Heirlooms, hybrids, and the anachronistic tomato man

I felt like a sandaled wanderer from another time, traversing the city with odd hardwares and bits of lumber (for my new apartment, a few carpentry projects here and there); a backpack, only recently released of its contents - twelve pounds of dense compost: Chewy spinach stems, some chicken bones, beet peelings, and a bit of discarded stir fry (I'm ashamed to admit, it's disposal was less of a result of it spoiling before I could eat it all, and more because I grew weary of daily servings of tofu - unless I can come up with innovative methods of preparing it, I'm on a soy hiatus for a least a week). I save and deliver my food scraps (compost-to-be) to Whole Foods; local farmers pick it up and use it to fertilize their crops. Unfortunately my compost deliveries don't grant me a discount; however, this time around I did walk away with my first (and free!) tomato plant: An heirloom variety called Brandywine. Whole Foods was overstocked, and I was in need of my first crop, so the friendly vendor crossed off the UPC symbol and handed me the gracious gift along with some sage guidance on its proper care. And so, it was this tomato plant - strapped to my backpack with bungee cords, leaves bobbing along with my every step through urban Baltimore - that completed this odd visage of an anachronistic journeyman.

Key in this story was the long, scrutinizing gaze I gave to each tomato plant on the Whole Foods display, as I read each name tag carefully: Beefsteak, hybrid. Big boy, hybrid. Brandywine, heirloom. Heirloom. Hybrid. Why were these words so important? All of the plants looked nearly identical, after all, and the tomatoes they produced would no doubt be delicious and satisfying regardless of name.

Hybrid breeds are the result of a cross-pollination between two varieties of plants, often to produce bland-yet-durable produce that can survive a long haul in refrigerated truck, or stand up to the groping, poking fingers of choosy supermarket shoppers. Hybrids are bred for size, color, toughness, and sometimes taste, but their offspring are most often unpalatable. Genetically modified (GM) crop breeds take this one step further, by mixing the genes of two different species - say, a sea urchin and a banana (I made that one up, very un-scientific of me... If it wasn't midnight I'd find an actual example). GM crops can do nifty things like combine potatoes with vaccines (it's feasible that kids will be eating french fries to get their Hepatitis vaccine instead of getting a shot - though this is work-in-progress technology), infuse rice with extra vitamin A, or produce crops with resistances to pests or herbicides. Hybrid and GM technologies, when used wisely, can arguably have positive impacts on the food system and human health (please feel free to agree/disagree and post your thoughts).

Unfortunately, the overuse of hybrid and GM crops by industrial agriculture, along with some unhelpful government policies like the U.S. Farm Bill (which, ironically, no longer supports "farmers" as we typically think of them), have resulted in a sea of identical, "inbred" crop species. According to Indian crop ecologist Vandana Shiva, humans used to rely on 80,000 varieties of vegetables; now we grow roughly eight on an industrial scale. One need only look to the Irish potato famine to understand the risk of relying on such a slim variety of crops: Less diversity results in less resistance to disease. If one of our eight primary crops falls ill, every single one of its genetically identical inbred and/or genetically modified twins are equally susceptible.

Furthermore, from a social standpoint, agriculture business giants like Monsanto are "copyrighting" their hybrid and GM crops. It's become illegal for farmers to save seeds from Monsanto breeds, forcing them to purchase new seeds every year. To enforce this, Monsanto has engineered breeds with "terminator technology:" Plants that would normally sprout anew each year are encoded with a gene that causes them to die after a season, forcing the farmer to - you guessed it - buy more seeds. There was even a recent lawsuit where Monsanto sued a Canadian farmer for growing canola with patented Monsanto genes - genes that drifted via pollen. The farmer didn't even purchase Monsanto canola, but because the GM genes drifted into his crops, he was forced to pay damages.

I could go on and on with similar tales of woe. But let's end on a positive note.

Heirloom seeds are unique varieties that have been passed down, from farmer to farmer, across generations. Unlike hybrids, heirlooms produce offspring that are equally tasty, should one wish to save the seeds from, say, and heirloom tomato, and plant them again next season. I've heard the quality and taste of an heirloom vegetable put the cross-bred alternatives to shame, but I'll have to verify that for myself once my tomatoes come to fruition!

Perhaps most importantly, heirloom varieties support greater biodiversity - essential not only for a reliable food system, but also for pollinators such as bees and birds that depend on a variety of plant species for survival (and we depend on them, to pollinate our crops).

So the message to my fellow farmers and farmers-to-be is this: Dear friends, when you buy your seeds and crops, look for "heirloom" on the label. If you find it troubling that six multinational agriculture giants own 98% of the seed market while pushing environmentally damaging crop technologies, forcing farmers to abandon sustainable farming practices, and suing the overalls of small farmers for unintentionally growing "copyrighted" seeds, then take care to avoid those products. Monsanto, for example, markets seeds under the name American Seeds Inc. Sticking to heirlooms is a safe way to avoid supporting agribusiness giants.

Finally, should you happen to encounter a strange wanderer with a garden growing out of his mongoose-nibbled backpack (it's true, a mongoose once ate part of my backpack, but that's another story for another time), stop and ask for an heirloom tomato.

Cheers, and happy tomato-eating, or whatever it is you love!