Imagine coming home from shopping. In your bag you have among others a bunch of tomato’s. You put them in the fridge for later consumption. a few days later you feel like making a sandwich and take the tomato’s out of the fridge. You slice the tomato and see this... No they are no worms or so, these are actual sprouts, tomato sprouts. only, they are inside the tomato. Bizarre coincidence or GM tomato?
While surfing the net I stumbled onto this picture on coasttocoastam.com.
weird hey? Are you sure that no one put the sprouts in after it was cut?
Looks like a hoax. I think the sprouts where aranges nicely in the tomato for the picture. Dosn't look real.
its probably not a hoax, I had the same happen with apple pips, I even planted some of them to see how they would grow on. I'm not sure what would cause the seeds to germinate so soon and stil inside the fruit. I've also observed it with some flowers where a load of seedlings emerge from the seedhead whilest still on the plant, teasel is especially prone to this.
As a horticulturist, I find this sort of thing fascinating. One has to wonder if this is a natural phenominum(sp) or if someone was experimenting, and if so, was this their desired result
When you look at the edge of the tomato, the cut doesn't look new and fresh as if its just been sliced. Maybe the tomato was sliced and the seeds encouraged to grow with artifical heat an light?
I was in Edmonton the other day and I was approached by a green peace representative that discussed how many of the factory farm companies are researching putting animal genes like fish genes into things like tomatoes and other vegetables. The impact of GM ingredients on the environment and human health is a real one. Regardless of whether or not this is fake, it's plausible that more bizzare things might happen when the public is not informed of these things or allowed to make any decision regardless. We should at least be informed of products that are genetically modified, if nothing else.
This doesn't look very real. I think they might've been put in afterwords. 
| Karuk wrote: |
| I was in Edmonton the other day and I was approached by a green peace representative that discussed how many of the factory farm companies are researching putting animal genes like fish genes into things like tomatoes and other vegetables. The impact of GM ingredients on the environment and human health is a real one. Regardless of whether or not this is fake, it's plausible that more bizzare things might happen when the public is not informed of these things or allowed to make any decision regardless. We should at least be informed of products that are genetically modified, if nothing else. |
What most people don't know is that a good percentage of our genome (and other animals too) is built by retro viruses ( http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Retro_virus ). They are (now) usually harmless to the organisms they have invaded. Because those who could not cope the viruses simply died or was otherwise sorted out by evolution.
But the scientists are pretty much clue-less on what will happen if we by accident implant one retrovirus from one spices to another. Simply tampering (by accident) with retrovirus codes might have very un-expected results too. These effects might not be so easy to spot at first, there might be long term effects that we can't anticipate.
That's why i find GM food disgusting.Very fascinating! I think this looks like a good science experiment for my kids to do! I have some homegrown tomatoes in the fridge to try it on and then maybe we'll get some from the store. I think we will cut a tomato in half and try putting it under a grow light for a day or so and see if we do get any sprouts. They maybe we'll try putting some tomato seeds into a tomato to see if it will sprout and if it looks anything like the picture here. I'll try to post our results and let you know!
This can easily happen in later summer, when the tomatoes are allowed to get very rime, maybe even over ripe on the vine. I had it happen when a couple of ripe tomatoes fell off the vine into the pinestraw below, and were in partial sun, I dont believe its a hoax, because I've seen it happen.
I think it was a hoax if u look at the picture that is a very neat cut and it just so happens none of the sprouts looks cut. Coincidence the knife happens to miss all the sprouts? Where is the other HAlf?
Also shouldn't the sprouts be breaking the skin from the outside?
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| Also shouldn't the sprouts be breaking the skin from the outside? |
That would be imposible seeing as the seeds are inside the tomato.
I still can't make my mind up about this. The sprouting seeds would be likely to coil round as shown if it's genuine, so there is a good chance of cutting the tomato in half without without cutting through the sprouting seeds.Sprouts inside a tomato? Interesting. I get goosebumps looking at it though, it looks like worms.
Well, we tried to do the experiment. We took a tomatoe and cut it in half and left one like it was and I put some basil seeds (that's all I had) on the other one to see if they would sprout. It didn't work for us. The tomato got rotten and stinky before anything sprouted but I think the only way that this could have happened is if they planted seeds inside a cut tomato.
Makes for an interesting conversation picture, though.
| STGwebsite wrote: |
While surfing the net I stumbled onto this picture on coasttocoastam.com.
weird hey? |
What more would you expect from the website for the radio program (formely led by the infamous Art Bell) that ascribes nearly anything unusual to ghosts or space aliens? Here's my own story regarding the show:
Early in the year 2000, I had an early commute to the job I was in at the time. For that reason, I needed to wake up around 5AM. To make sure I didn't miss the start of the news and the traffic report, I set my clock-radio for 4:50AM. Unfortunately, I started to have very strange and disturbing nightmares, and was beginning to wonder if it was stress from the job, or just something I had eaten.
