The Truth About Tomatoes
Photo Credit: Joe Raedle/Getty Images
You know those red "ripe" tomatoes you can buy in the grocery store in the winter? This picture shows how they are harvested. The rock hard tomatoes are then placed in chambers that are filled with ethylene gas so they obligingly turn red... not ripe, mind you, just red.
In his book Tomatoland: How Modern Industrial Agriculture Destroyed Our Most Alluring Fruit, Barry Estabrook also details the horrific labor practices of the Florida tomato industry. "During certain periods of the winter, virtually all the tomatoes that you'll see in the supermarket or get in a fast-food restaurant or a sandwich shop will come from Florida. Overall, Florida produces about a third of the fresh tomatoes we eat in the United States." He goes on to say, "The real problem with winter tomatoes is the abuses suffered by the farmworkers who harvest them. These men and women in the tomato fields are underpaid, ill-housed, and often sprayed with toxic pesticides. Abject slavery is not uncommon." While working conditions have improved somewhat since Estabrook wrote his book, winter tomatoes are still fraught with a number of environmental and social problems.
As we kick off the tomato harvesting at April Joy Farm, I encourage you to enjoy these truly vine-ripened gems for what they are, a precious, fleeting, seasonal gift. And when the winter rains return, I will hope for two things. (1) You'll ask every dining establishment you enter to take them off the menu and (2) That you'll join me in just walking right on by those red rocks in the produce section of the grocery store. Trust me, it's never worth the cost. ~AJ
“Each moment of the year has its own beauty.”