Tomatoland: How Modern Industrial Agriculture Destroyed Our Most Alluring Fruit

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Tomatoland: How Modern Industrial Agriculture Destroyed Our Most Alluring Fruit

3.92 of 5 stars 3.92 · rating details · 1,431 ratings · 326 reviews

Based on a James Beard award-winning article from a leading voice on the politics of agribusiness, Tomatoland combines history, legend, passion for taste, and investigative reporting on modern agribusiness and environmental issues into a revealing, controversial look at the tomato, the fruit we love so much that we eat $4 billion-worth annually.2012 IACP Award Winner in th...more Based on a James Beard award-winning article from a leading voice on the politics of agribusiness, Tomatoland combines history, legend, passion for taste, and investigative reporting on modern agribusiness and environmental issues into a revealing, controversial look at the tomato, the fruit we love so much that we eat $4 billion-worth annually.2012 IACP Award Winner in the Food Matters category

Supermarket produce sections bulging with a year-round supply of perfectly round, bright red-orange tomatoes have become all but a national birthright. But in Tomatoland, which is based on his James Beard Award-winning article, "The Price of Tomatoes," investigative food journalist Barry Estabrook reveals the huge human and environmental cost of the $5 billion fresh tomato industry. Fields are sprayed with more than one hundred different herbicides and pesticides. Tomatoes are picked hard and green and artificially gassed until their skins acquire a marketable hue. Modern plant breeding has tripled yields, but has also produced fruits with dramatically reduced amounts of calcium, vitamin A, and vitamin C, and tomatoes that have fourteen times more sodium than the tomatoes our parents enjoyed. The relentless drive for low costs has fostered a thriving modern-day slave trade in the United States. How have we come to this point?

Estabrook 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 as well as an expose of today's agribusiness systems and the price we pay as a society when we take taste and thought out of our food purchases.(less)

Hardcover, 240 pages

Published June 7th 2011 by Andrews McMeel Publishing

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Jan 13, 2012 Andrea rated it 4 of 5 stars

Shelves: 2012, food

This book reminds me of a lyric by one of my favorite bands, The White Stripes:

"White Americans, what, nothin' better to do?
Why don't you kick yourself out, you're an immigrant too
Who's usin' who? What should we do?
Well you can't be a pimp and a prostitute too."

Certain segments of American society love to complain about how undocumented immigrants are taking "our" jobs, but I'll eat my hat if they can find one American willing to work sixteen hour days in the scorching sun, be sprayed with class...more This book reminds me of a lyric by one of my favorite bands, The White Stripes:

"White Americans, what, nothin' better to do?
Why don't you kick yourself out, you're an immigrant too
Who's usin' who? What should we do?
Well you can't be a pimp and a prostitute too."

Certain segments of American society love to complain about how undocumented immigrants are taking "our" jobs, but I'll eat my hat if they can find one American willing to work sixteen hour days in the scorching sun, be sprayed with class one pesticides, give birth to children with horrible birth defects due to the aforementioned pesticides, live in squalor and have what little wages you earned garnished for the privilege of a filthy trailer, be forced to work while sick or injured, risk being chained and literally held as slaves, beaten if you attempt to escape, and have little to no legal recourse due to your illegal status and the threat of deportation. (I might also add that nobody can "take our jobs" without companies that are willing to give them away, but I digress.) I wonder how many of the same people who wouldn't dream of sinking to such lows would also throw a fit if they couldn't get a slice of tomato on their salad or burger in January. Make no mistake: that January tomato depends on the illegal status of many people, and many more who look the other way when faced with the abuses that go on in the fields of Florida's tomato growers. (It's telling that when asked about abuses of its workers, a representative of one of Florida's tomato giants replied "Put it this way: the tractor doesn't tell the farmer how to farm.")

All for the sake of a tomato that's not even good. There's a reason that your tomato from the grocery store tastes like nothing: It was bred for durability and uniform appearance, grown in soil so inhospitable that hundreds of synthetic fertilizers and pesticides are necessary, picked while green and hauled to a large warehouse where it was gassed to artificially obtain that red color. Flavor does not even factor into the equation.

