This is too perfect for words. You’ll remember that I was a little confused by a strange report on a GM purple tomato that somehow wasn’t GM because it was bred from GM parents. Or something. Matthew now reveals that it is even more confusing than I first thought:
You’ll notice that the photo of the “GMO” purple tomato is from Oregon State University. It’s actually a photo of one experimental line from Jim Myers classical breeding program that last year released a new purple commercial variety. Here’s the press release they took it from: http://horticulture.oregonstate.edu/purple_tomato_faq.
We’ve written about those GM purple tomatoes before, and about Oregon State’s breeding programme. Nothing since then has changed my mind on the topic.