Bionic Veggies : Federal government allows ‘Frankenfood,’ genetically altered produce, to be marketed without usual safety testing.

Imagine you’re in the supermarket a couple of years from now and about to buy some tomatoes. The best looking ones--big, fire engine red, firm--are a buck a pound. Next to them are some others--same price, smaller, flecked with gold, maybe a soft spot or two. The latter have a “certified organic” stamp. the former, no distinguishing marks. Except that you know in your heart they’ve been there for six weeks--because you’ve been reading news stories and this column and know about genetically engineered produce.

“Pandora’s box is right there,” said Oxnard grower Dave Walsh. “It boggled my mind that they’re doing it.” He’s referring to the agribusiness practice of splicing animal and other genes into the breeding stock of things like corn and tomatoes to increase their shelf life. It also makes them resistant to insects and even resistant to poison sprayed on weeds.

Last month the U. S. Food and Drug Administration decided to let agribiz companies market genetically altered produce without the safety testing that usually accompanies such marketing. Because some of the genes being transferred into the veggies are going to originate in non-vegetables, such as cows and chickens--and even human beings--the New York Times instantly took up the cry “Frankenfood!”

We Californians got into the fray even earlier. An independent group here, the California Certified Organic Farmers (CCOF), has prohibited the use of genetically altered sprays or stock for years. And a decade ago, a prescient band of filmmakers south of here made a feature movie--”Attack of the Killer Tomatoes”--where in the last scene the veggies tried to kill everyone in San Diego’s Jack Murphy Stadium--a la “The Birds.”

Pretty silly and ridiculous, but not as ridiculous as you might think, according to Walsh, a leading organic farmer in our county.

“The genetically altered tomatoes they’re trying to market express a toxin that kills bugs,” he said. The thought of a tomato spitting in his eye doesn’t bother Walsh as much as the news that the new breeds will be resistant to herbicides.

“That means instead of weeding and hoeing like we do at Pure Pak, (non-organic farmers) will spray the crop from above with a poison, which will kill the weeds but not the corn and tomatoes. But then, if a tomato falls on the ground while no one is looking and some seeds get in the dirt and germinate . . . well, they’ll survive the weed spray and have to be taken out with a hoe.”

Killer tomatoes expressing toxins is bad enough--but immortal tomatoes? What big growers wanted was a crop to last on a store shelf without going soft. Firm. Maybe even bulletproof. I called Washington to see if the federal authorities in charge of certifying which food is organic and which isn’t have taken a stand similar to that of the CCOF. I asked a Department of Agriculture spokeswoman about the national picture. “We don’t know if we have a national picture yet,” she said.

I don’t feel like an anti-progress type by worrying that putting animal genes in veggies can lead to “secondary surprises,” as Walsh put it. By sticking with the organic growers we have a chance of knowing whether our food has been thus altered. Their commitment to natural breeding processes extends to the use of strains that have been bred “backwards”--removing modern veggie characteristics like bulk and bright color to take us back to things like “Luther Hill Sweet Corn,” which hasn’t been on the market for years. It’s the sweetest corn in the world--but smaller. I can live with smaller.

It’s not widely known, but already over 90% of our citrus is grown in a manner considered organic by many. Beneficial bugs instead of sprays are used for pest control, according to the Ventura County Agricultural Commission. But since regular sprays are used on occasion, the fruit has not formally been certified “organic.” The point is that we don’t need to plant Frankenfruit in our county to stay in business.

* FYI

If you’re interested in more information on this issue, call the California Certified Organic Farmers, a watchdog group that works with the state to certify organic produce, (408) 423-2663. The people who are using natural methods to breed better produce the classic way are in Santa Fe at Seeds of Change, (505) 438-8080.

The movies “Attack of the Killer Tomatoes” and “Return of the Killer Tomatoes” are available at some Ventura County video rental shops. An animated version airs Saturdays at 7 a.m. on Channel 11.