 September 8th, 2011
09:10 AM ET
For a response from the industry, read Why tomatoes grow in Florida In the sultry summer heat, there are few flavors more welcome than that of a burstingly fresh, sloppy, sweet, tangy, locally grown tomato. In the winter, though, their grocery store equivalent is barely recognizable as the same fruit. They're hard, uniformly round and almost inevitably taste-free. They're also mostly trucked in from Florida, where they're grown in some challenging agricultural conditions, and where the industry has come under scrutiny for their labor practices. Barry Estabrook, author of 'Tomatoland: How Modern Industrial Agriculture Destroyed Our Most Alluring Fruit' spoke with Eatocracy about this came to be. Eatocracy: How did you become invested in telling the story of the modern day tomato? Estabrook: I became interested in tomatoes when I was in fact attacked by a group of tomatoes. I was driving down an interstate highway in Southwestern Florida and come up behind what I thought at first was a gravel truck. As I got closer, I saw what I took for Granny Smith apples - and I thought, "Those don't grow in Florida." When I got really close, I saw it was full of bright green tomatoes. No pink - just green. I was mesmerized, and then the truck hit a bump. Three tomatoes came flying off and nearly went through my windshield. I noticed that they hit the pavement on I-75, bounced and then rolled into the ditch. They didn't shatter, they didn't splatter; they stayed intact. I thought, "My God! What have they done to this wonderful fruit?" Eatocracy: Are these the same round, red tomatoes that we see in grocery stores? Estabrook: Winter tomatoes that we get in our grocery stores and in fast food places are picked when they're bright green. Any hint of coloration is treasonous in a Florida tomato field in the winter. The industry says they're "mature green" and supposedly might develop flavor, but there's no way the pickers can tell the difference between mature and immature. These green tomatoes are taken back to a warehouse, packed in boxes, which are stacked on pallets and moved into storage areas where they're exposed to ethylene gas. The gas forces the tomatoes to turn the right color; it doesn't ripen them. Eatocracy: Does this account for the lack of flavor in the modern day tomato? Estabrook: There are two factors at work here. The first is that the tomatoes are picked when they're immature and no matter what you do, an immature tomato will never get any taste; though it might look alluring. The second problem with industrial tomatoes is that for the last fifty years, they've been bred for one thing only, and that's yield. One farmer told me, "I get paid per pound. I don't get paid a cent for taste." Sadly, he was right. Eatocracy: Why are consumers willing to put up with this? Estabrook: I came across study after study that showed that tomatoes rank at or near the bottom of consumers' satisfaction lists. All I can guess is that grocery store tomatoes are food porn - in the literal sense. It looks pretty, it triggers memories, but it certainly doesn't deliver. Eatocracy: What are the challenges to growing tomatoes in a climate like Florida? Estabrook: I quickly learned that from a botanical and horticultural point of view, you would have to be a fool to try to grow tomatoes commercially in a place like Florida. The main problem is that tomatoes' ancestors come from desert areas. They're adapted to extremely dry, low-humidity areas. That's why Southern Italy and parts of California are so good for tomatoes; it doesn't rain all summer. Florida is notoriously humid, which is just perfect conditions for all of the funguses, rusts, blights, insects and pests that destroy tomatoes. That's why they have to use 110 different chemicals, fertilizers, fungicides and herbicides to even get a crop. Florida and California grow about the same amount of tomatoes. Florida uses eight times to get the same agricultural product. The second problem with Florida is - I'm not even going to call it soil, because it isn't. Florida tomatoes are grown in sand. Just like the sand on Daytona Beach, it's great to wiggle your toes in, but it contains zero nutrients. None. So they have to essentially pump in all the chemical food that the plant is going to need for its lifetime. Then they seal the row in plastic and hope they'll get a crop. Eatocracy: Then what's the rationale behind growing tomatoes in Florida? Estabrook: It has nothing to do with horticulture and everything to do with marketing. Florida is a day and a half or two days semi-trailer load from Chicago, New York City, Philadelphia - from two thirds of the country. And in the wintertime, they can get a crop. That's the reason they're grown there. It’s the antithesis of local and seasonal. Eatocracy: How do these tomatoes physically get from the field to the plate? Estabrook: They've not invented a machine that can pick a tomato that's going to be sliced and eaten fresh. Canning tomatoes can be picked by machine; they may as well be apples and oranges. People have to do pick these by hand, and they're paid on a piece basis, by bucket of tomatoes. You see these people out in the field, with bushel-basket sized buckets between their legs. It looks like one of those cartoon dogs digging, except that instead of dirt coming up, it's tomatoes. Their hands are pulling and pulling and pulling until they fill a bucket, which they run over to a nearby truck and empty it. Eatocracy: Who are the workers? Estabrook: They are primarily people from Southern Mexico, Northern Central America, Guatemala. United Farm Workers estimate that 70 percent of all farm workers in this country, not just tomato pickers, are undocumented immigrants. Eatocracy: What are their working conditions like? Estabrook: Slavery is what is happening. There is no way to gloss it. You can't say "slavery-like." You can't say "near-slavery." "Human trafficking" doesn't even do it credit. Here are some things that are in court records; it's all been proven. People are being bought and sold like chattels. People are locked and shackled in chains at night in order to prevent them from escaping. People are being beaten severely if they're too tired to work, too sick to work or don't want to work hard enough. People are beaten even more severely or murdered if they try to escape. They receive little or no pay for their efforts. That, to me, is slavery. It's like 1850, not 2011. Eatocracy: How does a worker end up in this situation? Estabrook: First of all, there have been 1,200 slaves freed in seven separate prosecutions in Florida in the last 15 years. The way that they get into slavery is often a slippery slope. I talked to one guy who'd just crossed the border and hit the town of Immokalee, Florida. He was homeless and staying at a mission. He was standing outside and a guy pulled up in a pickup truck and said, "Hey, want work? I'll pay you?" and he named a price that was twice the going rate." The man told him, "My mother cooks for the crew, and we'll just deduct that from your check, and you can even stay on my property; I've got some buildings. We'll just take that from your check." This all sounded good, but you know what happens. Even though he picked enough tomatoes to supposedly get out of debt to his boss, he was never told that. Everything cost money. It even cost him $5 to hose himself off with a backyard hose every day. There was plenty of liquor supplied at a very high price. He was kept enslaved for two and a half years before he broke out. Eatocracy: How did he say he broke free? Estabrook: This is telltale of the conditions they live under. He and three or four other slaves had been locked for the night in the back of the produce truck that was going to go out in the fields the next day. There was no toilet or running water. As dawn broke, they noticed that there was a little gap between the rivets. He got on the shoulders of another man and they punched and kicked their way through the roof. He slid down the side of the truck and got a ladder so they rest of them could crawl out and run to safety. Eatocracy: Have there been any health concerns for the workers? Estabrook: Florida tomatoes can be sprayed with more than 100 different fungicides, pesticides and herbicides. Some of them are what the Environmental Protection Agency calls "acutely toxic" - which is a nice way of saying they can kill you. The containers come with skulls and crossbones. I talked to three or four dozen tomato workers during the course of my research and I'd ask them if they'd ever been sprayed. It was like asking them if they put their pants on one leg at a time. They'd say, "Of course! It happens every day." It's illegal, but it happens. Florida tomatoes have to be sprayed regularly or they'll die because of all the insects and diseases there. Most workers now are first generation Hispanic, so they know there have been short term effects. Eatocracy: Have there been more long-term cases studied? Estabrook: Years ago, the workers were African American, and they didn't migrate - they stayed put. There's an area in Central Florida, not far from Disneyworld, called Lake Apopka. In the 40s, someone got the idea of draining half the lake and planting crops in the muck. Then they decided to take it one step further and in the off season, re-flood the cropland. They thought it would help the fertility and kill off weeds and they kept doing that for four decades. All the pesticides that were on the crops went into the water and were pumped back into the lake, then pumped back on the crops. Not only were there people working in those fields; they were living in trailers next to the fields. Today, even though they haven't farmed in that area since 1998 because it became so bad, they closed the lake down, twelve years later these people are finding themselves with all sorts of immune diseases and endocrine disruptor related diseases. These have all been traced to pesticide exposure in animals. They have a rate of birth defects four times the Florida average. In its wisdom, the Florida government provided millions of dollars to study water birds, and found out yes indeed, they'd been poisoned by these pesticides and it spent a million and a half to study the alligators of this area and found out they, too had reproductive harm - the male alligators' genitals were much smaller than normal. It wasn't until this year that they set aside $500,000 to give to a little clinic that these 2500 workers could go to - and Governor Scott just vetoed it a few weeks ago. The wealthy farmers received over $100,000,000 for the land. The workers got zip. These are American-born African Americans who have lived on this land for generations. Eatocracy: Who are the farmers and who is overseeing this industry? Estabrook: The system, is improving very slowly. It's a few enormous farming corporations - about a dozen companies grow 90 percent of Florida's commercial tomatoes. They farm thousands of acres. The problem is that they build a firewall between themselves and the actual work in the fields by contracting out to these crew bosses. It gives them the opportunity to say, "Oh, shocked. Shocked! What's going on in my fields? I had no idea." They've farmed out the responsibility of managing their fields. Some of them are scrupulous. Some of them are not. Eatocracy: These fields are not hidden; they are public and visible. How is this happening in plain sight? Estabrook: This is happening in plain sight within a short drive from some of the wealthiest communities in the United States. There are traffic jams of yachts in Naples, Florida's harbor. There's a whistling of corporate jets flying in and out all the time. You drive 40 minutes inland and you've entered a different world. It's like people don't see them. In some cases it's because the workers don't want to be seen. They lack documentation, they're desperate. They want to work and send a bit of money home; that's all they want to do. They want to be invisible and stay near their community, or if they're in a camp out in the fields, they'll stay close to that. They certainly won't go to the police, often because of their immigration status, or