The good news is that there are signs of improvement. Workers' rights groups are gaining ground, as are smaller tomato growers who, though having to charge far more than the big growers, are finding footing among a public who wants organic, flavorful tomatoes harvested by workers treated and compensated fairly. Additionally, some success has been achieved with boycotts staged by large fast food chains who rely on the Florida tomato growers. (It hurts the bottom line, after all, when customers find out that the tomatoes in their chalupa were picked by slaves.) You can bet that the threat of losing one of its biggest customers got the growers' attention fast.

This is a well-written, well-researched book that, while at times very hard to read, is an important one. I recommend it for anybody interested in knowing more about where their food comes from, which should be everybody. Knowledge is power; vote with your dollar.(less)

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Nov 15, 2011 Marvin rated it 5 of 5 stars

Shelves: non-fiction

If you only read one book about tomatoes in your lifetime make it this one.

Thanks to investigative books and films like Fast Food Nation and Food, Inc., we have been exposed to the shady going-ons in the food industry that gives us unhealthy sub-standard food products and inhumane treatment of animals. After reading Tomatoland, I'm almost persuaded to start an humane society for the tomato. Anyone who buys a commercial tomato know that this once noble fruit has been reduced to a pretty but taste...more

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Aug 26, 2012 Linda Harkins rated it 5 of 5 stars

I thoroughly enjoyed reading this. Following in the footsteps of Frances Moore Lappe and Michael Pollan, this James Beard award-winning journalist provides insight into American tomato growing practices. Not only do we learn that supposedly mature green tomatoes are actually "gassed" to make them appear ripe in the produce section of the supermarket, but also how Florida manages to use loopholes to continue to spray vines with poisonous pesticides. These chemicals are linked to birth defects as...more

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Jul 10, 2011 Gail rated it 3 of 5 stars

Shelves: food-and-cooking

I already know that after reading this book or before i even finish i will plant tomatoes in my yard and boycot supermarket tomatoes.
(later)
This was an eye-opening book and what the prediction I made above came true. The last couple chapters were slower going that the beginning ones, but overall this is definitely worth a read.

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Apr 09, 2013 Paul Gilbert rated it 4 of 5 stars

The vision of tomato is something red, juicy and delicious, the perfect addition to any meal. When you think about it, the tomato may be the most prevalent fruit, and yes it is a fruit, in our diet. We add it to our salads, we use it as ketchup, salsa, pasta sauce and even drink a glass of it as vegetable juice.

If you've ever grown them in a garden, you know how wonderful the flavour and taste can be, we expect tomatoes to taste like, well tomatoes. If our vision of a tomato is what I wrote in m...more The vision of tomato is something red, juicy and delicious, the perfect addition to any meal. When you think about it, the tomato may be the most prevalent fruit, and yes it is a fruit, in our diet. We add it to our salads, we use it as ketchup, salsa, pasta sauce and even drink a glass of it as vegetable juice.

If you've ever grown them in a garden, you know how wonderful the flavour and taste can be, we expect tomatoes to taste like, well tomatoes. If our vision of a tomato is what I wrote in my opening paragraph, then why does store bought tomatoes taste like, well nothing. To answer this question Barry Estabrook looks at the industry, especially the one located in Florida to answer this question. While we want taste, the tomato industry wants something that is quick to pick and can take the rigours of shipping hundreds of miles. They have produced a tomato that is uniform in shape, colour, consistency and tolerance, with no discussion given to it having an actual taste.

If there is anything we've learned to expect it is the agriculture industry has managed to cause harm to our food. If you read this book with that expectation, you will not be disappointed. He gives us an industry that is growing food in an impossible region, the state of Florida, where the soil is basically sand and is devoid of nutrients. It is an industry that is both labour and chemical intensive. The labour is like most labour- aliens, either documented or more likely undocumented. He looks at their wages, piece-meal, their living conditions which would require extensive renovation to reach the level of squalid and their rights as employees- non-existent. He chronicles the struggles of these workers through both the individual and their labour collective.

Perhaps the most chilling part of the book is when he examines the issue of modern slavery. He talks to local police and prosecutors and how when asked if slaves continue to harvest the answer is in the affirmative.

While much of the book is an expose of the industry, and worthy of exposure they are, he also looks at the history of the tomato, from a scrawny fruit found in the desert regions of Peru and Chile to the breeding that brought about the modern plant.

