Fried Gene Tomatoes

Scientists have been talking about producing better foods through genetic engineering ever since the technology first became available, more than 20 years ago. By mixing and matching bits of DNA -- cutting a gene from one kind of organism and pasting it into another -- they hoped to make new, improved plants and animals. Over the years they've put corn genes in rice, trout genes in catfish, chicken genes in potatoes, even firefly genes in tobacco (yielding a plant that actually glowed in the dark). A few years ago, Department of Agriculture researchers tried to produce leaner pork by splicing a human gene into a pig embryo. What they got was a cross-eyed porker with crippling arthritis and a strangely wrinkled face.

Now, after decades of biotech setbacks and controversy, consumers finally have something they can sink their teeth into. The U.S. Food and Drug Administration (FDA) last week endorsed as safe the first genetically altered food to be sold to consumers -- a tomato called the Flavr Savr and billed as offering "summertime taste" all year long. Calgene, the Davis, California- based company that produced Flavr Savr (and came up with that silly name), says its new tomato will appear in selected supermarkets in California and the Midwest this week and should be available across the rest of the country before the end of the year.

The biotech industry immediately hailed the government's decision as the breakthrough it had been waiting for. "This is a real shot in the arm," says Roger Salquist, Calgene's chief executive officer. "It validates the company's science." Jim McCamant, editor of AgBioTech Stock Letter, agrees: "This removes the clouds and proves that agricultural biotechnology is going to make a major contribution to the food we eat over the next 20 years."

The gene splicers have shown no shortage of imagination. Products in the pipeline include chickens that grow faster on less feed, snap peas that stay sweeter longer, bell peppers with fewer seeds and longer shelf life, pineapples that ripen more uniformly, squash and cucumbers that need less water, corn that requires fewer pesticides and herbicides, grains that have more protein, vegetable oils that are lower in saturated fat, coffee beans that have less caffeine, French fries that absorb less cooking oil and kidney beans that don't cause flatulence.

Behind all these products is the same basic technology. A new gene is introduced (or an existing gene is suppressed) in a tissue culture in the hope that any resulting plants or animals will gain (or lose) the trait in question. Conventional plant and animal breeders might get the same outcome, but they often have to wait for several generations to mature and reproduce, and their techniques are more hit and miss. In the case of Calgene's new product, scientists zeroed in on a gene associated with an enzyme that makes the tomato rot. Then they reversed the effects, ensuring that the tomato stays fresher longer.