violaAnn...there are no GMO tomatoes available on the mkt, nor seeds available to the general public. You've no reason to worry. All too often people seem to be assuming a "hybrid" is a GMO and those are two entirely different things.
"Almost everything we grow is now GMO. It's the older heirloom varieties that are not."
Ravencroft, regarding your first statement in the quote above, I beg to differ. GMO seeds are not available to the general public and there are very few varieties of GMO products/produce available for purchase. It's true that corn, soybean, sugar beets, rape, etc is predominately GMO but seed stock of those items are highly limited and restricted to commercial growers. As for the latter statement, could you be referring to heirlooms being open-pollinated and not being hybrids rather than them being non-GMO, just for clarification before this topic gets too far out of hand.
And yes, you're correct that inter-species mixing is, or could be, a big mess. It certainly goes against Nature, eh? And it is exactly that which more often than not is being referred to as "GMO" (not so much what the bees do, which is cross pollinating and is natural.)
Oh yeh, Viola Ann, back to your original question, Viva Italia is a hybrid tomato (not GMO) and is not one you'd readily save seed from and expect it to come true to type. You should feel perfectly comfortable growing it as well as eating it!
Shoe