because in their home countries, the police are just thugs in uniform. They don't report these crimes. Eatocracy: Has there been any successful prosecution on behalf of the workers? Estabrook: There have been seven successful prosecutions in Southern Florida. In addition to that, pro-bono lawyers who work for the farm laborers have settled lawsuits with farmers for ten of millions of dollars in total. There were farmers who didn't pay the proper amount; even if they didn't have slaves, they didn't pay minimum wage. Some good things have happened, but as an attorney down there told me, it's just the tip of an iceberg. It's very difficult to prosecute these cases; you need a witness. If you're enslaved and you get free - what I'd do is run as fast as I can to the border and get out of there. Eatocracy: How much say are the workers given? Estabrook: Some farmers sadly do view their workers as less than human. In fact, there's a grassroots organization called the Coalition of Immokalee Workers, and they approached a farmer a few years ago and asked if they could speak with him about conditions on his farm. He looked at them and said, "My tractor does not tell me how to farm. So why should you?" That was very, very telltale, and subsequently the workers had a demonstration and they all wore headbands that said "Yo no soy tractor" - which means "I am not a tractor." Eatocracy: Has there been any more action on the part of the workers? Estabrook: The small grassroots group based in Immokalee has been since 1993. Then, they'd get a small bunch of people together and go to a crew boss and say, "You know, you haven't paid this man this week. Could you do that now?" It was a one at a time type of thing. Now they've grown and eventually one of the workers said, "Why don't we go after the end users? Why don't we go after the big corporations that buy the tomatoes from the farmers?" They started a campaign against Taco Bell, asking them to pay a penny more per pound for the tomatoes. It's nothing to you or me, but that's the difference between $40-50 a day and $80 a day for a tomato picker. It's the difference between not being able to feed your family and a crummy, but okay salary. They asked for a penny a pound and a basic fair labor agreement. After four years of boycotts and demonstrations and marches, Taco Bell agreed. And then they moved on to McDonald's. After a few years, it came onboard, and then Burger King and Subway and then all the big food service companies signed on and said, "We will do this." Eatocracy: Has the tomato industry been responsive to these chances? Estabrook: Finally, last year, the group that represents the tomato growers came to the Immokalee Workers and said they were aboard. So there's been a huge change. There's a lot of work to do right now to implement these rules in the tomato fields, and they'll be introducing them over the next season or so to try to improve transparency so you can't have slaves. There will be improved grievance reporting so women aren't harassed; that's another big problem in the fields. Sexual harassment is rampant. There will be shocking things like punch clocks in the fields, so you'll actually get real time, and even more shocking - tarpaulins put up so you can have a bit of shade when you have lunch. Eatocracy: This sounds like a positive change. What's holding it back from happening industry-wide? Estabrook: This is good. It's a sea change. But, the big problem is that although all these fast food joints and all of these food service companies that provide food to schools and hospitals and museums have signed on - with the exception of Whole Foods, not a single supermarket chain has signed this agreement. Not one. It's as if the pipeline is built for this money and these rights to go to the workers, but the supermarkets are refusing to take part. So there are still people who are working under these awful conditions. Eatocracy: Do you find from talking to so many people that if the general public knew about this, they'd be willing to pay more? Estabrook: I think so. The last time I checked, a winter tomato in the supermarket near my house - a basic Florida round commodity tomato - cost $1.99 a pound. So what's $2 if it's going to end abuse in the fields and give a guy a decent living? I think it's doable, because if you notice, at the supermarket, there's now a whole display of premium-priced tomatoes. It's $2-3 a pound for grape tomatoes or a tomato on the vine, so there are people willing to pay, and I think they'd be happy to spend a penny if they knew what it would do. Eatocracy: Are all supermarket tomatoes grown under these reported conditions, or is it just the Florida rounds? Estabrook: Grape tomatoes from Florida are grown under these conditions as well as the slicing rounds. Like I said, the only supermarket chain that has signed the agreement is Whole Foods. The rest - you have no guarantee that the tomato was picked by a person making a fair wage. Eatocracy: What is the best course of action for a consumer who wants to make a change? Estabrook: It's hard. The best course of action is, of course, to grow your own or go to the farmers market. Or if you're in your market, and you see tomatoes from your region in season, those are the best solutions. Then the rest depends on you. You can talk to the produce manager and say, "I don't like this situation, and I don't want to buy tomatoes picked under these conditions." No one in this country is going to suffer malnutrition as a result of not getting one of those pale, tasteless, hard winter tomatoes. Instead of buying three of those, buy one real tomato in season. You'll get more nutrients and a lot better tasting product. The Coalition of Immokalee Workers has a website with activities and petition writing if you're so inclined. I'd like to think that someday, we'll be able to walk into a supermarket and get a tomato and know that the person who picked it is at least able to support his family. For a response from the industry, read Why tomatoes grow in Florida Previously - An ode to the tomato and mayo sandwich and Caprese: The only salad that matters right now |
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I did my current event project on this and everybody wondered why i chose tomatoes. Then I presented, then they all knew why. Help spread the word! :)
Tomatoes are easy to grow in most of the country; some areas, like around Phoenix, have tomato hornworms that strip a plant in a day or two, but most areas don't really need any bug control. A yard helps, but they grow fine in pots, and hanging pots that have them growing upside down are available, and work very well. If you even have a porch or balcony with an apartment, you can grow your own tomatoes. I have 100 or more plants in my backyard every year; besides eating all I desire in season, it fills my freezer for winter cooking. And no harmful chemicals or illegal immigrants involved.
Here I was thinking that "How the modern day tomato came to be" would actually be a story about the history of the tomato *sigh*
This has just gobsmacked me beyond belief. I cannot understand how this kind of operation can still exist in our world today - and how naive of me!! I'm utterly horrified. But also this explains why I never liked tomatoes, until I started buying small-crop tomatoes only in season. Those mealy, tasteless monsters you get in restaurants and in grocery stores out of season are just cardboard. What's the point?? What's the point of having a product that is completely and utterly disgusting?? And ruining people's lives and the environment because of it?? I can't get my head around it!!
"There was plenty of liquor supplied at a very high price. He was kept enslaved for two and a half years before he broke out." Seriously? He is confusing slavery with stupidity... and sadly he and many others will never escape that.
I grow my own in the summer in reasonable organic fashion (organic or inorganic fertilizer is irrelevant, but bug sprays are a no-no). And as for store bought food in general, I'm little concerned if it's organic or not. But in the winter, I choose organic tomatoes, simply because there is a better chance the varieties grown are better, and better cared for, than the green bombs the article talks about.
It's interesting to read that since the tomato growing season is short, we have to eat Florida tomatoes "or do without" most of the year. We grow as many tomatoes as we can on our small lot, and produce enough to gourge ourselves on all summer, plus share some with our loved ones and put up a bit of sauce and salsa. Last weekend, we bought a case of fresh tomatoes at the farmer's market and, a couple of hours later, had them all canned for winter use in sauces and soups. We'll get another case this weekend for salsa to get us through the winter. And that will be it, until next year when fresh, vine-ripened, organically, locally grown tomatoes are available again. But we WON'T be "doing without", because we'll be eating seasonal greens, turnips, beets, carrots, brocolli, cauliflower, brussel sprouts, etc., etc., etc – and enjoying every mouthful! For us, tomatoes will always be the highlight of summer's bounty, but when the season changes, there is always another major star ready to capture our attention. The idea that we must have fresh summertime food available all year round is where change needs to occur
...and if you think it's bad in Florida, check out what's going on in Mexico. The labor abuse and slavery that go on over there make anything happening in Immokalee look decent. Also, labor is not contracted out to build a wall, it is contracted out in order to guarantee a supply. Contractor X has 100 workers and he picks your field, your neighbors field, and that corporate field down the street. Do you know how difficult it would be for each farmer to find 100 people to have around for a 2 week job.
The way this person is hating on Florida, I think there's a more subliminal issue here that has nothing to do with tasteless tomatoes or cheap labor. Somebody didn't get laid on spring break.
LOL! You are so right!
Seriously? Who are you working for? I've actually read Barry Estabrook's book, and it is NOT about a guy who hasn't been laid and wants to "hate on" Florida. Even just reading the article, I didn't get that at all. Does trivializing someones work and research make the results false?
Two things. Tomatoes are tough to transport when ripe. American customers are picky, and won't buy a fruit that doesn't look perfect, so farmers are kind of in a bind. If they ship ripe fruit, people won't buy and it might go bad. Second. Tomatoes are really easy to grow in a greenhouse, or during the summer months. They grow fine in planters. Not everyone has the climate, but many do. So- growing tomatoes really shouldn't be that difficult and obtaining fresh ones should be easy for some.
These are not "farmers" in Florida but corporations. Don't smear a good farmer's reputation with what is happening in the corporate farming industry
It would seem that if the farmers didn't have 70% of undocumented workers to work in their fields and instead had to hire 100 % documented workers they would have to pay alot more to those workers. Eliminate the illeagles and reduce the problem. If the all the workers were paying taxes the government would know how much they were getting paid when they filed, and would be able to go after farmers that were paying below minium wage. They could list all the absured fees and expenses they had to pay the farmer on their tax forms. In this way the govt. would know how bad these people were getting ripped off and go after the farmers.
Personally i believe that if we had stricter enforcement on illegal immigrants they would be out of this country and therefore unavailable for slave labor. Farmers would be required to hire US citizens and Americans don't put up with this bull crap. This whole issue would be a non issue as the only reasons it happens are that the workers don't complain or get law enforcement involved. Americans aren't afraid of being deported. Maybe if the illegals are continually treated this badly they might find it beneficial to go home.
