Reader question: How do I know if the tomatoes I buy at the grocery store are Genetically Modified foods?
Answer: There are no Genetically Modified tomatoes on the shelves today.
That is, there aren’t any tomatoes that have been altered by the insertion of insect DNA, though of course going back to Gregor Mendel, the act of hybridization is a form of modifying produce, too.
Even though they are not GMOs, many conventional tomatoes are grown using fertilizers adjusted to get larger fruit size and sacrifice taste and nutrition. Not to mention the pesticide residues used in conventional farming practices.
Even though they do not appear on the Environmental Working Group’s Dirty Dozen Plus list for high pesticide levels, and they are not GMOs, tomatoes are still an item I always try to buy organic.
