Books, Arts & Manners: The Tomato as Endangered Species

AS THE Earth Summiteers were going on about biodiversity in Rio, an ominous story was surfacing here at home: the genetically engineered tomato.

Conventional plant scientists have been trying for decades to square the circle—to produce a tomato that could be picked and shipped efficiently and cheaply and that would be acceptable to potential buyers. (Some have even tried to cube the sphere—there was talk a few years ago of breeding a flat-sided tomato that wouldn’t roll off assembly lines.)