And dont scream at me that i am racist. I dont give a damn about race. Facts are facts and ILLEGALS are ILLEGAL. They pay no taxes. They steal benefits they are not entitled to being as they are here ILLEGALLY.
I wont pay an extra penny to ensure they get better wages.
Your are WRONG!!! Anyone working for an employer in the U.S. pays taxes, does not matter if they are legal or illegal. In fact, I can make a case that the more illegals we allow to work the better our Social Security is funded,. Illegals can't get any of the money out of SS.
Whoa there li'l fella. Illegals, as you refer to them, are frequently paid under the table, therefore do not pay taxes.
+2 points for passion
-10 points for misinformation
Most illegal aliens work for cash. The ones that don't are using a dead guys social.security number. The corporate farmers have lists of dead peoples numbers which they hand out to the workers. The dead folks can't complain, and the taxes keep rolling in, so the IRS doesn't do anything to stop this abuse of number use.
It's creepy to see people (people who break the law every day, I might add) try to turn a story about such misery into a soapbox for their bigoted views.
Are you referring to the "farmers" or the farm workers?
Tabitha, your right wing, Tea Party thinking is skewed. The issue here is NOT illegal immigration. You can't make your life better by holding the rest of the world down. The issue here is unchecked American corporate greed! Those are the parasites who are the cause of America's downward spiral. Prosecute the guilty and tax the rich! To me a flat rate tax plan makes a whole lot more sense than a balanced budget amendment designed to break the back of the middle and working class.
Hey, instead of blaming the illegals, what if we had stricter enforcement on the CORPORATE "farmers" that knowingly hire them and either pay them under the table or provide them is ss numbers so they'll look "real", and then expolit the h**l out of them! I have a LOT of respect and admiration for REAL farmers, but corporate American companies are destroying them one by one with these, and many other, tactics!
I don't see what the issue is here. The bottom line of capitalism is that any product that creates and fulfills a demand is worthy. If these tomatoes were SO bad people would not buy them. As long as people continue to buy them they are a successful product. Period. If consumers don't like it they won't buy it. As for workers' conditions, again, the bottom line is to minimize costs and maximize profits. If they don't like it they can go elsewhere. The talk of "slavery" was clearly an exaggeration: I, too, am "chained" to my workplace by the clock and obligation to work – hard. And if these people are illegal immigrants they don't even have the right to be in the US – so there is no obligation to treat them as normal US citizens. if they don't like it, then again, they can leave.
Gary, you are a lost cause.
I just want to say that all of the politics and hoo haa are irrelevant when it comes to vegetables. Just take a little time and grow some yourself. You don't need a field, a single raised bed in a full sun area or a handful of containers on a patio can grow a goodly amount of veggies and herbs.
I was raised by Midwestern parents in CA in an urban area with a tiny backyard and never ate a storebought tomato until I was going to restaurants on my own. Till some soil with some chicken manure (or the organic fertilizer of your choice) and get growing. Even in an apartment years later, I could grow things on the balcony. Now in my own home in a far away state, I can do it.
Get a few books,, learn some basics with each thing that you want to grow and give it a shot. It's not hard, it just takes a little commitment to do some lightweight weeding, and keep the things watered. Sunshine, the occasional pest battle and you're good to go.
I'm not a political gardener, in fact it's probably the place where I'm the most apolitical. Gardening is about the plants, not about people. I'm also lazy and not into things like double digging trenches and all of that ridiculousness, so 'lasagne gardening' is the way to go. I don't even do that religiously, just try to roughly balance some 'greens' and 'browns'. Same goes for compost. Guess what, it still works.
These are plants, you're not baking a souffle. It's not that precise, it doesn't have to suck all of your time nor your soul. If you kill a plant from ineptitude, you've learned something. Try again. Start with cheap plants. LOL That way you don't sob if you kill it. Try, try, again.
The problem with this stuff is that people treat it like it's some lofty, political, complicated, massively involved thing and the reality is, it's the opposite.
Best advice is to buy local plants to start with if you know zip about gardening. It's readily available, it's cheap, and it's a learning experience. I've even got my 14 year old to start growing herbs in her bedroom window. Nothing like yelling for some basil for the spaghetti sauce and having it handed to me fresh to make your palate go AHHHHHHHHHHHH.
Gardening is not an all or nothing, thing. You don't have to go 'all in' to get some results. Just try one container of one thing and see what happens.... One word of caution, growing your own stuff can be a bit addicting.
Nice suggestion, JR, but what about us people who live in the Midwest and can't grow our own tomatoes in the winter when it's -20 degrees outside with a windchill of -15? Guess us people in the cold states have to eat the chemical-ridden Florida tomatoes, or hope we can find CA tomatoes in our local supermarkets.
I agree with JR that it's fairly easy to learn (and every year gets better) and it's addicting. But Shelly... I live in PA where I can grow fabulous tomatoes in the summer, none in the winter. Here's what I do for the winter. Since I grow a lot (for my family of 5, I had 21 tomato plants this year – in the local park garden plot for $25 per year, tomatoes took up 1/3 of my plot). I start by seed inside and save previous seed packets and that saves money too since I'm not buying plants). But with my harvest, I make sauce and tomato paste and freeze it. I roast them and freeze it. I dehydrated some. You can also can them but I'm still a beginner (only my 2nd year having a bigger garden) and busy with 3 small children. So we'll have our homegrown tomatoes all year – I don't have to buy any tomatoes in the winter!
I'm really happy that I'm not contributing to the problem (for once)! There's nothing like homegrown and also supporting our local farmers and farm-stands for food. AND it's saved me money, buying directly from the farms and farm-stands what I cannot grow is cheaper than buying all of my food at the supermarket. This idea that eating this way is more expensive. I've found it to be more frugal.
Guess what, I'm now living in the Midwest and growing tomatoes. You grow em in the summer and then blanch/freeze them. Btw, even in CA (at least in the nothern part), you're not growing maters year around.
Btw, plainjane's answer to you was great and so I don't need to repeat it.
Just also let me add that there was a learning curve for me when I moved here. I'm adding this because my last post looked like it could be taken in a flip way, and it's not meant to be. My first winter in the Midwest was sort of depressing and I had to figure out when I could do what because of the different zones.
But even places that have the worst winters and short growing seasons can do tomatoes, at least in the summer. Most especially if you start them yourself, inside. Get a few weeks of a hot spell, and have several containers and you can end up with more tomatoes than you know what to do with.
And no, it doesn't solve the 'what do you eat in February' issue, but it's better than eating store bought, year around.
/my two cents
Wait! It DOES solve what to eat in February! Eat what's in season in your local area. In many parts of the country, there may not be much local and fresh available in February, so many of us are eating hardy soups and sauces from ingredients we "put up" during the warmer months. But still, with a couple of raised, covered beds, we ARE eating fresh kale, collards and maybe some carrots, turnips or beets during the cold months. Why would anybody EXPECT a tomato sandwich in February?? Our ancestors sure didn't!
We need to return to boycotts. I don't buy winter tomatoes nor do I go to Taco Bell because they just aren't worth it, but a nationwide boycott beyond a single fast food place really seems to be the solution.
The solution is what our parents did, grow yer own maters.
My father and grandfather always kept a garden and in the summer, our family enjoyed wonderfully fresh and delicious fruits and veggies, including tomatoes. So, imagine how confused I was when I would be in the grocery store's produce section with my mother in the winter months...seeing the barely red round things that were labeled as tomatoes. The greater shock came when it was time to eat these monstrosities. One afternoon after eating a sandwich with the offending tomoates, I asked my mom why were they so nasty and she looked at me as if she was thinking the exact same thing. We never bought store tomatoes anymore.
We need to do our best to NOT request out-of-season produce. That's the only way things will change.
Hear, hear! Thank you for the story and comment. Wonderful!
"we don't get paid for taste"
in nj the tasty ones - local, heirloom, or even greenhouse grown - cost double the supermarket tomatoes, 1.99 vs. 3.99.
"Eat better/eat less"
It would figure that a low life farmer was at the bottom of the problem, they brought in the blacks and now the Mexicans.
You left out food. They brought that too.
I just want to comment to the people who are referring to the "farmer" as the offending party. The people who are growing these tomatoes are not Farmers. They are corporations. There is a huge difference between a farmer and an overseer who has the best interests of a group of stockholders in mind as opposed to a farmer who cares about the produce and his agricultural practices. The farmer, by definition cultivates (fosters the growth of) the crops and the lands. These corporations are only raping the land and creating a disgusting imitation of a beautiful and tasty fruit.
So can we please not use the word "Farmer" when referring to the corporations. It's highly offensive to REAL farmers. Thanks!
Amen!
Does this apply to Florida Orange Juice as well? I hate tomatoes, but this makes me hate them more.
If we have a bad crop we just don't eat anything needing tomatos until the next year. We like the Roma tomatos. Grind em up and can them. Makes a great but thicker "juice" for soups, stews, and sauces. The old man next door (85 and going strong) always has an overabundance of Romas. He puts some directly from the vine to the freezer. In the winter he thaws and slices them just like they were fresh. They do not turn watery or soggy like you would think they would and they have way more flavor than the "tomatos" you can buy at the store.
You are all stupid sheep. I wish the earth would vomit every last one of you into the sun. Take your pathetic understanding of the world around you and shove it in your tomato holes.
A bg stool doesn't always mean a clogged toilet.
Palin Bachmann 2012
Wrong u ar, Dilly: either one of the twin-turds, Sarah or Michele, would clog an industrial strength crapper. Much less both of them. You betcha.....
