Tomatoland

How Modern Industrial Agriculture Destroyed Our Most Alluring Fruit

Barry Estabrook

• Publisher: Andrews McMeel Publishing, LLC
• Year: 2011
• ISBN:
  9781449493233
• Topic: Politik & Internationale Beziehungen
• Subtopic: Öffentliche Landwirtschaftspolitik

"An indictment of our modern agricultural system... in the tradition of the best muckraking journalism" from the three-time James Beard Award-winner ( The Washington Post ). In Tomatoland, investigative food journalist Barry Estabrook reveals the huge human and environmental cost of the $5 billion fresh tomato industry. He traces the supermarket tomato from its birthplace in the deserts of Peru to the impoverished town of Immokalee, Florida, a.k.a. the tomato capital of the United States. He visits the laboratories of seedsmen trying to develop varieties that can withstand the rigors of agribusiness and still taste like a garden tomato, and then moves on to commercial growers who operate on tens of thousands of acres, and eventually to a hillside field in Pennsylvania, where he meets an obsessed farmer who produces delectable tomatoes for the nation's top restaurants. Throughout Tomatoland Estabrook presents a who's who cast of characters in the tomato industry: the avuncular octogenarian whose conglomerate grows one out of every eight tomatoes eaten in the United States; the ex-Marine who heads the group that dictates the size, color, and shape of every tomato shipped out of Florida; the U.S. attorney who has doggedly prosecuted human traffickers for the past decade; and the Guatemalan peasant who came north to earn money for his parents' medical bills and found himself enslaved for two years. Tomatoland reads like a suspenseful whodunit and is "at its most potent and scathing in its portrayal of South Florida's tomato growers and their tactics over the past half-century" ( The New York Times ). "An important and readable book." — The Atlantic

Praise for Barry Estabrook’s
Tomatoland

“Smart and important book.”

—Sam Sifton, The New York Times

“The pleasures of Tomatoland are real. They’re strong but subtle and sustained. Mr. Estabrook’s prose contains a mix of sweetness and acid, like a perfect homegrown tomato itself.”

—Dwight Garner, The New York Times

“If you care about social justice—or eat tomatoes—read this account of the past, present, and future of a ubiquitous fruit.”

—Corby Kummer, TheAtlantic.com

“Tomatoland [is] in the tradition of the best muckraking journalism, from Upton Sinclair’s The Jungle to Eric Schlosser’s Fast Food Nation.”

—Jane Black, The Washington Post

“Masterful.”

—Mark Bittman, New York Times Opinion blog

“Eye-opening exposé . . . thought-provoking.”

—Publishers Weekly

“Estabrook adds some new dimensions to the outrageous . . . story of an industry that touches nearly every one of us living in fast-food nation.”

—David Von Drehle, Time magazine blog “Swampland”

“Tomatoland makes you second-guess your food choices. That Florida red tomato you’re eating? Yeah, it’s probably gassed to make it that red color, and it also may have been picked by slaves. Not so tasty, eh?”

—Carey Polis, The Huffington Post

“Read award-winning journalist Barry Estabrook’s Tomatoland, and you won’t look at a tomato in the same way again . . . Estabrook presents a cogent case for reform, challenging everyone to stand up for what is good not only for the taste buds and the wallet, but also for the soul.”

—Epicurious.com

“This is the sort of book you want—need—to finish in one or two servings as it will forever change the way you look at the $6 burger.”

—LA Weekly

“Tomatoland has a moral force that I won’t soon forget. Estabrook makes it clear that the choice we make between a plastic-tasting supermarket someato and fragrant organic farmer’s market tomato . . . says everything about our humanity, and our conception of America as a nation.”

—Michele Owens, Kirkus Book Reviews

“In the tradition of Michael Pollan and Eric Schlosser, Estabrook gives us the darker side of the fruit we so love. Readers who may not have been turned off by the winter version of our collectively favorite fruit will certainly find reason here to pause before making a selection at the supermarket. Choose well, Estabrook reminds us.”

