ABSTRACT
Crop plants have been manipulated genetically to suit mankind’s purposes since agriculture began. Domestication and breeding achievements over the first eight millennia of agriculture have been quite impressive. Plant breeders seeking sources of new traits have been limited to the genetic variability found in a particular crop’s germplasm, or in germplasm of closely related, cross-compatible species. The breeding time required for development of a new variety is long, requiring several to many iterations of the life cycle of the crop species being bred. “Sustainable agriculture” has emerged in the last 10 years as the most agreed-upon term to describe the varied field of agricultural practices that differ from conventional concepts of modern agricultural production. Progress in breeding for mechanically harvested tomatoes came through the introgression of desirable genes from tomato variants and wild species.