If you refrigerate an unripe tomato you stop the fermenting process and you end up with a tasteless fruit. A too soon picked tomato will ripen as long as it is kept at room temperature and allowed to naturally ferment. Shipping unripe tomatos here in refrigerated trucks stops the sugaring process inside the fruit, leaving you with a pretty but tasteless red ball. That is the reason tomato farmers are done harvesting in the northeast after the temp falls below 40 degrees.
Thank you for making what could have been an interesting piece on Tomatoes into a political statement. If I wanted a tirade on slavery there are other forums than Eatocracy.
This was a really informative article. Articles like this are great, as they can prod us in the direction of returning to a healthier, more sustainable food supply.
The best tomatoes are grown in southern ontario – by far the best tasting – and with the greenhouse industry making great advances – even greenhouses tomatoes are almost as good as field.
I'm confused – these tomatoes are terrible but we are supposed to pay more for them?
A number of thoughts crossed my mind as I read this: 1. Ohio used to be the Tomato Capital. Wonder what happened to that. 2. Don't believe the illegal alient torture crap. And the words are ILLEGAL ALIEN, emphasis on the word ILLEGAL. It is most certainly not undocumented immigrant. 3. If one thing the illegals are good at, it's disseminating information. Surely they know all the torture & shabby conditions (wink, wink) that await them here, yet they come anyhow. Gee, let's see, what could possssssibly be the draw? Free h/care, free good, free childcare, free WIC, free housing. Oh, I don't know, that is just a few......4. I have had it with the poor farmer routine too. Having lived in farm country for about 19 years in the midwest, I can tell you they love to spin a tall tale about how poor they are, but believe me, they are not telling Jane Consumer so much about their business & lifestyle (and bank accounts!). Awww, the poor farmer. Whine.......5. Lastly, I echo the idea of growing your own crops if you can, even in containers. So many good "container gardening books" you can even check out at your local library. Then can, can, can them!
GOD BLESS YOU TOO!
That's sarcasm, in case you didn't get it. I'm guessing from the ignorance spewing from your post that you're not quite bright enough to understand. I'LL PRAY FOR YOU.
I had no idea how awful these conditions were. My roommate had planted a tomato garden and we've been eating fresh tomatoes for so long that when I did buy some from the store, they were so bland that it seemed pointless to eat them. And it takes all that exploitation for a valueless, nutritionless juiceball? Ugh, no thanks.
The entire story seems a little over the top. Where is law enforcement in Florida?
Obviously Florida's elected official are on top of this problem.
HAHA. Good question. Where's Florida's law enforcement? Answer : Drinking coffee and flirtin" with a waitress, no doubt. Actually, Florida's cops are far too occupied with Florida's huge DRUG trafficking problem to worry about what's going on in some damned Tomato field.
I don't buy tomatoes any more. I'm old enough to remember when the ones from the store had a taste, and I've grown my own, which taste a lot better than the ones you can buy.
Regarding the workers, the focus seems to be on improving their working conditions and pay, and there's a lot of hand-wringing and wondering "how can this be?" It's happening because we allow illegal immigrants. Illegal immigrants are powerless to complain about how much they make or their working conditions. They are here for the rich people - including rich farmers. Deport them, fine and imprison the people who hire them, and we can start getting back to our basic American values of freedom and equality.
It won't take me very much effort to stop buying supermarket tomatoes. They are absolutely awful. I can't understand why none of the supermarket chains will sign on for a penny more for the workers. I find that to be pretty lousy as well. Everybody wants something for nothing. Next year I am definitely going to grow my own tomatoes. I don't want my infant son to be exposed to all of the chemicals and pesticides in those tiny toxic Florida tomatoes. Yuck! Maybe having growing up in Florida and eating a lot of Florida tomatoes is what caused me to get thyroid disease.
I'm so glad that Mr. Estabrook wrote this book and CNN covered it. For me the mystery of the horrible supermarket tomato has finally been solved. Not only do I feel bad for the workers, I know now that I have to steer clear of them for good due to their toxicity and the farmer's use of dangerous/unfair labor practices, slavery and God knows what else.
This is very enlightening. Thank you for educating me, CNN. I will be purchasing my tomatoes at Whole Foods from now on. I will also be raising some hell and putting on the pressure at all the other markets's produce sections, talking with both department and store managers in an attempt to get them to sign this agreement to ensure fair wages to those who lsbor under the hot, unwavering sun to bring in our produce. And, God help the US, to hopefully be one more voice in the struggle to END slavery once and for all!
I'm calling BS on this guy. The correct word is "chattel," not "chattels," for one thing. But workers "shackled" at night? I don't believe him. It's true that Florida isn't an optimum place to grow a lot of the produce that's grown there (citrus does better in a drier environment) but inappropriate agriculture exists all over. Rice is grown in dry California, for heaven's sake. If you want to take a position on fair wages and safe working conditions for farm workers, environmental and consumer safety regarding pesticides, and eating mindfully, then eat organic food that is produced locally. Of course, if you take that literally, most of us in the US will have to go without bananas, coffee, sugar, mangos, papayas, and pineapple. An awful lot will have to forgo apples and citrus. Wheat products? Forget it, southern states. It gets ridiculous. Do the best you can in choosing your food options, to the extent that you can afford it. Don't buy those rock-hard tomatoes. There are healthy alternatives, even off season. I live in a prime agricultural region of California, where a Japanese hothouse tomato - produced within 40 miles of my home– is available year-round. It's so delicious that I even buy it in the summer.
I really don't want to call BS on you,but I must. Both threads state that the majority of tomato's come from Florida ( 40-45 %) during the winter months....Total BS. Unless you can walk into your Japanese Hot house and pick your own...They came through Mexicali..from Mexico. Yes,that leaves 50-55% found in the Supermarkets during winter months,from Mexico. Major entry Ports....Mexicali,Nogales,Az. and McAllen,TX. Cold storage warehouses in McAllen,TX are building additions to their properties,which will be the #1 importers of produce for the U.S. within 2 years. Need a source? Houston Chronicle 3 weeks ago. I not only haul your produce to all points North...I protect it. Clean and sanitized trailer,temperature controlled and checked every 3 hours with an instant read thermometer,and I have to make sure it is loaded properly so nothing gets squished. It is my job, I have to eat all of this stuff too. I can't tell you if the produce has e-coli or anything else,I can assure you though,that many truck drivers like me,take our jobs very seriously and move this product safely across the U.S. to warehouses every day. After we drop it off,flip a coin.
Thank you for your response – I live in the Pacific Northwest, and I was curious if our tomatoes also come from Florida, since I have seen many signs at my local grocery store advertising tomatoes from Mexico. I would also like to personally thank you for the time and effort you put into your job.
RichardHead, nothing you posted has anything to do with what I posted. BS right back atcha. Try to read more carefully before you reply to posts.
This is just disgusting. I knew that the tomato was nasty in winter but that many of the owners are so vile too – disgusting!
No more Florida grown tomatoes on anything I eat. I will just order no tomato everywhere that cannot show and tell me that Florida was NOT the place of origin.
Just like southern plantations made all their money off the backs of slaves, while belles dressed to the nines. I can't believe really EXACTLY the same thing goes on in this day and age. Shame on you, Florida. I will definitely look harder at the tomatoes I am buying (or not buying, in the case of winter).
Florida grocery store tomatoes are tasteless. I live in Florida, so I know. Homegrown is very difficult – sandy soil and too hot as the author states. I'm in Florence, Italy, in vacation. I went to one of the local grocery stores and saw 2 kilos of ripe Roma tomatoes for only €0,98. That's works out to about 32¢ a pound. They were solid, bright red, and delicious. Other varieties can be had at Florence's Central Market. We need more farmers’ markets in the U.S.
Huh? Farmers' markets carry locally grown produce. So how would having more farmers' markets magically bring those wonderful Tuscan tomatoes to your home state? Where I live I can shop a FM six days out of seven, in various locations within 35 miles from my home. The produce sold there can be fabulous, but it's far from cheap. In fact, it generally runs a good deal higher than the equivalent produce sold at my local, high-end, natural foods grocery store.
When planting a tomato plant put a hard boil egg with a small crack in the bottom of the hole and put your plant on top and fill in the soil. You will have the best tasting tomato. Here in Wisconsin we have tomato called Wisconsin which is great tasting. Also try Big Boy or Better Boy great for BLT sandwiches. Put egg shells in water overnight then use water for your plants. Amazing results. Been growing tomatoes for over fifty years. Go Badgers, Go Packers!
I did a test of this this summer with 2 plants...1 with egg, 1 without. The difference is amazing!
Also...Go Blue! Go Badgers :p Boo Packers
Food like medical care in the US has become a product subject to the bottom-line of profits not people. Maybe Marx and Engels were right about capitalism? And, what would Jesus do?
Finally someone brought religion into the argument.. wheeew..
Holy cow. I'm glad I grow my own tomatoes, but that doesn't help these poor workers!
We have become germans at the end of WWIi "We knew there was some sort of camp out there, never guessed it was a slave labor/torture/medicalexperiment/death camp." the solution? THERE IS NONE, we have become THAT callous. Grow your own food is one answer, but you KNOW how far THAT goes. The low life who treat ANYONE like slaves like those growers do are less than human themselves, they prove THAT every day they do it. REAL men wouldn't treat someone who works for them like they do. Goes for their bosses (the ownrs) too. oh well it will go on because ot the average so=called 'american' don't give a crap as long as the tomatoes are in the store, artifical or not.
Growing up in Brooklyn back in the 60's, I had ready access to the tomatoes my grandparents grew in their backyard. There was absolutely nothing more enjoyable than pulling one of those right off the vine and sprinkling a little salt on it between bites while sitting under the covered back porch. Heaven.
spelling errors galore. jesus christo
seriously, did ANYONE proof read this?