One day, I woke up a little more quickly than before, and I discovered that the news station, which started their news broadcasting day at 5AM, was playing Coast to Coast AM prior to the start of the news, and the show's host (Art Bell, at the time) and callers were carrying on about alien creation of and visits to the Earth, and other pseudoscience.
Because it was such a crock, and I didn't want to have to wake up to THAT again, I change to a different news station. Immediately, the nightmares stopped, never to return. Thus, when the subject of that show ever arises, I am always quick to relate the above incident and to warn people. In fact, one friend and one aunt of mine had similar experiences with strange dreams and nightmares (except they had actually been listening to the show at length). When they told me about their problem and I told them what had happened with me, they stopped listening to the show and their nightmares also stopped right away.
Let the listener beware!It's something that happen to my friend before but the sprout were going out of the his tomato. He tried to plant the whole "Thing" to see if it was viable but after a few day critters eated the whole thing. I find it special that the fruit look like really firm but that the seed have grown up. It could be a hoax but not to forget that it is the natural way to tomatoes to reproduce.
I reckon it is a hoax, notice how the sprouts aren't trying to go anywhere in particular like other sprouts do. They should be pointing all in a similarish direction.
And don't say that there wouldn't be any light for this to happen because plants usually have a geotropic ( earth seeking (tr?)) behaviour too.
then again, there is always the chance of mutations
I think it's a hoax. C'mon why would sprouts grow inside? there are already green leaves budding, meaning it has undergone photosynthesis fed by a light source. If it's inside, no photosynthesis should occur.
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I think it's a hoax. C'mon why would sprouts grow inside? there are already green leaves budding, meaning it has undergone photosynthesis fed by a light source. If it's inside, no photosynthesis should occur.
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No, I'm not so sure it's a hoax. Looking at the tomato I'd say it was cut at least a couple of days before the picture was taken.
As far as the green leaves, those first two leaves are what break the ground on a sprout, not the sickly white stem.
Also, you can see in the photo that the root ends of the sprouts are embedded in the flesh of the tomato.
If I were going to try this, I'd get four tomatoes, from the same plant if possible. I'd cut each tomato in half. The first I'd put in the fridge (with the halves together). The second I'd put on a sunny window ledge with the halves together, the third I'd place on the same window ledge with the halves sperated and a moist paper towel over only one half, and the third I'd sit in a non-sunny, non refridgerated location.
Check the halves each day for three or four days. I bet one of them (prob one from the window sill) will have sprouts.
I'd do the experament myself, but with an inquisative three year old in the house I doubt they'd be left alone long enough to sprout. Besides, my hubby would grumble about wasting food, and they'd end up on a sandwich.The biology I get at school - and that means just about all other future scientists in Holland - is quite positive about GM.
The book deals with it a lot and criticicism is mentioned with an air of "we put this here because we have to. Now when anyone accuses us of opinionating students, we can prove that we showed both sides."
While in reality all they say is stuff like "some people have ethical problems with GM" and then the book goes on with stories about bigger tetraploid tomatoes and all that.
| Jinx wrote: |
No, I'm not so sure it's a hoax. Looking at the tomato I'd say it was cut at least a couple of days before the picture was taken.
As far as the green leaves, those first two leaves are what break the ground on a sprout, not the sickly white stem.
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I agree with you there, but the threadstarter was talking about that picture JUST AFTER slicing the tomato. That's why I said it was a hoax = the statement itself, and not the possibility of doing that in real life.
| threadstarter wrote: |
You slice the tomato and see this... No they are no worms or so, these are actual sprouts, tomato sprouts. only, they are inside the tomato. Bizarre coincidence or GM tomato?
|
See 
True, I guess i did get away from the orriginal question of the threadstarter. As far as it being a gm tomato, I'd guess that that's unlikely. A lot of hybrids and gm plants have their ability to reproduce 'turned off'. I'm not sure how it's done, but, for example, if a farmer buys seeds from one of the big agro companies for a hybrid or gm plant, he can't save some of the grain to re-plant the next year because the product of the orriginal crop won't germinate. That insures that he will have to keep buying seed, tear after year.
I dunno, letting tomatos go to seed doesns't sound like good practice for a farmer, especially if it is GM, i mean look at it another way.
If you let the plants sexually reproduce, they will evolve, and who knows what will happen to evolving GM plants, purple color, poisonous tomatos, triffids??
GAHHH I just cut open my tomato and it looks like that!! Should I eat it? :S I'd post a picture but my camera is stupid.
Guys, this is NOT a hoax. I see this all the time.
And to the person who asked if its ok to eat tomatos that already have sproutlings inside; of course! Its just the same as eating bean sprouts.
The reason they do this is so the new plants can get a head start. As with most fruits, the flesh of the fruit serves as nutrition for the seeds. Another purpose of the flesh, though unrelated to the topic is to attract animals which will eat seeds and all and carry them to new areas to colonize with new plants.
