Students Grow Tomatoes From Space

Ventura County school officials weren’t exactly panicked, but they expressed some caution Friday in the wake of a report that some tomato seeds distributed to U.S. schools after exposure to radiation in space could be toxic.

The officials took the position that an attack of killer tomatoes in the county later this year appears unlikely but is worth thinking about.

Tomato seeds that spent more than five years on an earth-orbiting satellite as part of a NASA experiment already are flourishing in Ventura County, the officials said.

Teachers at Cabrillo Middle School in Ventura said students planted the tomato seeds from the NASA school program soon after they received them three weeks ago. The tiny plants have already sprouted and are doing well.

Science teacher Donald Boger said the school’s three science instructors have turned the experiment over to about 200 seventh-grade students to compare the development of the plants, whose seeds were flown into space aboard the shuttle Challenger, with the growth of plants from a control group that remained on Earth.

But Boger said school officials will wait until any tomatoes appear and are tested before deciding whether they are safe to eat.

“Until the fruit appears, I would say nobody would be able to tell,” Boger said.

A memo written by a NASA contractor and obtained this week by The Times said there is “a remote possibility that radiation-caused mutations could cause the plants to produce toxic fruit.”

But NASA officials called a press conference Friday to dismiss any threat that “killer tomatoes” may have accidentally found their way into the country under its auspices, proclaiming the tomatoes to be as safe as any grown in the nation’s back yards.

About 12.5 million seeds were stored on the satellite as part of NASA’s Space Exposed Experiment Developed for Students (SEEDS). The satellite was retrieved in January. Information about the experiment was sent to 180,000 teachers nationwide.

At least half a dozen schools in Ventura County are participating in the SEEDS program, said Deanna Pinson, a spokeswoman for the Park Seed Co. in Greenwood, S.C., which supplied NASA with the seeds.

Ventura High School agricultural science teacher James Parton said that a package from NASA containing the seeds is on his desk at the school waiting to be planted when classes resume next week after spring break--and that the students will go ahead and plant them.

“I’m real skeptical that these seeds would have been exposed to anything that could carry over to their fruit once they grow,” Parton said. “I’m more worried about the environment it’s in now than what it may have been exposed to before.”

Parton said he would consider eating the tomatoes. “The possibility that it could cause any harm to any human is just ridiculous,” he said. “If I grow them, I’ll eat them.”

But Ventura High Principal Robert Cousar questioned whether the seeds are safe enough for school experiments. “Why distribute them to schoolchildren?” Cousar asked. “Why not give them to some experimental laboratories to see if something is wrong with them? It doesn’t seem very intelligent, does it?”

At the Piru School in Piru, Principal Lynn Edmonds said teachers have received the seeds and will plant them, but that officials have never really considered eating the tomatoes.

“I think it’s wise not to eat the fruit,” Edmonds said. “We saw it as a scientific investigation and didn’t see it as a fruit-growing exercise.”

Edmonds said the seeds arrived in a “nice little packet” of well-organized information and Piru’s students and teachers are eager to begin the experiment.

“We have a real strong science program and we also have a school farm, so it fit in very naturally,” Edmonds said. “I don’t think there’s any problem from the experiment itself.”

Edmonds said students at the year-round elementary school, who are on a three-week spring break, may wait until the beginning of the next school year in August to plant the seeds to monitor their growth over time.

Cabrillo science teacher Richard Smith said the most immediate question at the school is how many of the plants will survive spring break. About 80% of the seeds germinated, and teachers expect to lose about 10% of those this week, he said.

As for scientific observations thus far, Cabrillo students have noted nothing unusual in the plants’ development, but have speculated whether the tomatoes will be a weird color, like purple, or grotesquely shaped, teacher Boger said.

“They’re having fun with it,” Boger said.

NASA DISCOUNTS FEARS: Agency says tomatoes grown from space-based seeds are safe. A19