It's unbelieveable. So distracting. It's not like an interview like this needs to be rushed out as breaking news. Take some time to read it over first, CNN.
Thank you. It was driving me crazy. Interesting article, but where are the standards?
I tried to grow my own here in Vegas. THAT was a fail..
FARMER'S MARKET or grow your own. Learn to can them so they will last all winter long.
If you want a good tomato, grow your own. I only eat them in the summer when I grow many different varieties. The crap you buy in the store are tasteless and not worth anything. Nothing like going to the garden on a hot day and picking a ripe tomato off the vine and enjoying it immediately.
True. The taste is so much better for homegrowns. I like meaty Roma tomatoes, I know they are supposed to be a paste tomato but I eat them right off the vine. I prefer them to the juicier types, less messy.
I'm sure a lot of what this guy says is true, but I think he's exaggerating quite a bit, especially when he talks about soil nutrients and pesticides. As for the poster who was overcome and convinced to eat "healthy" because of a baby born without arms or legs, I'm just curious how she blames this on Florida tomatoes. Fwiw: every single day, around the world, children are born with all sorts of defects. Missing limbs is not that unusual. In fact, there was a rash of these limb deformities that were found to be caused by a once common medication (whose name I forget, no doubt due to the pesticide ridden, nutrionless fruits and vegetables I've been eating....or it could be old age...) it starts with a P, dang, I know this one – had a friend with deformed, undersized legs whose mom took it. Probably come to me in an hour.
You are referring to thalidomide. But just because thalidomide did a lot of damage does not mean that there are any exaggerations in this article – your arguments are specious and irrelevant. You must be part of the tomato industry.
There's no exaggeration in this article. Every word is true. Frightening, isn't it? Lake Apopka is an environmental disaster that may never be resolved, look it up yourself.
Being uninformed doesn't excuse you from belief in what goes on.
Well said. How many of us would sacrifice an hour or two a week to stand outside the entrance to a major supermarket in our neighborhood and gather signatures on a petition asking these big chains to step up and pay 1 cent more a pound to improve the field workers conditions?
My favorite roadside stand had "bruised" tomatoes – actually just slight mottling of color or a mark on the side – at $2.50 for 4 lb. They are RIPE and so tasty, not like the garbage sold in supermarkets. It reminds me of the supermarkets in France where bins are full of apples, peaches, etc. and they are picked ripe so their skin has slight imperfections: but they taste SO much better than the same stuff in our supermarkets. No wonder Americans don't eat enough fruits anymore: we get them served to us before they're ripe.
Grow your own and go organic. choose Heirlooms ( johnnyseeds)
Also, Baker Creek Heirloom Seeds (rareseeds.com) has this insanely crazy array of heirloom tomatoes. Red, pink, black, purple, orange, yellow, and even white tomatoes, and every size from big to bitty cherry tomatoes. You do have a choice! :D
My neighbor's lawn spray drifted and ruined all my tomato plants, but I am getting good tomatoes in the WI markets. Put the ripe tomato in a freezer bag and toss in the freezer. They keep well and are great for cooking in winter or to eat half thawed.
Excellent article. Insightful and thought-provoking. I would leave out repeatedly mentioning the workers race or ethnicity. its irrelevant and smacks of patronizing white-guilt.
Race is extremely important,....if they were white trash workers they would be getting paid minimum wage-2x minimum wage and they would be going HOME at night instead of into the back of a truck...completely ignorant to think race is not important as this wouldn't even happen if it wasn't for taking advantage of migrant hispanics, africans, etc...there is a difference between griping about immigration reform and making some change and expecting immigrants to assimiliate into our society ONCE they have legally and with productivity entered this great country....and abusing desperate ppl that have come here illegally willing to do ANYTHING you ask/force them to for pennies...we are all humans, some just don't act like it – looks like immigration reform has another face – with tomato on it!
You say migrant yet leave out illegal crossings. Perhaps we need to make Ag workers from south of the border legal for farm work. Which in turn will give them more rights and bargaining power. Until then, they are illegal. I'd pay much more for veges picked from legal migrants.
This is actually a uniquely American problem. In most of the world they now use a specific type of tomato seeds which were developed by the Hebrew University in Jerusalem. These tomatoes have a longer shelf life, which means that they can be picked when they are lovely and ripe, and still survive long enough to ship to far away places and be sold in grocery stores. These seeds are used across the world to sell ripe, flavorful tomatoes in all seasons. The reason why these are NOT used in the US is that the US uses tomato picking machines which would crush a ripe tomato, and therefore the tomatoes have to be picked while they are still green and hard.
I get a kind of tomato in the off seasons called "kumatos," that are very good and keep for a week or two on the kitchen counter. They are a brownish-greenish-red and more expensive, but worth it. I tried saving some seeds from them, but the plants did not produce well for me.
In the article "They started a campaign against Taco Bell, asking them to pay a penny more per pound for the tomatoes. It's nothing to you or me, but that's the difference between $40-50 a day and $80 a day for a tomato picker."
How much does an individual picker harvest in a day? If the pay went for an extra $0.01 per pound and at the end of the day the worker gets approx 100% more in pay, something does not appear correct. The article alludes the pickers are gathering the tomatoes by hand, so mechanical assistance is not at work here. If a penny motivated them that much, for a nickel these workers would be motivated to defoliate Florida in a week.
What I don't understand is how does paying 1 cent more a pound help the field workers? Isn't the guy just going to charge them $10 for using the hose to wash off instead of $5? I just don't see how this is going to trickle down to the target, it's only going to help the middlemen.
I have a feeling you are right.
A bushel of tomatoes is 53 lbs so paying one penny more per pound is paying ~ $0.50 more per basket (or bushel picked). That may not seem like much to a general consumer but it adds up to a big wage increase IF it is passed on to the worker.
Note for $ 0.01 per pound increase to make a difference of $40 a day means the workers pick ~ 4000 lbs a day
That is about 75 baskets a day – or for a long 12 hour shift a basket every 9 minutes !
Also going from $40 to $80 is DOUBLING the current wage – or a 200% raise.
No farmer good or bad can afford to raise wages like that UNLESS the major customers – corporations like taco bell agree to pay more.
Uh... we're not at all concerned by the fact that 70% of our agricultural workforce is here illegally? In a time when we have 9.1% unemployment? Don't tell me Americans won't do those jobs. They will. They just won't do them for $80 a week. You bet those farmers are going to do something drastic to get people working for them if they suddenly don't have thousands of people to exploit who can't rely on law enforcement because of their immigration status. The article even tells us what the illegal workers do with that money. They send it back to where they're from. That means that money is leaving the US market, not buying US things, and not supporting the US economy. How about, if we're going to have laws, let's follow them. Is that really too much to ask?
So Americans WILL do the jobs, but not for the going rate? Let's look at a program here in Georgia where just that scenario played out. These jobless legal Americans, as part of a back-to-work program for the unemployed, wimped out on the first day of farm work, taking smoke breaks leaving the job site and complaining that the migrant workers got paid more than they did. In the end, it was something like less than 2 percent actually returned the next day, and none returned the following week. The migrants working there make as much as $35 to 40K a year, as much as a manager in a retail store and certainly more than many hospitality employees. Even at the low end, $35K is a more than fair wage for unskilled labor with no degree.
Since when have unskilled laborers been in the business of dictating their pay to management? The employer sets the going rate for a type of job, and those willing to work the job for that rate apply. If Americans are too stuck up to work in the dirt for the going rate, do they deserve a raise just to get them out there?
The migrants got paid more because the work pays by the bushel – and they get bonuses for picking above and beyond the quota. One migrant worker said he makes some $45K a year picking cucumbers and other crops because he's always getting the bonuses. That's more than many hospitality and retail jobs pay – and those jobs are full of angry white males. Why not go after those farm jobs, work hard (and it's blistering work) and get paid?
You don't know what you're talking about at all. ICE conducted its largest raid in history and got several hundred illegals at a Howard Industries plant in Laurel, Mississippi. The VERY NEXT DAY after the raid, cars were lined up around the block with AMERICAN citizens who wanted to apply for jobs there.
I think you are correct despite what Mark says. I live in a farming community and it's not Caucasian out in those fields, it's Mexicans. The Caucasians will not take the heat long just like you say. I don't know if I agree with the it being about "stuck up" but more about physically feeling ill because Caucasian are not used to the heat, the bending, lifting and fatigue that comes from doing this physical labor. And to get bonuses means they pick above and beyond, so the Mexicans who do work, get them because they are experienced. I see them as skilled field labor, and the Caucasian are nowhere to be seen. (Caucasians are more about "picking their own" her parts where I come from). Caucasians as a whole are not commercial pickers like the Mexicans. It's laughable because as you indicate, they do not last in the fields.
But this isn't about color.
In addition to pesticides, there is another silent killer as these workers toil in sweltering heat with no federal protections. See: http://www.citizen.org/pressroom/pressroomredirect.cfm?ID=3409
500 workers have died and 40,000 injured from excessive heat exposure over the past 20 years – with crop workers at highest risk.
Someone mentioned seeing a limbless baby photo and swore off Florida tomatoes as a result. This is why you saw that pic.
What happened to Barry Estabrook in Florida? I will never read that book simply because of all the negative attitude. I was expecting some sort of anecdotal description of how the tomato was discovered, not a rant bashing Florida and accusing anyone who has ever eaten a tomato a slavery supporter.
