[LINK] O/t: American Food

[stephen at melbpc.org.au]

Off topic. Sometimes I despair for our planet ..

The True Cost of Tomatoes

By MARK BITTMAN  www.nytimes.com  June 14, 2011
A review of Barry Estabrook's book "Tomatoland" (snip)


. A third of U.S. tomatoes are grown in Florida.

Much of this production is concentrated around the town of Immokalee.

This town sits near the edge of the Everglades, the draining of which 
began in the late 19th century, thus setting the stage for industrial 
agriculture. 

The tomato fields of Immokalee are vast and surreal. 

An unplanted field looks like a lousy beach. The "soil" is white sand, 
containing little in the way of nutrients, and it won’t hold any water.

To grow tomatoes there requires mind-boggling amounts of fertilizers, 
fungicides and pesticides. On roughly the same acreage of tomatoes, 
Florida uses about eight times as many chemicals as does California.

The tomatoes are, in effect, grown hydroponically. 

The sand is useful mostly as a medium for holding the stakes in place.

Most of the big purchasers, like Wal-Mart and McDonald’s, want 
firm, "slicing" tomatoes, because their destination is a burger or a 
sandwich. So, the tomatoes are picked at what is called "mature green," 
which isn’t mature at all but bordering on it.

Tomatoes with any color other than green are left to rot ..

<http://graphics8.nytimes.com/images/2011/06/15/opinion/tomatoes/tomatoes-
jumbo.jpg>

The green tomatoes are gassed — "de-greened" is the chosen euphemism — 
to "ripen" them. 

The plants themselves are often killed with an herbicide to hasten their 
demise and get ready for the next crop. 

The process, not to put too fine a point on it, is awful. But the demand 
is there — Florida ships about a billion pounds of tomatoes a year ..

--

Cheers,
Stephen