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regardless of season. In the early 1990s, American farmers were producing more than 13 pounds (5.9 kilograms) per capita of fresh tomatoes and another 75 pounds (34 kilograms) for processing; the market for fresh tomatoes was worth $3–5 billion annually, and that for processed tomatoes even more. Most supermarket tomatoes are bred for disease resistance, appearance, and durability rather than taste, are picked when green, and are the bane of consumers longing for “backyard” flavor and freshness. Tomatoes taste better when they are picked ripe. They also have a higher content of solids—sugars and starches—that make them more economical to process into tomato paste and sauce.46 For these reasons, several biotechnology companies were working on tomato projects.

Calgene’s Flavr Savr. Beginning in the mid-1980s, Calgene, a California-based biotechnology company, invested $25 million and eight years of effort to alter the gene in tomatoes that causes softening. They constructed the tomato to contain its own gene, but with the DNA in reverse order. This manipulation slowed the gene’s action, delayed ripening, and allowed the tomato to be picked at a more mature stage of ripeness and taste. Calgene expected its trademarked “MacGregor’s tomatoes, grown from Flavr Savr seeds,” to capture at least 15% of the market as soon as they became available. The company’s initial marketing strategy differed from Monsanto’s approach to rBGH milk; it was utterly transparent. Calgene labeled the tomatoes as genetically engineered: “Thank you for buying MacGregor’s tomatoes. . . . Since 1982, the MacGregor’s team of hard-working professional men and women has successfully applied the latest developments in genetic engineering, tomato plant breeding, and farming to solve an age old problem—how to supply an abundance of great-tasting tomatoes all year round.” Figure 22 depicts the tomato-shaped package insert containing these statements.

Calgene’s strategy differed from Monsanto’s in another respect. In 1989, it voluntarily sought FDA guidance on the regulatory status of this first transgenic food, long before it was ready to market. The company’s motivation was quite explicit: public relations. If the FDA approved the tomato, consumers would believe it safe to eat. The ensuing ordeal lasted nearly four years. A former Calgene scientist, Dr. Belinda Martineau, recounts these events in her lively 2001 book, First Fruit. The FDA, she says, “put Calgene through the wringer” in what turned out to be “a long, hard, even painful process.”47 The wringing began in 1991 with a consultation with FDA about whether the Flavr Savr would be subject to the same regulations as conventional tomatoes. The answer: not exactly. Instead, the FDA asked Calgene to provide extensive information about the tomato’s safety and nutrient content. The company published a book in response to this request in 1992. Calgene then asked the FDA for a ruling on whether its scientists could use the gene for resistance to the antibiotic kanamycin (neomycin) as a selection marker, and petitioned for approval of the kanamycin-resistant gene as a food additive. While the FDA was dealing with these requests and asking for more data, the company did some public relations and lobbying. It convinced the Biotechnology Industry Organization, then a trade association of mostly pharmaceutical biotechnology companies, to represent the interests of agricultural biotechnology companies as well. Calgene officials met with high-ranking political leaders at the White House and provided members of Congress with bacon, lettuce, and Flavr Savr sandwiches. They also supplied tomatoes for press tastings and industry-sponsored events.48 I ate Flavr Savr tomatoes for lunch at a 1994 biotechnology industry meeting in New York City. I thought they tasted like tomatoes, better than supermarket varieties but not nearly as good as those available at farmers’ markets in August.

FIGURE 22. A 1992 press kit for Calgene’s genetically modified Flavr Savr tomatoes (neither approved nor marketed at that time) contained