Not all is doom and gloom with this book, he looks at one farmer who is bucking the trend of factory tomatoes. He grows tomatoes when they are ripe and he grows variety. His fruit is not perfect, some of it is even cracked. He treats his workers with a decent wage and provides very decent accommodation. His major concern is having enough crop on hand to meet the needs of all his customers. The fellow in question sells to both restaurants and in farmers' markets in New York City, which probably has the greatest concentration of foodies anywhere on the planet. He gives the people what they want- a delicious tomato and he always returns home with an empty truck. Even after a frantic phone call back to home for more produce.

With the final chapter there is hope, that perhaps the day will come when consumer demand will supplant the factory and we will get what we want, a tasty tomato.

Well worth reading (less)

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Jan 25, 2013 Barry rated it 4 of 5 stars

I purchased this book for a friend a few months ago with the intention of eventually reading it myself. After her stellar review (calling it the best book she has read all year), I knew I had to check it out. This book characterizes many known and unknown facets of the tomato's moden life, and its relationship to people, other plants/fruits, and business. I was very surprised to learn about the conditions in which Florida's slicing tomatos are grown and harvested. It is hard to believe situation...more I purchased this book for a friend a few months ago with the intention of eventually reading it myself. After her stellar review (calling it the best book she has read all year), I knew I had to check it out. This book characterizes many known and unknown facets of the tomato's moden life, and its relationship to people, other plants/fruits, and business. I was very surprised to learn about the conditions in which Florida's slicing tomatos are grown and harvested. It is hard to believe situations such as those are allowed to continue without our knowledge, let alone public outcry! I was all too recently one of the many Americans that thought slavery was abolished in the late 19th century (or perhaps lingering only into the very early 20th century in some cutoff areas where indentured servitude was still extant), so I was appalled to read, in such graphic detail, the situations of migrant workers that have absolutely no freedom, all for the sake of a tasteless, oversized, artificially colored relative of my favorite fruit. The book does end on a lighter note, recounting stories of small farmers and renegade plant breeders who care about taste. Most importantly, theses stories show that it is possible, however not easy, to grow and sell commercially viable tasty tomatoes.

The only reason this book did not get 5 stars from me, perhaps unfairly, is a less than totally successful attempt at balancing a wide range of subjects (within the umbrella of modern tomato agriculture in America) in what was still supposed to be a short(ish) nonfiction book for casual readers. I feel this left some subjects that could have been more thoroughly examined. For example, on the chapters about slavery and pesticide abuses, there were many touching personal accounts that were quite stirring, however, relating these stories to any sort of timeline or continuing narrative was absent. I know later Estabrook mentions how things have changed/improved with the CIW pressure, but I felt it was not enough to tie up the loose ends.

All in all, great book. Highly recommend it to all. (less)

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Jan 24, 2013 Robert Beveridge rated it 4 of 5 stars

Shelves: ebook, finished, owned-and-still-own

Barry Estabrook, Tomatoland: How Industrial Agriculture Destroyed Our Most Alluring Fruit (Andrews McMeel Publishing, 2011)

I picked up Tomtoland expecting a kind of first-world-problems foodie lament about how factory farming had turned the tomato from that red, bursting, joyous thing one finds occasionally during the summer at farmer's markets to the half-green, impossible-to-slice globule one can now find at the local hypermarket year-round. And yes, there is a good bit of that, but there are...more Barry Estabrook, Tomatoland: How Industrial Agriculture Destroyed Our Most Alluring Fruit (Andrews McMeel Publishing, 2011)

I picked up Tomtoland expecting a kind of first-world-problems foodie lament about how factory farming had turned the tomato from that red, bursting, joyous thing one finds occasionally during the summer at farmer's markets to the half-green, impossible-to-slice globule one can now find at the local hypermarket year-round. And yes, there is a good bit of that, but there are also a lot of very non-first-world problems here; Estabrook spends a very large portion of this manuscript describing what is, for all intents and purposes, a Mexican slavery ring (though I'm sure its progenitors would prefer the term “indentured servitude”) that is alive and well and operating full steam ahead in Florida even as I sit here writing this in the middle of winter (and getting little bits of chopped half-green tomato on my hospital salad three times a week).

