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GM purple tomatoes to fight cardiovascular diseases

UK-based Cathie Martin to start clinical trials soon; green activists protest and
call trials ‘violation of European Union norms’

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By Jyotika Sood

Last Updated: Saturday 04 July 2015

British researcher Cathie Martin, who had developed genetically modified (GM)
purple tomatoes in 2008, is all set to conduct clinical trials using the juice and
soup from the GM tomatoes this year. The purple tomatoes, which have been grown and
are now being harvested in Canada, would soon be arriving in the UK.

Talking to Down to Earth via email, Martin who works in department of metabolic
biology of the Norwich-based John Innes Centre, said, “We plan to do a pilot study
on patients at risk of cardiovascular disease. All patients will be volunteers who
will be informed that the juice is from genetically-modified tomatoes. Recruitment
will be restricted to patients consenting to be volunteers in the full knowledge of
what is involved,” said the researcher. “We have funding only for a study covering
one year and markers for cardiovascular disease are the best and can report any
effects reliably during such short studies. We are hoping to start recruitment
within the next six months. Patients will be given a seed free, juice or soup in
the studies,” he added.

Purple tomatoes have been developed by inserting two genes from snapdragon, a
flower, in tomatoes to grow purple tomatoes that have health protecting
anthocyanins. Anthocyanins accumulated in the tomatoes at levels higher than
anything previously reported for metabolic engineering in both the peel and flesh
of the fruit. The fruit has an intense purple colour. Anthocyanins are naturally
occurring pigments found at particularly high levels in berries such as blackberry,
cranberry and chokeberry.

Martin said, “There are some minor differences in structure of the anthocyanins in
the purple tomatoes compared to those in blueberries or blackberries, but it is not
known whether these differences impact health to any extent.” The expert also said
that the main anthocyanin in the fruit of the purple tomatoes is naturally made in
tomato leaves and is nasunin, the anthocyanin in eggplant (brinjal) that is well
known for its health-promoting properties. “In addition, the consumption of
tomatoes does not usually involve consuming large amounts of sugar, which is one of
the disadvantages of berries (try cranberry juice without sugar!),” he added.

Purple tomatoes also aim at fighting cancer

The scientists claim that purple tomatoes have been shown anti-inflammatory effects
compared to regular ones and also slow the progression of soft-tissue carcinoma in
cancer-prone mice. They also have doubled the shelf life of the fruit.

The John Innes Centre (JIC), where these tomatoes were developed, is an independent
research centre in plant and microbial sciences with a staff of over 800 people.
Its research on purple tomatoes was funded by the European Union (EU) and through
the JIC’s strategic funding from the Biotechnology and Biological Sciences Research
Council. Purple tomatoes were created using a grant of £900,000 from the European
Union, but were grown in Canada as GM regulations across Europe make ¬production
too expensive.

The tomatoes were grown at the glasshouse of New Energy Farms in Ontario, Canada,
and are being harvested now. The grown variety is expected to produce around 2,000
litres of juice. New Energy Farms was asked to comply with all the regulatory
requirements set by the Canadian government for the cultivation of GM plants in
glasshouses. All of the plant material was incinerated following cultivation. The
regulatory authority could access to inspect the greenhouses at all times to check
on compliance. “By making juice, we have removed all the seeds from the product to
ensure that there was no unintended environmental release,” explained Martin.

Anti-GM lobby’s objections

However, GMWatch, an independent international organisation and a watchdog on

development of genetic modification technology, alleged that the Canadian
authorities, by allowing growing of these GM purple tomatoes in their territory,
have been “endarkened” by the pro-GM propaganda.

The organisation also said that there are over 200 types of fruits and vegetables
like red cabbage, red onions, and berries which have red/purple pigments. Thus, one
can have a diet rich in anthocyanins without resorting to GM purple tomatoes. What
Cathie Martin and her colleagues have produced is totally unnecessary given the
abundance of anthocyanins in food plants, said representatives from GMWatch. Tho
clarify the same, they also cited an example of beetroot whose purple colour is not
an anthocyanin but another antioxidant.
They have also pointed out that the researchers don’t mention the use of kanamycin
(an antibiotic resistance gene) in their paper as the EU had said that antibiotic
resistance genes should be present in the final GM plant. The GM watch researchers
added that no generic toxicity testing results, either short-term or long-term, of
these tomatoes has been published. Besides, no work has been done to see if
nutrient content is preserved during the time of extended shelf life. If the
nutrient content is not preserved, then it’s a rip-off in terms of what the
consumer is getting. They also said that these clinical trials are a violation of
EU regulations for genetically modified organisms (GMOs) as human trials are being
conducted before animal testing.

