The Flavr Savr Tomato - The World's First Genetically Engineered Food
The History Hour
BBC
4.4 • 912 Ratings
🗓️ 1 April 2017
⏱️ 50 minutes
🧾️ Download transcript
Summary
In 1994 the world's first genetically-engineered food went on sale in the US. It was a tomato, called the 'Flavr Savr' which stayed fresh for up to 30 days. Plus, a mysterious anthrax outbreak in the Soviet Union; the murder of a Catholic archbishop in El Salvador; and the Teletubbies turn 20.
Photo: Roger Salquist, former Chairman and CEO of Calgene (courtesy of Roger Salquist)
Transcript
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| 0:00.0 | Hello and welcome to the History Hour podcast from the BBC World Service with me Max Pearson |
| 0:05.2 | history told by people who were there this week the moment a huge ice shelf broke up in Antarctica |
| 0:11.5 | incredible incredible you could not believe it it's impossible broke up in Antarctica. Incredible, incredible, incredible. |
| 0:13.0 | You could not believe it. |
| 0:14.0 | It's impossible to describe this. |
| 0:16.0 | This didn't happen for 10,000 years. |
| 0:18.0 | So it happened in a few weeks. |
| 0:20.0 | Also the American team which finally managed to investigate a 1970s outbreak of anthrax poisoning in the Soviet Union. |
| 0:27.0 | They went door to door, knocked on the door, said we were studying this anthrax epidemic and we understand you lost a son or a daughter or a husband or a friend, |
| 0:36.0 | may we come in and talk to you. |
| 0:38.0 | Plus the murder which plunged El Salvador into all-out civil war and... |
| 0:43.0 | We meet one of the stars of Children's TV. |
| 0:49.0 | I'm only 4'10 and in the costume I think I was over 6 foot tall |
| 0:56.5 | including the antenna. That's all to come but we begin this week with genetically modified |
| 1:02.0 | food. These days all of Western Europe, Russia, China, |
| 1:05.9 | India, Australia and much of Africa require clear labeling of GM foods, that is foods from organisms which have had changes to their DNA |
| 1:15.1 | introduced via manipulation of their natural genes. A few countries ban them |
| 1:19.8 | altogether. This is because of the controversy surrounding products for human and indeed animal |
| 1:24.9 | consumption which are deemed no longer to be natural. Some call them Franken foods. |
| 1:30.9 | It was back in 1994 that a tomato became the first genetically engineered food to go on sale anywhere in the world. |
| 1:38.0 | It was developed by an American company to ripen more gradually and stay fresh for longer. They called it the flavor savor. |
| 1:45.4 | Claire Bose has been speaking to the man who came up with the idea. |
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