In a recent article in Scientific American, author Brendan Borrell states that according to recent tomato research, "the diversity [of heirloom varieties] is only skin-deep: heirlooms are actually feeble and inbred—the defective product of breeding experiments that began during the Enlightenment and exploded thanks to enthusiastic backyard gardeners from Victorian England to Depression-era West Virginia."
Borrell writes about the research of Dr. Steven Tanksley at Cornell University, who has traced the genes of heirloom tomatoes, and has concluded that the hundreds of heirloom varieties available to gardeners come from only a handful (as few as ten) mutant genes. Backyard breeders through the years focused on traits like interesting color, shape, and taste, and, in doing so, inadvertently bred out disease-resisting genes. Which is why, geneticists claim, heirloom tomatoes suffer from more fungal diseases and have lower yields than modern hybrid varieties, as well as their ancestor, which grew wild in the Peruvian Andes before being domesticated. Scientists also believe that the celebrated robust flavor of heirlooms has nothing to do with being "heirloom," per se, and more to do with the fact that the plants produce fewer fruit and we tend to eat heirlooms when they are at the peak of flavor, just-ripe off the vine.
One geneticist, a student of Tanskley, is currently working on hybridizing modern heirloom-type tomatoes, tomatoes that have great flavor and interesting physical characteristics, but also have the disease resistance and high yields of modern hybrids. He is doing this hybridizing for Seminis, a subsidiary of Monsanto---a name that is synonymous with industrial agriculture.
And here's where I have a big problem with this whole thing. Part of what makes so many of us fanatical about heirlooms is the fact that we can collect our own seeds, and that they are from plants that have been grown from the same seed, handed down from gardener to gardener for generations. You can't save hybrid seed and grow plants from it year after year. The seed will not come true, and you end up with a plant that is often nothing like the one you saved seed from, if it germinates at all. To me, this is just one more way Big Ag is trying to take control of our food supply; convince us to set aside heirlooms in favor of these....imitation heirlooms.
And what about the idea that heirlooms are weak, disease-prone, low yielding accidents? I can tell you: I love science. Science is our friend. But after growing heirloom tomatoes in my own garden for the last fifteen years, no one can tell me that they are inferior in any way to modern hybrids. Any disease issues that come up are more often the result of poor soil health and unsanitary garden conditions than anything else. As for the flavor----well, if you've tasted a Brandywine tomato, fully ripe and juicy and warm from the sun, I don't need to convince you that the flavor can't be beat. I'll be sticking with my heirlooms, thank you very much!
What do you think? Is our love of heirlooms just sentimental, or are they truly as good or better than modern hybrids?
Thank you to About Trees and Shrubs guide Vanessa Richins for drawing my attention to this fascinating article. You can read the full text at the Scientific American website.
Comments
Maybe this post should be titled “Feeble and Inbred and Delicious!”
Anthony: Ha! I like your title better than mine. Thanks for stopping by!
My Brandywines and San Marzanos and Yellow Pears do *just fine*.
This is pure propaganda from the “Science”-industrial complex, exemplified by Monsanto and their Malthusian obsession with the destruction of non-hybrid seed propagation. Control the food, control the people.
What DB said. Any time science tweaks out the natural and claims that the mutated version is better, I am doubtful.
Heirloom is better tasting, with more realistic yields and definitely more interesting. I will stick with my heirlooms too, thanks.
Amy
i planted all my Heirloom tomatoes last year in containers and in the ground.
All my friends and neighbors got free organic tomatoes from my crop.
Even today, in April, I have one last-year Sungold Cherry tomato plant blooming and bearing tomatoes (this time, for me only).
For some reason, no one mentioned that Heirloom has a much thinner skin than the hybrid. The thick and rubbery skin of hybrid is something I cannot deal with.
Nina
DB–I agree with you 100%. The last thing places like Monsanto wants to see is people taking control and being informed about where their food comes from. Thank you for commenting.
Amy–I’m with you on that whole “tweaking” thing. Thanks for stopping by.
Nina–Great point about the skin! I couldn’t agree more. And, yes, I’ve had plenty of tomatoes to go around too! Thanks for the comment.
Well it just so happens I agree with all of the above. Again, Monsanta beating its chest to use scare tactics to change things to their advantage.
I saw somewhere that Heirloom and burpee were in the same sentence, scary. Most people don’t know that Monsanto owns Burpee and that in its own is a powerful thing. We need to know where our seeds come from and what we are growing for our families.
This is my first year and I can hardly wait to taste and I am giving many plants to friends and neighbors. Happy Gardening
Thanks all. Hybrids are designed for shipping containers, not tables. I suppose that if you really need something to teach you to chew your food more, those tough- skinned ‘maters might serve that purpose.
look up where the rest of your food comes from.who OWNS it? you will be horrified.who owns the science, the r@d, the universities, the food supply? grow heirloom HEIRLOOM anything! give or exchange to as many others as possible!! BIODIVERSITY is ESSENTIAL!! food without contamination of some sort is going to become scarce.people living centuries from now deserve to eat.
So, a subsidiary of Monsanto did the study and it just so happens that they discovered the heirlooms were defective and they can correct this with hybridized heirlooms (is that an oxymoron?)
I say someone independent with no vested interest in the outcome should do a study. Isn’t it interesting how these agricultural companies want a monopoly on everything? I’m much too independent in the old pioneer American spirit to like that.
catlady3
I’m as enthusiastic about heirlooms and conservation as anyone you are likely to find. But I’d like to ask those who see only sinister intentions by Monsanto to consider this: that one reason for their breeders to create sterile plants is actually to protect biodiversity. Many of these manufactured cultivars could easily become invasive exotics if they escaped into the wild. Sure, the profit motive is definitely part of the picture — but it’s not the sole motivation, is all I’m sayin’. I don’t think Monsanto wants to eliminate all open pollinated varieties. From what I know of science and R&D I expect it’s just the opposite. They probably value them highly as raw material for future exploration. And no, I do not work for Monsanto — although I do work for a small ag school that has sustainable small scale farming as a core feature in its program.
Actually, Monsanto IS all about profit. They are full of crap when they talk about protecting our food/earth/need to feed..that is public propaganda.
I have been in meetings with Montsanto speakers, who ensure the room that they WILL be feeding the world with their seeds. It will just take time.
They are all about, and ONLY all about money.
I stand by my statement:
Monsanto is evil.
According to this article, “scientists” claim that superior heirloom flavor comes from fewer fruits being produced by inbred plants, which in some cases might be true. However, this is obviously not true in all cases because otherwise why would Monsanto breed “heirloom-type” tomatoes to make superior tasting hybrids? This article is contradictory in this respect. If heirlooms (i.e. inbred tomatoes) are inferior, why use them to make hybrid tomatoes that taste like inbred tomatoes?
Good to see sanity prevailing among the comments here. I’ve collected 180 heirloom tomato lines and counting…