I personally don’t like tomatoes and I don’t eat them except as an ingredient in pizza, spaghetti sauce etc. However, there are many inaccurate and misleading statements in this article. The statement that they have to use 110 different chemicals is misleading. There might be 110 different chemicals licensed to be used but that doesn’t mean that every farmer uses every chemical. Florida has a very active chemical residue testing program where they test for what chemicals and how much are on fruits and vegetables. They even test fruits and vegetables being imported from other states and countries. I’m sure some farmers use more than others, but most farmers use as little as possible because chemicals cost money and if they use the wrong one or too much, their entire crop gets plowed into the ground.
Look up Migrant Farm Worker in Wikipedia (or other reference sources) and you will see that the word Migrant means that the workers move around. So a worker may be picking tomatoes in the winter in Florida, but many are working in North Carolina or other states during other seasons. Any problem Florida may have with illegal immigration is a national problem. Barry even said most of these workers are from Mexico or Central America. How do they get to Florida? They don’t float there on a raft from Mexico. They probably entered the US out west and travelled through at least four other states before getting to Florida. How can you blame Florida without also blaming any other state that employs even one undocumented migrant worker?
We all need to remember that this is one person’s opinion who apparently had a bad experience with a tomato in Florida and if this book causes people to think about the situation, do their own research and come to their own decisions, then it is good, but too often I fear that people read something on the internet and use that as their sole basis for stating that a state or an entire industry is bad.
Well said.
Tomatoes became what they are because people didn't like to see the weird shapes or the occasional bruises they would get. People assumed pretty veggies means they taste better when that is NOT the case.
Living in Southern California, I'm fortunate to grow my own during the summer and when I can't grown them, I make sure I get locally grown produce.
For the ultimate tomato experience try a fresh jersey tomato! Fresh from the Garden State!
Try our sweet Jersey corn too!
Hey lets get together – SUCCOTASH!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!
Very true about the weird shapes and such. But I would take my home grown tomatoes 1 million times more than the supermarket's pesticide/hormone induced perfect looking Tomato.
I have actually read Estabrook's "Tomatoland" and it is a horrifying tale. You will never eat another Florida tomato after reading. I have been growing my own tomatoes for years, so know what a tomato is supposed to taste like and have chosen to just not eat tomatoes in the winter, rather than buy these cardboard tasting replicants from Florida. ( Note: Did anyone proof-read or edit this article as it was filled with typos. Sad.)
I red it an it wuz currect speling.
"It was like asking them if they put their pants on one day at a time."
Nice.
yes there is no way it was proof-read but I don't think I have EVER read a CNN.com article without obvious errors – always amazed that the "PROS" do such a horrible writing job (btw I never proof read what I type – I'm not a pro so pfttttt!)
This means vegans support slavery and pollution of the environment.
BOO-rah!
Watch!
Al Gore actually "invented" the Tomato
Yup; while he as a passenger on "The Love Boat" Jack.
Actually, George W. Bush said he was going to get the tomato dead or alive, but Obama actually got the tomato in a daring midnight raid, humiliating Bush, who noted that he "felt no joy" over the incident.
Meanwhile, Obama blamed the failed tomato crop on Bush and promised to revive it. And then he failed miserably, but continued to blame it on Republicans.
Man those 'winter' tomatoes taste like absolute trash and send shivers down my spine thinking about them. Just that off-orange, pinkish hue and every single one looking exactly the same. That almost crunch, as opposed to juicy goodness, when you bite into it. That virtually seedless interior. The cold, tasteless, pinkish pale-orange inner membrane and flesh. So absolutely disgusting. Makes me want to vomit. Same exact ones even in summertime sitting there in a Subway or McDonalds. You simply cannot beat a fresh home-grown off the vine tomato. I don't even think those pieces of garbage in grocery stores should even be called tomatoes, seriously.
And that's why my dad won't eat a store bought tomato. If it wasn't picked fresh and ripe from the vine, it ain't any good!
I live in Florida our farmer's market tomatoes taste the same. Since they shouldn't be grown in Florida where should or how should I obtain my tomatoes?
Get off your duff and grow your own.
Grow your own in a pot on your patio or in a raised bed filled w/garden soil. They aren't native to FL, but the closer you can get to mimicking their native conditions, the more likely you'll have disease-free plants. And experiment with varieties – some are better for cold, short seasons, others for long, warm seasons, and many work well with humidity. Heirlooms are great, but if they don't work, find a hybrid with letters after its name. VFN or VFNT are common & mean the plant is resistant to several diseases that affect tomatoes.
Thank you. I appreciate your response. I wasn't being sarcastic in my question as some in this link seem to think.
I do not have any outside space available to grow my own. I am trying to figure out a way to locate and purchase them from a reputable source in my area. I will look for the organic ones with the names you listed. Our main grocery in Floirda is Publix.
Elaine, if you can get a hold of a pot you can plant them that way. Lots of people in apartments successfully grow tomatoes. Just do a little research!
Elaine, all you need is a container and some full sun. Go to Home Depot/Lowes/wherever and get a large plastic container, a bag of organic potting soil (enough to mostly fill the pot, a trellis that fits pots (looks like a cone shaped cage) and a tomato plant start. Plant the thing, put the cone over it , place it in full sun and water it UNDERNEATH the leaves (so you don't encourage fungus or knock off the blossoms. Time and some love = tomatoes.
I used to be an apartment dweller, but even with a tiny balcony, I had flowers and could have grown tomatoes. Yep, right in the urban concrete jungle. Heck even folks with fire escapes can put a few containers out there.
Btw, you don't have to limit yourself to tomatoes. There are a lot of flowers and veggies that can be grown in containers.
I'm pickin' up what you're layin' down, girlfriend, but I think you're taking this just a bit to literally.
Or I am and I missed your sarcasm. ^_^
I smell what you are shoveling!
Reynoldsburg, Ohio, is the birthplace of the modern tomato: in the year 1870, to be exact. The "developer" was a self-taught horticulturalist named Alexander W. Livingston.The pre-1870 tomato and the post-1870 tomato were quite different. Early tomatoes were smaller than those we know today, they were often hollow and hard with ribbed skins, and the appearance, flavor, and storage qualities varied considerably from plant to plant. Alexander Livingston owned a farm near Reynoldsburg where he established the A. W. Livingston Buckeye Seed Company and conducted experiments to produce tomatoes with better flavor and more uniform characteristics. He worked for decades on the project and finally, in 1870, produced a variety which met his goals. He called this tomato the Paragon. The Paragon Tomato is recognized as the first commercial tomato. That is, farmers could plant it with confidence of a crop with a yield of sufficient quantity and quality to make it commercially viable—the tomatoes could be canned or made into juice and offered to consumers far beyond the location of the farm. In Reynoldsburg, A. W. Livingston continued his experimentation with tomatoes and produced many varieties that were widely grown. In the late 1930s, a U.S. Department of Agriculture publication stated that more than half of the tomato varieties in use then were descended from strains developed in Reynoldsburg by Alexander Livingston. His Paragon Tomato—the beginning of it all—can still be purchased and grown today.
Thank you! That was informative and interesting!
How's this for a great idea since the average consumer is too stupid to realize what is happening or not to buy. For those of us "in the know", each time you're at a major grocery store, go to the produce section and pretend like you're looking through the tomatoes. However, secretly be pushing a finger into them, bruising them, splitting them, etc. I've never once seen a consumer that buys a runny, leaking tomato. They'll see the batch, and hopefully it will have leaked onto others, and your average moron consumer will leave it be. If everyone does this, it will have a huge impact on people buying.
What say you, let's "finger" some tomatoes!!!
Great Idea! Im sure talking to people and trying to share your vast knowledge with the poor uneducated waifs would take up far too much of your time. Better to just destroy someone else's property and take away people's ability to choose for themselves.
Thanks, I knew people would tend to agree with me.
Jersey Tomatoes always fresh always delious from the Garden State! -JERSEYTOMATO 2012
Sick, sick, sick......................there has to be a better way to grow tomatoes. I was ALL veggies in warm soapy water.
In Oklahoma we have a darling little company called Braum's that is a fast food burger chain/ice cream store that has a grocery section selling produce, dairy products and meat that all come from their farms. Even their fast food is made from their own products. They are very ethical and the taste of their products reflects it. Happy cows don't live in California....happy cows work for Braum's.
So how long have YOU worked there Lauren?
All off color remarks aside, that sounds like a truly awesome idea. Wish more fast food joints would take the hint!
Chipotle – they source as local as possible, & organic when available.
I live in Plano by Dallas here in Texas and Braums rocks!!! I love their milk/cheese...had no idea they actually used their own products in the fast food. Thanks for the heads up! Go Cowboys!!
I'm certainly no expert (just a home greenthumb and lifelong Miamian), but what Mr. Estabrook reports here runs counter to my experiences as a Floridian. At the very least, the tomatoes we grow in South Florida (think Homestead) are most certainly NOT grown in sand. I have never in my entire life seen anything at all grown in sand. It's all grown in very normal soil.
Further, that tomatoes are picked green is not unique to Florida. It's just a result of having to truck said tomatoes across the country to places that otherwise would not have any tomatoes. If you pick them mature, by the time they made it to market, they'd be rather rotten. That's just a reality of logistics, and whether they're grown in California, Mexico or Florida, if you're eating a "fresh" tomato in the Midwest, it was almost certainly picked green.
Locally, in South Florida, you can go pick those same tomatoes yourself at many farms, and you can certainly pick them in their mature, red-on-the-vine state. But no tomato picked mature would be fresh 4,000 miles later.
Additionally, as anyone who grows tomatoes as a hobby knows, none of the tomatoes that are commercially grown are of a "heirloom" type because heirloom tomatoes are simply too fickle and too low-yielding to be commercially viable. Most commercial tomatoes are grown from hearty, determinate breeds that produce a lot of fruit. An heirloom tomato will always taste better, but that's the realm of small, niche producers and enthusiasts. This is common sense.
