First Fruit: The Creation of the Flavr Savr Tomato and the Birth of Biotech Foods

by Belinda Martineau

In a fast-paced narrative featuring colorful characters, surprising twists and turns, and several eye-opening revelations, Belinda Martineau chronicles the story behind the making of the Flavr SavrTM tomato, from its conception, through its much-heralded introduction to market and its subsequent ignominious disappearance. Her account serves as a cautionary tale for the biotech age, offering a revealing look at how the science of genetic engineering is actually done, how corporate decisions are really made in biotech start-ups, and how the regulatory system in the United States does and doesn't work. Most important, "First Fruit goes beyond the polarized debate currently surrounding genetically modified foods to illustrate both the benefits and the risks of this new technology.' to 'In 1994 a little biotech firm called Calgene introduced the Flavr Savr tomato, the first genetically-engineered food brought to market. Belinda Martineau served on the scientific team that developed the Flavr Savr, and when Calgene voluntarily submitted its product for FDA and USDA approval, Martineau provided most of the scientific evidence that led to its certification as safe for human consumption. She concurred with Calgene's belief that the approval process would inform the public of the pros and cons of genetically-modified foods. Yet ultimately the process of engineering the Flavr Savr and bringing it to market made her question the validity of the product. The Flavr Savr was generally accepted by the public, despite some fierce opposition by environmentalists and consumer advocates, yet it did not prove to be commercially viable.'

Genres: Nonfiction, Food, Science, Biology

269 pages, Hardcover

First published March 27, 2001

Reviews

[Erik Surewaard · Rating 4 out of 5]

I think this book is underrated with an average score of 3.3 stars (June 2020). In my opinion, this book deserves a score of 4 stars at least!

This book is a very well written story on the beginnings of biotech foods! It discusses: (i) the technology involved; (ii) the FDA approval process; (iii) the difficulties in marketing generically manipulated foods; and (iv) customer acceptance of it.

It also very well describes the issues with which a biotech startup had to struggle in the early 90’s. Different from today, i.e. 2020, biotech startups had way more difficulty in getting funding from the market.

A possible explanation as why other readers may have given this book a low score, may have to do with the fact that the author spends quite a number of pages on describing how the gene editing technology works. This part of the book really requires some basic knowledge on genetics. I however think that for the general reader this part could be skipped. I think it would have been a better idea if the author had put this part of the story in an appendix.

I think this book is a very relevant one in the history of genetically engineered foods. It may have been more of a marketing story in the early 2000’s, but in 2020 its very relevant in the overall history in the field.

This book easily deserves 4 stars. It is well written and also entertaining.

[Jeff Ai · Rating 3 out of 5]

It is a good book to ready about the commercialisation of the GMO food - the big struggle of getting a Biotech product to the market. I am a supporter of GMO food and biotech in general - so it is rather sad to see Dr Belinda has become - to an extend - an anti GMO activist - and are used by the anti-GMO mob as a scientist that will back their view (which I doubt Dr Belinda will do)

[dejah_thoris · Rating 2 out of 5]

The low rating this time is more a factor of my disinterest in the subject matter than the book itself. Overall, it's a good overview of the struggle to bring the first genetically modified whole food to market. It begins with the optimistic projection of what the Flavr Savr tomato should be and then follows the science as it attempts to achieve that goal. Then the regulatory dance with the FDA is described in detail along with the managerial shifts and company fidgeting that occurred while the product was coming to market. Unfortunately, what I wanted to hear more about (the controversy with organic foodies) wasn't discussed much because Martineau alleges that those consumers weren't as aware or as active as they've been in the past ten years since this book's publication. Overall, a solid work if you're interested in agricultural science, but it should be reissued with a few additional chapters to make it more relevant to current discussions of GM foods.