ONE MORNING IN MAY 1994, A PAIR OF LETTERS ROLLED OFF a fax machine in the offices of Calgene, a start-up company located in Davis, California, amid the lush agricultural country of the Central Valley. The letters came from the federal Food and Drug Administration(FDA), and they granted regulatory approval for Calegene’s first product, a genetically modefied tomato. Anticipating this decision, company officials had already laid in a supply of their new Flavr Savr variety, which combined vine-ripped taste with firmness for ease in transport. Three days later, the tomatoes went on sale at a local supermarket. Each Flavr tomato carried a label, while bright-red brochures promised “Summertime Taste … Year-Round!”

The company’s marketing effort immediately ran headfirst into Jeremy Riftin, along-standing scourge of biotechnology. Vowing to fight a “tomato war” he declared that Americans were “moving in the direction of organic, healthy, sustainable foods” and had no interest in “gene-spliced tomatoes.”. In an interview, he treatened to “pick markets, hand out notices to consumers, and organize ‘tomato dumpings’ and boycotts.” His Pure Food Campaign had chapters around the country that were ready to follow his lead.

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