Anyways, the point is the seedlings are just trying to get a headstart on growing, this is a perfectly normal occurence in larger tomatos.
Also, to the person that is worried about GM tomatos going to seed, don't. GM tomatos, among other GM plants, are very unlikely to survive outside of cultivation. Besides, you can't let tomatos fruit and expect them not to have set seed at the same time.
This is really scary. I like tomatoes but probably won't eat any anymore. It does show that GM foods are no longer in the public eye and this MIGHT be why some of it is getting to the shops. I think for some countries the people are more exposed than others.
Whats so scary about sprouts?
Its a natural phenomenon and has nothing at all to do with genetic modification.
Wierd! All the ones Ive found are either Bruised or wormed
I'd like to point out that almost every crop plant that's been eaten in the past 5000 years has been genetically modified, so let's not get too excited about things.
Cool subject, thanks for starting this and thanks to everyone who's contributed!
I've started gardening for food the last three years, growing lots of tomatoes last year and this year. I haven't seen sprouts in our tomatoes at all, but I've never paid that close attention when cutting them up for meals or salsa or whatever. So maybe some of our tomatoes have had seeds sprouting in them already but I just didn't see them. I'll have to pay closer attention next season!
I do feel curious why they would do that, though. As I understand seed germination from fruits, the seeds generally "want" to be eaten by their target birds or animals, and pooped out somewhere far away from the mother plant, so that the many seed babies don't wind up competing with each other right next to the original mother plant. So many seeds won't germinate until they've been scarified in some way, either by physical scraping through teeth or a gizzard, or chemical soaking in a stomach. And then the seeds can germinate in the middle of a pile of poop, a nice rich fertilizer.
I didn't think seeds expected to get any nutrition from the original fruit around them...just from the energy stored within the seed itself, and extra fertilizer from the poop around them. But maybe in a sub-optimal scenario where no one eats the fruit and it just falls to the ground and rots, the seeds plan to germinate anyway, making use of the fruit flesh. I could especially see this making sense with an annual plant, where the mother plant wouldn't survive the winter so wouldn't compete with the baby plants in the same area. Of course, tomatoes in their natural tropical or subtropical habitat live as perennials, and in temperate areas where they live as annuals you'd think their seeds wouldn't want to germinate inside the fruit because they'll just get killed soon by winter frost, so they should wait until after the cold period to start germinating.
Ah, the mysteries of plant reproduction!
I believe you when you say those aren't worms, but they really look like them. I couldn't eat that. Is there any advantage to the internal sprouts? If not, it would not be GM. | dwinton wrote: |
| Is there any advantage to the internal sprouts? If not, it would not be GM. |
Not necessarily. It may be an undesired side-effect of GM, e.g. modification to make the tomato larger.They don't sprout while the tomato is fresh this only happens, on old tomatoes that have begun to rot. At least from my experience. Look at the edges of that tomato it's half rotten.
The tomato plant does this because it thinks the tomato fell off the plant and is on the ground starting to rot, so the seeds start growing.
here is a red one from my friends house
and this one is really fresh.. we just picked it I am glad to see more findings of these. We thought it was just our area or from our local farmers. I live in PA near pittsburgh which is still plagued by a level of uncleanliness when it comes to the enviroment. Perhaps it is the effect of the increase in hormones found in our bodies of water (yes you're drinking water to). We came across these during the summer of 2006 at different times from different stores in the area all throughout the summer season. I am more and more suspect about anything that is sold in stores for consumption. I just saw a new book on the shelves called In the Defense of Food, A Manifesto...or something like that. I should have picked it up then but will next chance I get. It appeared to have a lot of info on food science and makes a case for actual natural foods (heck at this point food being grown with pesticides but without genetic modification could be considered natural). 
I work for a company that develops tomatoes and what you see here is perfectly normal for an over ripe tomato. The seeds have gone through a fermentation process (quite natural) within the fruit and started to sprout. Quite likely the fruit has long shelf life genetics and that is why it still has somewhat a tomato look to the fruit. Also, don't stick tomatoes in the fridge. The volatile components that account for the majority of "tomato taste" are destroyed, and once gone (like the King of Rock and Roll), they ain't coming back. All you will have is a very flat cardboard taste.
| Rodjorg wrote: |
| I work for a company that develops tomatoes and what you see here is perfectly normal for an over ripe tomato. The seeds have gone through a fermentation process (quite natural) within the fruit and started to sprout. Quite likely the fruit has long shelf life genetics and that is why it still has somewhat a tomato look to the fruit. Also, don't stick tomatoes in the fridge. The volatile components that account for the majority of "tomato taste" are destroyed, and once gone (like the King of Rock and Roll), they ain't coming back. All you will have is a very flat cardboard taste. |
Interesting info.
A trick I learned from watching the great chef Heston Blumenthal is to include the vine in the pan when making tomato based sauces. A lot of the taste we associate with tomato is, apparently, contained in the vine itself. It really makes a difference when making pizza topping or tomato sauce for pasta...
