Tomatoland

 

By Barry Estabrook

excerpt review by Jan Buhrman -

I am also reading a book called Tomatoland, by Barry Estabrook.  This book gives a great exposé on the tasteless life of the mass-produced tomato. It gets into the chemical-saturated tomatoes of  Florida and all of the poor practices you may have suspected that produce those perfect tomatoes you see in the grocery store in the winter. It’s beyond nightmares! There are minimally 27 insect species and 29 diseases that prey on the tomatoes of Florida. These tomato plants are chemically saturated  with herbicides and pesticides and then gassed to “mature the greens” (fruit plucked so early from the vines that they bounce without a scratch) with ethylene. All to bring us a perfectly looking tasteless tomato!

The slaves that grow and pick these tomatoes are living in horrendous conditions and suffering from long term medical conditions and the families consistently suffer from birth defects directly related to the pesticide exposure.

Time to Boycott!
Stop eating tomatoes unless you know you
where they are grown!

 

Other reviews of the book:

NPR: http://www.npr.org/2011/06/28/137371975/how-industrial-farming-destroyed-the-tasty-tomato

New York Times: http://www.nytimes.com/2011/07/06/books/tomatoland-barry-estabrooks-expose-review.html

 

To read an chapter: http://www.amazon.com/Tomatoland-Industrial-Agriculture-Destroyed-Alluring/dp/1449423450