Baker Creek Heirloom Seed Company had an intriguing offer on the cover of its 2024 catalog: a tomato seed it called Purple Galaxy. However, what the Missouri-based non-GMO seed supplier didn’t seem to realize is that the Purple Galaxy was very closely connected to the purple genetically engineered tomato variety created by Norfolk Healthy Produce.
And, boy, was Baker Creek ticked off.
In a long Facebook post Monday afternoon, Baker Creek got defensive of the product listing, suggesting that it has been hoodwinked because it had sourced the tomato seeds from “a plant breeder in Europe,” where the bar is particularly high for genetically engineered foods to be approved. Baker Creek also claims to have gotten the seeds tested at a respected lab in Europe.
And all of that is fine — if a company such as Baker Creek wants to keep its business confined to organic and/or heirloom seeds, it certainly can. What got weird was the post’s unnecessary tirade against “Big Ag.”
“Baker Creek is one of nearly 400 companies that subscribe to the Safe Seed Pledge first created by the Council for Responsible Genetics in 1999. Indeed, we are one of the leaders in the movement to keep gardens free of genetically-engineered plants,” the company said in its Facebook post. “In the decades before CRG wrote its Pledge, Big Ag had used genetic engineering to manipulate the DNA of seeds and, by patenting them and suing farmers to ‘enforce’ those patent rights and avoid responsibility for GM contamination of nearby crops, Big Ag obtained significant control the world’s food supply.”
There are two things to address here:
- The first is that the purple variety has been widely hailed as a positive addition to modern seed genetics, with feature articles in The New York Times, Forbes, and CNN, just to name a few. It is engineered to naturally produce higher levels of healthy antioxidants and better bridge the shelf-life gap among this popular produce.
- Secondly, Baker Creek has nearly 1 million Facebook followers. Sorry to break it to you, Baker Creek, but you are Big Ag too.
That second part is what makes the Facebook tirade such a head-scratcher. Yeah, we get why Baker Creek would be embarrassed to be called out on listing a genetically engineered seed in an heirloom catalog. After all, it seems like it was Norfolk Healthy Produce that brought the issue up after noticing the listing’s similarity to its purple variety. But to try to turn the situation into an attack on an arbitrary Big Ag boogeyman smacks of desperation.
Norfolk Healthy Produce added to its FAQ page to say:
“We have received many questions about the purple tomato marketed by Baker Creek as ‘Purple Galaxy’ in their 2024 catalogs. We understand from Baker Creek that they will not be selling seeds of this variety. Given its remarkable similarity to our purple tomato, we prompted Baker Creek to investigate their claim that Purple Galaxy was non-GMO. We are told that laboratory testing determined that it is, in fact, bioengineered (GMO). This result supports the fact that the only reported way to produce a purple-fleshed tomato rich in anthocyanin antioxidants is with Norfolk’s patented technology. We appreciate that Baker Creek tested their material, and after discovering it was a GMO, removed it from their website.”
Admittedly, that contradicts Baker Creek’s version, which claimed, “After repeated testing, we are unable to conclusively establish that the Purple Galaxy does not contain any genes that have been genetically modified,” the Facebook post said. “Subsequent laboratory testing conducted in conjunction with Norfolk did not conclusively establish a relationship between the Purple Galaxy and Norfolk’s GM purple tomato.”
It certainly leaves one to wonder what the labs really said. Based on Baker Creek’s aggressive defensiveness, it seems likely that Norfolk Healthy Produce is delivering a more honest assessment of the lab results.
Norfolk Healthy Produce, which is based out of the U.K., holds a patent on its genetically-engineered purple flesh tomato. The company’s seeds are grown around the U.S., including in Virginia, North Carolina, California, Massachusetts, and Kansas.
Baker Creek says it never intends to sell patented seeds, instead focusing solely on ones that are “open-pollinated,” which is the equivalent of public domain.
“Everyone loves fresh heirloom tomatoes from their garden for a caprese salad or BLT, and that’s what people want but can’t find at the grocery store,” Nathan Pumplin, president and CEO of Norfolk, told Forbes in 2023. “And so we see a big opportunity to reach unmet needs of consumers through better tomato products as a starting point.”