—ForeWord Reviews

“Our favorite fruit may not be quite as innocuous and delicious as it appears.”

—Salon.com

“Vital information that every conscientious eater—and parents of eaters—ought to know.”

—CivilEats.com

“A must read for everyone who eats. I don’t care if you are in the commodity cattle business or feed your own family with a small garden. I don’t care if you are a policy maker, extension professional, molecular biologist, industrial mogul, minister, teacher, or what have you. Tomatoland illustrates how fundamentally bankrupt our current commodity-based, industrial food systems have become and offers a glimmer of hope for a food future that’s healthful for all involved. Read it and try not to weep.”

—Grit Magazine

“Put Tomatoland on your reading menu. It will surprise and perhaps enrage you, but its final flavor is hopeful.”

—St. Petersburg Times

“The buzz about Tomatoland, a scathing indictment of South Florida’s tomato industry, keeps growing.”

—The Oregonian

“You can really stop at any point during the narrative and decide that you’ve bought your last supermarket tomato, but Estabrook is just warming up . . . a brisk read, engrossing as it is enraging.”

—TheDailyGreen.com

“Corruption, deception, slavery, chemical and biological warfare, courtroom dramas, undercover sting operations and murder: Tomatoland is not your typical book on fruit.”

—Maclean’s

Tomatoland copyright © 2011, 2012, 2018 by Barry Estabrook. All rights reserved. No part of this book may be used or reproduced in any manner whatsoever without written permission except in the case of reprints in the context of reviews.

Andrews McMeel Publishing

a division of Andrews McMeel Universal

1130 Walnut Street, Kansas City, Missouri 64106

www.andrewsmcmeel.com

Portions of this book have appeared in different form in Gourmet, Gastronomica, Saveur, and the Washington Post.

ISBN: 978-1-4494-9323-3

Library of Congress Control Number: 2017957479

attention: schools and businesses

Andrews McMeel books are available at quantity discounts with bulk purchase for educational, business, or sales promotional use. For information, please e-mail the Andrews McMeel Publishing Special Sales Department: [email protected].

For the men and women who pick the food we eat

Contents

Acknowledgments

Foreword by Eric Schlosser

Introduction: On the Tomato Trail

Roots

A Tomato Grows in Florida

Chemical Warfare

From the Hands of a Slave

An Unfair Fight

A Penny per Pound

Uncharted Territory

Judgment

Harvest of Hope

Slavery 2.0

Building a Better Tomato

Wild Things

Notes

Bibliography

Index

acknowledgments

This book would never have been written had Ruth Reichl and John Willoughby at Gourmet magazine not summoned the integrity and courage to print an article about modern-day slavery in a national food magazine. Thanks also to Marisa Robertson-Textor, Christy Harrison, and Adam Houghtaling at Gourmet for keeping the story alive online, the facts straight, and the Condé Nast lawyers happy. I’m grateful to Eric Schlosser for providing a foreword to this edition—and for his stalwart support for farmworker justice in both words and deeds. As one member of the Coalition of Immokalee Workers told me, “Eric is the real deal.”

My interest in tomato production in Florida was sparked by two terrific magazine articles: “Tomatoes,” by Thomas Whiteside (the New Yorker, January 24, 1977), and “A Matter of Taste: Who Killed the Flavor in America’s Supermarket Tomatoes?” by Craig Canine (Eating Well, January/February 1991). That these articles have stood the test of time is both a tribute to the quality of their research and writing and an indication of how little the Florida tomato industry has changed. Four excellent books also inspired and informed me. I am heavily indebted to their authors and heartily recommend their work. Nobodies by John Bowe and The Slave Next Door by Kevin Bales and Ron Soodalter both examine involuntary servitude in the United States today, and Ripe by Arthur Allen provides an engaging, informative portrait of all things tomato. I Am Not a Tractor! by Susan L. Marquis is a thorough chronicle of the struggles of the Florida tomato workers. Any writer researching labor abuses in Florida owes an enormous debt to the tireless reporting of Amy Bennett Williams of the Fort Myers News-P...