size of a grapefruit. Giant peppers like “Great Stuff” and “Peto Wonder” contrast beautifully with curious miniatures like “Jingle Bells” (sweet pepper) and “Bambino” eggplant.

New Strawberry Varieties

  • Published on Feb 1, 1995
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