Similar circumstances are to blame for the dominant use of the Cavendish banana. It ships better than others, even though it's a particularly bland breed. There's nothing sneaky in this. It's just a practicality of commercial growing.
What Mr. Estabrook is reporting may seem quite sensational, but I think it falls short of reality in some regards and is disingenuous in others.
Then, obviously, you did not read, or comprehend, the article.
I did, and I compared it against the reality I've experienced first hand. The article didn't match up. I don't just believe the things I read. I actually think about them.
Remember, kids: Thinking is not illegal. Yet.
Keep living in your bubble blahblah. Sure.. there is no problem out there. As long as you don't see it, it does not exist. Just keep believing things like poverty does not exist in this country, and tax cuts for the wealthy creates jobs. I hope some day you take the blinders off and realize what is going on in this country.
Having spent quite a bit of time in Florida I have to disagree with you about the quality of the soil. Take a handful of Florida soil and you'll find that it has a high quantity of sand. There will be some organic matter in there but it's at least 50% sand in most areas. Additionally, the soil tends to be very acidic from all of the pines there. Then take a handful of soil from Iowa or Pennsylvania. You'd find that its very fine, loamy, some clay but pretty high in organic matter. In order to grow non-native species you *must* heavily amend the soil with compost. So I would have to disagree with you about it being 'soil' like every where else. In fact, every gardening guide for Florida mentioned the very sandy nature of the soil.
Well, Chris, you are probably right in some places, but apparently you haven't been to the Everglades Agricultural Area, south of Lake Okeechobee. That area is nothing but organic muck, several feet deep. It is used to grow sugarcane and vegetables and is some of the finest soil in America.
I am gardener and lived on a farm for several years. I am from south Florida. I can tell you that what most Floridians perceive of as soil is indeed sand by any other state's definition. Sometimes you get lime stone rock and some humus but the soils is still very poor in nutrients. I have personally visited the locations mentioned in the article. Things are very much as the article describes. Workers do deserve more and I know based on the profit margins I see for these commodities in the stock market that there is no reason to charge a penny more. It is about greed and frankly selfishness. How hard would it be to provide a descent trailer, food, and a fair wage. The reason this does not happen is the bosses they hire want to keep as much money as possible and frankly most of them see non-whites as beneath them. I know this for a fact because my own grandfather chose to hide his identity as a Cherokee rather than face this prejudice. When we were young we even lived in a segregated trailer park. It was not until the race riots that this began to change. How a native could forget these is beyond me, but I have noticed a certain selective memory among whites to these realities. The agrocorps need to pay for monitors and require a portion of the bosses pay go to proper conditions. Even the use of random monitors would solve a lot of this. The main issue is that a third party responsible to the state has to run such a system or it will go corrupt. The most important thing is that the agrocorps need to be held directly responsble for the actions of their sub-contractors. It solve most of these issues very quickly.
One thing I will not fault the need for transportable produce, but now that we have those varieties I think it is time to cross them with better tasting ones. It takes effort and money but it can be done.
Wherever this article mentions the word "Florida", replace for the word "California" and with the only exception of the number of chemicals used for growing the tomato, you still have an accurate article. While some of the statements in the article regarding labor abuses are true, they are not unique to Florida, ... California is doing in fact way more slave labor than Florida, since California is the cradle of the invasion of illegal aliens. Florida does not even have a border with Mexico!!!!
This isn't a tomato issue. It's a kidnapping issue.
I don't care if the people are illegal or not, no one has the right to enslave and chain them. That's a set of felonies (for those of you with an interest in facts, we fought a war over that issue).
Florida law enforcement and their Ag department have to be complicit, and given the size of the companies involved, I'll bet the Governor knows their CEO's on a personal basis, especially around election time.
We need an honest guest-worker program (since the Americans in Florida won't work in the fields) and we need to charge those CEOs with conspiracy.
I guess we can't have any of that job-destroying, big-government regulation now, can we. Pretty soon they'll be feeding us Soylent Green.
I'm not convinced the article is totally truthful.
We got the industry to weigh in as well: http://eatocracy.cnn.com/2011/09/08/why-tomatoes-grow-in-florida/
Grow your own tomato plant and taste the difference between it and store-bought.
But are you convinced enough to say that it warrants an investigation?
it's FLORIDA what do you expect... They are CRAZY down there. To hear actual agro slavery is back in fashon down there doesn't supprise me. Florida is the appendix of the USA the sooner we cut them out the better.
Florida is beyond salvation, it's a lost cause, ship everyone out of the state and burn it down!
It sucks that this article started with some neat info on tomatoes, and ended all about slavery... wth?
There are two articles here, mashed into one. I would have preferred two separate articles - one about worker conditions/human slavery, one about what mass production has done to our food supply.
Why did this article go from talking about tomatoes to illegal aliens? I stopped reading at that point.
THANK YOU!
Tomatoes have to get to your plate somehow. We're just sharing how – and have both sides weighing in.
http://eatocracy.cnn.com/2011/09/08/why-tomatoes-grow-in-florida/
Ah, reality intrudes on the fantasy world of those Real Americans....
Same here
Feeling guilty?
Bravo, Eric. I quit reading and scanned down the article looking for where they start talking about tomatoes again. Alas, the tomato talk was over and we are only left with lamenting the poor working conditions of people that aren't supposed to be here in the first place.
I have grown my own tomatoes for years now, and I live in a hot, humid area just like Florida. I don't know wth he's talking about as far as them being adapted to dry, arid conditions. Tomatoes – both determinate and indeterinate varieties – need a lot of water to grow and mature properly, because they are mostly water themselves. What makes the difference is the consistancy of moisture throughout the growing season and the water being delivered to the soil, not over the top of the plant which leads to cat-facing, bottom rot, and late season blight. I don't think this guy knows wth he is talking about.
Pretty much anything that this country can be ashamed of has a seemingly welcomed place in Florida.
I try not to buy anything that comes from Florida if I can help it. Tomatoes are easy, because they're disgusting and don't taste like anything.
Was so nice to have a yard this summer and be able to grow our own! Our ONE Sun Gold cherry took over the whole garden and gives us handfuls of delicious, sweet tomatoes every day. The others didn't turn out as well in our short season this year, but still pleased with the cherries.
Farmers markets are the way to go if you can't grow your own. If you can't taste a tomato, why buy it anyway?
True that and...let us not even SPEAK of the Florida Sugar Industry. THAT is why we have high fructose corn syrup. Unbelievable collusion at the LAW-level between the corn farmers and sugar farmers.....ALL PAID FOR BY TAX SUBSIDIES
I just want to know where I can get a copy of that gorgeous photo of my favorite food!!!
Just click and drag the image to your desktop.
Or you could get the app CaptureMe online for free. Check it out.
CP
Suddenly very glad all our tomatoes come from the local (NC) farmers market. And now I am beginning to understand why everyone is so shocked at how sweet and good the salsa and sauces I make with those tomatoes are. I always thought they were being silly, but if they are accustomed to tomatoes that are picked green and dosed with so many chemicals... wow. This has inspired me to make the most of what remains of tomato season; I will be canning a lot of salsas and sauces to get us through the winter! And for those that don't know it... at the farmers market here tomatoes generally run about $2 per pound. However, you can get a box of canning tomatoes (meaning blemished or so ripe they are about to go bad) for $10-15 and weighing 20-25lbs.
YOU GET IT NOW congrats. Meat, eggs, chickens, salad... all the same you will see. HINT: you can cheaply buy very high quality canned tomatoes (no salt if u like). I jar tomato juice, etc. but honestly....the no-salt store products are better than mine and a lot cheaper. Still 'can' but the factories are putting out good cans (stay away from cheap unknown brands).
I have yet to find a store bought sauce/salsa better than what I make, but if I ever do I will certainly buy some. The stuff I make isn't expensive at all. The tomatoes work out to be around $1 per pint of salsa, the other parts vary depending on what I throw in... but it definitely isn't more expensive than buying it in the store. And I like knowing exactly what goes in and where it comes from. I do use 6oz of store bought tomato paste per 5 pints of salsa though, just because it is easier, but I am sure to check the ingredients on the label. If it lists more than one ingredient (tomatoes) I am not buying it. The other day I picked one up and the label had no less than 5 ingredients! For plain tomato paste!
My husband thinks I make better salsa than he does (the one time he tried, he used the entire cilantro sprigs, stem and all), so occasionally he'll pick up the ingredients and bring them home. He doesn't like tomatoes generally, so he has no real frame of reference to compare the delicious sweet red ones and the bland basic pinkish ones. Last time, he bought the bland basic pink ones, and lamented that the salsa wasn't as good. Of course it wasn't, silly! You bought crappy tomatoes!
the biggest problem is the ignorant consumers. Most believe produce grows in a box in the back room and only good looks can sell a product. I have been in the produce business a long time and todays customers are totally clueless as to how anything works. I gave up trying to sell local vine ripe tomatoes in my store because they did not look pretty.
Amen!
btw tomatosource, sorry for ripping on u a little. my apologies for being uncivil.
So true. That is why a vibrant RESTAURANT economy works well. From field to restaurant. Restaurant serves reasonable portion for good price. Makes the whole economy work. We are eating pizza and junk and then buying garbage to stuff down our gullets. The right food at a local restaurant (good luck with that) and the whole nation gets better.
Sadly I agree. Consumers only have themselves to blame for the crappy produce that are in the markets.
Good article, but some bad science.
"... These green tomatoes are taken back to a warehouse, packed in boxes, which are stacked on pallets and moved into storage areas where they're exposed to ethylene gas. The gas forces the tomatoes to turn the right color; it doesn't ripen them. ..."
