One of the lingering joys of autumn is the harvest of the red, sun-ripened tomato from the heavily laded vines of the backyard garden.

The slanted rays of the sun spill across the rows of leftover vines, devoid of peas, beans. The stray and overlooked squash peeks out from the yellowing leaves. The scent is rich with compost as the garden vegetation falls in upon itself, preparing the soil for the winter fallow and, ultimately, the return of spring. A few plants, encaged and escaping, still stand tall as a landmark for your quest.

Pulling back one of the slightly tacky leaves reveals the perfect globes necessary for the quintessence comfort food, the tomato sandwich.

FACT 1:  Tomatoes, along with corn, soybeans, and wheat, are frequently targeted for genetic improvement by the bio-geneticists. In the past, such changes were wrought by interbreeding various existing strains of tomatoes to enhance shape, size, color, acidity, durability, and other naturally occurring characteristics. Newer methods require splicing the DNA of unlike species, such as flounder or mold-resistant bacteria. These transgenic frost resistant tomatoes would have a dramatically increased shelf life and fewer losses due to spoilage. Forty percent of food grown today is lost to spoilage, insects, and disease. As farmland dwindles, methods are being sought to minimize these post-harvest losses.

CONCERN 1:  As produce becomes increasingly engineered, what will be the cost to the small family farm? As is more and more the case, the large corporate 'business' farming conglomerates will control an ever-shrinking number of viable species. Wind and germinating insects will carry pollen from the transgenic or genetically altered plants to the organic fields and eliminate the naturally occurring varieties.

The tomato, like Bubba's shrimp in Forrest Gump, has a multitude of uses. The perfect fruit for the purposes of a sandwich is oblong and heavy for its size. This meaty tomato, once sliced into a couple thick slabs, will fit like a third slice of bread. Using the smaller specimens requires careful shaping, so the edges lie tightly together, like puzzle pieces lovingly assembled. The bread should be from fresh, soft, Italian or white loaves.

FACT 2:  Many traditional grain-based products, including breads, cereals, pastas, cookies, and crackers, are modified and enhanced with psyllium. This grain is rich in soluble fiber and products containing it have FDA-approved promises to lower cholesterol. Many of our supermarket staples are becoming 'nutraceutical', that is, modified in some way to be more nutritious or medicinal. Orange juice packed with added calcium, super-onions that thin the blood to help prevent strokes, red carrots containing incredible amounts of the cancer-fighting beta-carotene, or broccoli sprouts promising a week's worth of sulforaphane, a potent anti-oxidant, in a few bites are examples. Juice companies are adding herbal remedies, Echinacea and St. John's Wort, for example, to their offerings. Mega-soy refreshments, once limited to the juice bar at gyms, are being mass-marketed. Campbell's V-8 Splash line grew from zero to $200 million in sales in 18 months.

CONCERN 2:  The FDA does not regulate nor study these products. There is no regulation requiring the labeling these goods as transgenic, or advising consumers of potential allergic risks from the newly developed proteins. The impact on the environment is unknown. Will the corn and broccoli that fights back against nasty worms and caterpillars also damage beneficial or decorative species? What will these combinations do to our bodies?

Both slices of bread are spread with mayonnaise or salad dressing, covering each from crust to crust. A sprinkling of salt and pepper, then add your tomato. The tomato slice can be as thick or thicker than one piece of bread. Don't be shy, this is a venial sin and easily forgiven. For ease of eating, cut the sandwich with a serrated knife in your favorite manner.

FACT 3:  Soy, one of the most frequently modified food products, is used in 60 percent of processed foods. Yogurt, chocolate, salad dressings, and mayonnaise are examples. Soybeans are widely engineered to resist the effects of pesticides, minimize diseases and spoilage, and to increase yield.

CONCERN 3:  The residual amounts of antibiotics and pesticide resistance may cross to other plants creating super-weeds. The same could be true for the effects on humans by the advent of spontaneously occurring super-germs, which would be resistant to most or all of the present generation of antibiotics available to medicine.

A tall cool glass of milk completes the impromptu indulgence. Some people prefer a bologna sandwich; others reach for chicken or egg salad to bring them a little closer to that childhood serenity of an after-school snack. The warm kitchen, your mom finishing up her daily tasks in preparation for the coming family time, your books on the chair, your jacket on the floor, swinging your feet as the bread squishes between your fingers and the contents spill down your chin, is the kind of memory that certain foods always bring. That it never really was that way is less important than reaching for the comfort of those moments.

FACT 4:  The quality and selection of fruits and vegetables available to the industrialized world has expanded exponentially. Produce, once limited to extremely short local growing seasons, can no longer be called out-of-season due to trans-global shipments of the increasingly durable transgenic or genetically modified varieties now available. Eliminating waste and spoilage of foodstuffs would help reduce world hunger. Animals are also subjects of transgenic experimentation and research.

CONCERN 4:  As we change our foods at a genetic level we introduce additional potential allergens into our systems. At present, consumers have no way of knowing if the product is natural or modified, thus preventing informed choices. Is changing animals ethical? The possibility of 'playing God' to a degree in which there is no going back to natural produce exists. If the new species fail a famine, from which there is no chance of recovery, will result. Are we smarter than nature? Are we cleverer than the millennia-long selection process this world has already implemented in the existing species? Are the gene-modified antibodies from corn fed to livestock being transmitted in the meat or, in the case of chickens or cows, their eggs or milk?

In the end, there is no going back. What is - is. We cannot return magically to the innocence of our childhoods. We know what we know. We cannot un-know or undo the experiences we have lived. We cannot unlearn any knowledge we've acquired. Any choices we have can only be for our futures. As we curl our lips around that perfect tomato sandwich, let's ponder those options, for ourselves and for the generations to follow.

The past is immutable but the future is not yet decided. Choose well.

References:

Sylvia Carter, Fields of Genes

Peter Jaret, Protesting Our Food Supply

Manfred Davidman, Creating, Patenting, and Marketing of New Forms of Life

The Progress Report/ Genetically Engineered Food - by Fred Foldvary (no URL)