Thoughts on a Good
Read
I have just finished
reading “Tomatoland: How Modern Industrial Agriculture DestroyedOur Most Alluring Fruit” book by Barry Estabrook. It was not quite
what I expected but I totally enjoyed it. It is well written and his
style is both informative and conversational. To me, this is the
kind of book we should find in classrooms. It should be read in
homes by young couples who want to raise children. As a matter of
course it most certainly should be read by anyone who has ever eaten
a supermarket tomato in January!
Chapter three starts
with a startling comment and I Quote: “ In Vermont, where I live,
as much of the rest of the United States, a gardener can select
pretty much any sunny patch of ground, dig a small hole, put in a
tomato seedling, and come back two months later and harvest
something. Not necessarily a bumper crop of plump unblemished fruits,
but something. When I met Monica Ozores-Hampton, a vegetable
specialist with the University of Florida I asked her what would
happen if I applied the same laissez-faire horticultural practices to
a tomato plant in Florida? She shot me a sorrowful, slightly
condescending look and replied, “Nothing.”
I think his approach
to the industrial farm aspects of winter tomatoes and the combination
of both human and environmental cost this book exposes is the core of
what is so wrong with our food supply. Let's face it we laugh with
delight at our first fabulous home grown heirloom tomato as we pick
it in all its sun ripened splendor...eating them sun-warmed enhances
the unique tomatoey taste! This is not the way of the vast majority
of Tomatoland tomatoes.
Then when reading
about the migrant farm workers plight, shades of “The Grapes Of Wrath”...a dark world I had no idea existed. This book was
published in 2011 so there are signs of slow change in consumer
taste-buds but I am afraid this read brings up facts we need to
know...the farm worker, the herbicide and pesticide use and the power
of large company farms. It also shows glimpses into organic smaller
scale tomato farming and the innovation of dedicated market gardeners
out there who know tomatoes are not meant to be as hard as a rock and
taste like cardboard.
I came away with a
wealth of information I needed to know, some that I did not enjoy and
of course a glimpse into the marvelous ancestry of tomatoes in
general. The actual story is followed by detailed links and sites to visit that follow the research for this book, an excellent resource in itself. I would recommend this book to anyone who wants to find out
more about the food they eat and how it is grown and the options out
there.
It's interesting that you came away with something different than you expected. Sometimes that's a good thing, and sometimes it's not, but either way, you learned something. Thanks, Fiona.
ReplyDeleteFern
I'm familiar with the book "Silent Spring" which had to do with DDT. I guess there's still a ways to go with agriculture.
ReplyDeleteSilent Spring was one of the first "Serious" environmental books I ever read. It staggers the mind that we are still dealing with horrendous chemical use and that the use of DDT is being reconsidered. It is also disturbing that farmers spray extreme chemicals with disregard for any living thing....including the people who work in the fields. Thank you for mentioning Silent Spring.
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