Let's get the science right. The ethylene gas does ripen them. That's *exactly* what it does. They don't just "turn the right color". They ripen. The lack of taste is not because they're not ripe, it's because they're terrible tomatoes. Ethylene is the ripening hormone for all tomatoes – even naturally ripening ones – they're just adding more than would otherwise be present.
Otherwise an excellent article. But please be careful with the science!
A few years ago there was a picture in a FL newspaper of a baby born without arms or legs to parents that worked in the tomato fields in Florida. From that day forward I eat only organic produce. That photograph of that sweet little baby is seared in my memory forever!
What a bunch of rotten tomato snobs some of you commenters are. The average person doesn't know when it's "the season" for tomatoes. They buy it because it's in the store, it's good eats and they don't give two hoots about how it got there. However, thank you Kat & Carl for posting articles like these to give people the chance to learn.
Store tomatoes are NOT 'good eats'. They are picked green, ripened with gas, and have little or no taste. It is better to rehydrate a dried tomato or just do without. Canned tomatos (no salt) are excellent. Tomato not picked red (i.e. ripe) it is not a tomato and not worth eating.
I doubt the extra cent will trickle down to the farm pickers. The rich farmers will just pocket it as their own pay raise. Just boycott tomatoes: the pickers will go pick something else and tomatoe farmers will have to change their ways so cosumers will buy their tomatoes again.
Whether this article is fact based or not, a penny more is not the answer.
Spoken like someone who truly does not give a s#!t about what goes into his or her mouth, nor into the economy.
You get what you pay for.
Read the rest of my comment. Your myopia is showing.
Right, well, I've exercised my chance to learn from both the article and the comment board.
Sadly, it sounds like you'd rather be right than reasonable.
Good luck with that.
To be clear, it's because your average person is undereducated about the source of their food, they think it's good eats.
Thanks Tomato Source for making me feel above average. Now, back to tending my homemade tomato sauce made from fresh picked suburban backyard tomatoes...Yum. I can't buy them in the chain stores anymore either so try to preserve enough to last until the next season. I picked up Tomatoland at a closing Borders a few days ago so was surprised to see this article. I have not read it yet, but won't be putting it off much longer.
Cityfarm...I feel what you do...relax ... it is only a tomato (or tomatoe). I am totally on your side CityFarm but it is changing as we speak. Improvement is slow. Also, a lot of people LIKE BAD FOOD. Face that fact. People LIKE the bad food.
The average person probably does not know what the season for tomatoes is – let's educate them. I always have hope that people and things can change. This is a very good article and a great start.
Grow your own heirloom (non-hybrid) tomatoes. It's easy, they're delicious. I have 25 different kinds growing in my backyard every year. Just look online for seeds or plants. Tomatofest is one source.
I live by one simple rule when I go food shopping. If it wouldn't grow naturally in a particular season, I don't buy it. Tomatoes remain a summer treat for me; the ones sold in the off-season in the supermarket taste awful anyway. It's the same reason why I don't buy citrus in the summer, or peaches in February. Buying food that does not naturally grow in a particular season either means it's going to taste bad, it's going to cost a lot, or it's going to be flown in from some faraway place.
Don't eat citrus in summer? The summer oranges come from Brazil, etc so they are often quite fresh. Plus they uniquely store well like no other fruit. Almost like God made it that way...hmm....
You can grow your own tomatoes easily in a pot on your patio. Just stake them up as they grow and you'll have very delicious tomatoes.
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Squirrels love them in pots on the patio, fat chance you'll get one that hasn't been half-eaten by a squirrel.
We had a terrible time with squirels eating our tomatoes. Actually, what they would do is take a bite out of them. I wouldn't have minded so much if they at the whole thing! Someone told me they were just thirsty, so we started putting out a pie pan filled with water. Never had a problem since.
Unless, you live in an area with no squirrels like me! :)
Hmmmmmmm squirrel stew – with fresh tomatoes ...........
Uh...this guy is wrong on all counts as to why and where you can grow great tomatoes. I've lived in Indiana all my life where summers are extremely hot and humid and we grow excellent tomatoes! Humidity is, in fact, necessary for great tomatoes. You can't find a better tomato than what we raise here.
Indiana: them are fighting words. Oregon is INVADING. Nuclear missiles launched at Indiana. Dry summer weather like we get here to make the tastiest tomato. Been there. Been here. The very dry air concentrates flavor. Starve the plant a tiny bit of watering, amazing flavor you never imagined Hoosierboy. (upton tea earl grey double strength bergamont hint of day)
I stopped eating supermarket tomatores years ago - but growing your own is not really an option - the greenhouses and seed stores are selling genetically engineered seed or transplants - they are all F1 hybrids now which means they are as tasteless as the supermarket varieties- even you let them fully ripen on the vine- at least in my area of the southwest.
Try open-pollinated seed or seed that has not been genetically modified. Nichols Nursery, Seeds of Change, and Johnny's Seeds are places you can order these from. There are also a lot of heirloom tomatoes that are incredible to try. Funky colors, tendency towards splitting, and maybe not perfect for all diseases that come upon tomatoes, but worth the effort.
I have seen many open-pollinated or heirloom variety transplants for sale at the big box home improvement stores – if starting from seed is not an option for you. Check it out next season!
Trust me, there is absolutely nothing wrong with an F1 hybrid. Plants that are "open-pollinated" (very imprecise term) for some genes are certainly F1 hybrids for other genes. There is no such thing as a 100% homozygous (="not F1") individual. You are an F1 hybrid. Everybody is.
I don't think any commercially available tomatoes are genetically engineered. Not that there is something wrong with that. Genetic engineering, that is to say modifying a genotype using modern techniques, could save us from pests and pesticides, do you think it is a bad thing? All propaganda against them is paid for by the companies producing pesticides.
Anyway, there are extremely few GE crops that have been actually introduced , they include mostly varieties of soy with non-food uses.
Store tomatoes are horrific. Store eggs are as bad. Due to machine-washing mandated by law, eggs in the USA tend to stink...a faint sulfur smell about 25% of the time. Sometimes harsh. Eggs should almost always be local and unwashed. All this is due to corporate control of food chain. Result? No biodiversity, food that lacks complete nutrition in a way that does not show on the label.
I'll agree with everything but your proclaimed cause.
The reason is multifaceted but the 2 major reasons are everyone wants to pay less and will accept lower quality for saving money, this makes it more profitable for the huge corporate farms and the mom and pop operations to commit most of their production to inferior high yield products.
The other reason is everyone wants to defy nature and the seasons. They want 'fresh' tomatoes 365 days a year not just in local season.
cj, NO matter what crop from tomatoes to coffee to wheat....it is concentrated in large corporations who set up laws to mandate their services (ie egg washing factories). The management of the corporations get paid millions of dollars per year. Then there are the farm cash subsidies going mostly to very wealthy corporate farmers. Worse by far than u might think.
I cannot understand the perpetuation of this appalling system.
Slave labor + sub-par, near-inedible product = a no-brainer boycott.
They're selling you guys crap. Stop buying.
In any case, no tomato tastes half as incredible as a late-summer oxheart from my great-uncle's farm.
Worth the wait, people. There are seasons for a reason. Don't give in to ersatz "convenience."
But, You'd be OK with the slavery if the Tomatos were better?
What a stupid question.
Also, I wonder what clothing items you have in your closet, what car you drive, what consumer electronics you use, etc. Pretty much all of those industries utilize virtual or actual slave labor, too.
Tomatoes are an obvious boycott BECAUSE the product is no good, in addition to all the slave labor stuff.
The other examples are a little stickier – since, say, decent tennis shoes usually offer better ROI than bland, pithy romas.
(Though I do enjoy romas, wilber – just not as much as oxhearts!)
Very very well put farmer, thanks! Waiting for that ROMA from my MOMMA's garden makes it that much better. She dries them. In winter I add just a few drops of water.....it is summer again! Drying tomatoes is a pain but try it. Oxheart is good by imo Roma where it is at (lets have a war over that, haha).
I felt the same way about drying until I discovered the Excalibur Dehydrator. Now, it's a breeze to dry tomatoes. Definately worth the investment. You're right, it is amazing how they keep their flavor when dried. I get excited everytime I add water to rehydrate some in the winter. It's like Sea Monkies for adults!! :)
to the other guy: I am obviously totally OK with slavery. I work for a big company at a lower level. Rather be picking tomatoes except it pays even worse and I am apparently the wrong color for the job.
Well, the rains here in NY are really putting a dent in the tomatoes and pretty much everything else for the past weeks that you may have growing in your garden.
Sorry to hear...hey, sometimes 'tenting' them to keep as much rain away as possible helps. Don't worry, sun will shine and those tomatoes will Bless. Don't worry if you fail this year God will provide double next year!
cover the plants with a couple sheets of newspaper loose over the top, be sure to remove rotten tomatos, weeds, anything that will hold in water when rain stops. u got work 2 do, farmer work not done.
It's true. I grew up in the '60's-70's not far from Immokalee and even then the mostly black ag workers were treated like slaves. All this to produce an unpalatable and barely edible product. I will not buy a supermarket tomato for any reason.
sad that Americans for the most part don't know this SAD story. If we did, maybe so many of us wouldn't buy supermarket tomatoes. I don't, and NEVER will after reading this article. We should be taking advantage of our local farmers' markets people!!! Or growing them in our backyards or on containers on our decks or porches. NOT HARD TO DO!!!!! We need to wise up. If you DO buy stuff from the supermarket, wash, wash, wash it!
I just had my eyes opened this horror and others in reading The Warmth of Other Suns by Isabel Wilkerson.