When asked about commercialisation of the modified tomatoes, Martin said that the
only way for consumers to be able to access this juice was for it to be
commercialised. For these reasons, the institute has formed a micro-spinout to
develop a realistic business plan for how to could get the product to market. The
researcher also said that the company, Norfolk Plant Sciences, will also be working
for regulatory approval together with New Energy Farms, in Canada. “Human studies
will run parallel to their activities to get regulatory approval for
commercialisation, and if those studies indicate beneficial effects in humans, we
will seek a functional food label for the juice,” explained Martin. He further
asserted that the main aim of the team is to develop a healthy product that is
reasonably priced so that people with poorer diets can access it – that is why
everything has been done in tomato.

Web edition Web edition News News News Purple tomatoes Prof Cathie Martin John
Innes Centre GMWatch GM tomatoes GM Crops genetically modified … European
Union European Union European Union European Union European Union European
Union Down to earth clinical trials anthocyanin

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CLIMATE CHANGE

Climate Emergency CoP 25: Murmurs of Madrid being a failure grow stronger

Negotiations to continue into the wee hours of December 15, as parties are yet to
arrive at consensus on most issues

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By Akshit Sangomla

Last Updated: Sunday 15 December 2019

 Photo: Twitter

The final stretch of negotiations are still ongoing at the 25th Conference of
Parties (CoP 25) in Madrid.
CoP President, Carolina Schmidt, brought in new texts regarding the decision
documents of the CoP 25, the Conference of the Parties serving as the meeting of
the Parties to the Kyoto Protocol 15 (CMP15), the Conference of the Parties serving
as the meeting of the Parties to the Paris Agreement 2 (CMA2), and other
outstanding issues like Article 6 of the Paris Agreement, Review of the Warsaw
International Mechanism for Loss and Damage, response measures and long-term review
on its agenda late on the evening of December 14.

The new texts will be discussed and re-negotiated by countries after which the
closing plenary sessions of the CoP, CMP and CMA will take place. It looks highly
unlikely as another informal stocktaking plenary has been planned by the CoP
presidency at 11 pm local time, even though the closing plenary had been announced
at 10 pm local time earlier.

This means that the negotiations may continue into the early hours of December 15
and murmurs of the Madrid CoP being a failure or being suspended are growing
stronger.

The new texts were necessitated by a series of issues that were highlighted by
countries at the stocktaking plenary session convened by Schmidt earlier on
December 14 regarding the texts that were introduced in the morning of the same
day.

The most prominent among these issues was the absence of reference to the updation
of the nationally determined contributions (NDCs) in 2020 as mandated under the
Paris Agreement in the draft of the CoP 25 document.

Belize, representing the Alliance of Small Island Nations (AOSIS), said that their
group was unhappy. “This CoP was one of ambition but we are not seeing the
ambition. All the references to science have become weaker in the text. All
references to enhancing NDCs have gone,” the representative from Belize said. “We
are currently looking backward rather than forward”, he added.

There was considerable applause at this statement. Colombia, speaking on the behalf
of the Independent Association of Latin America and the Caribbean (AILAC) said that
the updation of NDCs was the lowest possible denominator at the CoP this year.
Malaysia and Egypt also supported the stand taken by Belize and Colombia. Grenada
went as far to say that “if references to ambition be removed from the CoP 25
decision then we would have failed”.

Mexico, on the other hand, noted with concern that there was no reference in the
CoP document to one of the most applauded accomplishments of CoP 25 so far — the
new 5-year gender action plan which takes into account the challenges faced by
women and indigenous people.

It also raised the point on NDCs. This, in fact, might be the only reference to
human rights in the document, which has been a demand made civil society groups all
through CoP 25.

Another contentious issue was introduced by Brazil during the session. Its
representative said that they were not comfortable with including the proposal for
a work stream on land issues informed by the Intergovernmental Panel on Climate
Change’s (IPCC) special report on climate change and land released earlier this
year, in the CoP document.

He argued that they were in the middle of the Koronivia process for agriculture and
had the Warsaw International Mechanism for REDD. They did not want to pursue this
discussion at the moment while being okay with the discussion on oceans. He added
that this was a no-go for them.
To this, came two strong interjections, first by Saudi Arabia followed by Russia
stating that IPCC’s report on land was as important as the one on oceans and that
all references to the report should be kept in the CoP document. Both countries
reiterated that the specific issues of one party (referring to Brazil) cannot hold
the entire multilateral process.

China and India stuck to their long-held
commitments by countries under the Kyoto
Shankar Prasad, urged the CoP presidency
board regarding Article 6 and that there
Paris Agreement.
stand on the gaps in the pre-2020
Protocol. India’s lead negotiator, Ravi
to make sure that all parties are taken on
is no tampering with the language of the

The reference to the pre-2020 stocktake in the CMA document was opposed by the
United States (US) saying that they “did not need this language.” Later in the
session, Tuvalu interjected by saying that the CMA text should be decided upon by
parties who are going to remain in the Paris Agreement. The US is set to leave the
Paris Agreement in November 2020. The US also had an issue with the global goals on
adaptation which it wanted removed from the text.

cop 25 chile Paris 2015 Agreement IPCC Climate Change India

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