There is, of course, the foodie lament as well; when Estabrook is concentrating on this aspect of the manuscript, he in general focuses on the science of the tomato, the reason that some sort of lumpy Peruvian fruit tastes perfectly like a tomato while the sweet-scented Florida globe tomato persists in tasting like nothing at all. There's a lot of science-in-layman's-terms stuff and some great interviews with folks who keep seed databases of heirloom tomatoes (the framing device is about a team of guys heading to Peru to find one of the first strains of tomato-like plants still extant, and then Estabrook making the same trek at the end). If you like food biographies, it is of course going to be right up your alley. There is the obligatory anti-factory-farm stuff, as well, and it makes sense; if you're trying to grow fifty thousand acres of tomatoes that all look and taste the same, you're going to breed out all the characteristics that make tomatoes interesting. (And, of course, the small farmers who grow those interesting tomatoes get a bunch of sympathetic column inches, as they should; these are people who actually care about the food.

But the anti-factory-farm stuff takes a much, much darker turn during the middle third of the book, when Estabrook turns investigative journalist and starts tracing the history of the thousands upon thousands of undocumented migrant workers who toil in Florida's tomato fields. If you were ever anti-factory-farm, this section of the book will cement whatever you had in your head. In a chilling, detached tone—the only one that really would have validated this material—Estabrook describes the plight of these workers, constantly exposed to dangerous chemicals, often without so much as a filter mask; conned into living in substandard housing that costs twice as much as a luxury apartment in New York City and skinned to the point where “I owe my soul to the company store” seems like a cri de coeur to the good old days; forced to work by the kinds of foremen who will break legs or set fire to trailers if they feel it will get the workers out into the fields faster. It's more of a horror story than any fiction I read this year, and it's truly important writing—even if you've never really thought about the whole factory farm issue before (perhaps especially if you've never etc.), you owe it to yourself to read this book.

One way or the other—whether you're interested in the social-justice aspect of the story, the foodie aspect of the story, or both—this is a must-read, one of the best books that crossed my desk this year. It doesn't matter who you are, I recommend this one to you. Read it ASAP. It is a stunning piece of work. ****
(less)

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Sep 04, 2012 Casey rated it 4 of 5 stars · review of another edition

Shelves: knowledge-is-good, the-word-unctuous-is-over-rated

There are many good reasons to buy local, seasonal, and organically grown fruits and vegetables. Health is often mentioned, as well as the environment. Some people are just plain concerned with taste: conventional tomatoes don't taste anything like the heirloom varieties I can get from local farms. Few people, however, cite better conditions for field workers as a reason to buy locally and organically. In Tomatoland, Barry Estabrook describes the lives of tomato field workers, who have largely b...more There are many good reasons to buy local, seasonal, and organically grown fruits and vegetables. Health is often mentioned, as well as the environment. Some people are just plain concerned with taste: conventional tomatoes don't taste anything like the heirloom varieties I can get from local farms. Few people, however, cite better conditions for field workers as a reason to buy locally and organically. In Tomatoland, Barry Estabrook describes the lives of tomato field workers, who have largely been invisible to American consumers.

If you pick up some Florida grown tomatoes from your local grocery store in the dead of winter, you're likely to find that the fruit is fairly tasteless. You may not know that your tomatoes were grown in sand, doused with pesticides, picked green by workers who have been, at best, exploited, misted with chlorine, and then gassed with ethylene. You probably wouldn't want to eat a tomato that had fallen into your swimming pool, but you're exposing yourself to much worse when you pick up the deceptively red fruit from the grocery store.

At worst, the workers who grow and pick your tomatoes are enslaved. I'm not using slavery as a metaphor (i.e., I'm not using it the way ~~anti-choice~~pro-life ~~wackjobs~~ activists falsely refer to abortions as "genocide"). What happens in Florida is legitimate slavery: workers are bought and sold, beaten, and forced to work without pay. Because these field workers are largely uneducated and speak little English, they lack the resources to escape from slavery. Luckily, some of the large tomato companies have been charged with slavery, but slavery has by no means been wiped out.

Even if workers are not forced into slavery, they often make less than minimum wage, since they're paid by the number of tomatoes they pick. Worse, workers are sometimes directly sprayed with pesticides, which can cause illness and birth defects in pregnant women. Workers pay Manhattan prices to share dilapidated trailers with 10 other people. It's a difficult life. These workers are not taking jobs from Americans: Americans would not work these jobs.

If you care about people, buy local (organic, in season) tomatoes. Buy local because small farms are more likely to hire American citizens, and pay them fair wages. Buy organic, because organic farms don't spray their crops and field workers with poison. Buy in season, because out of season tomatoes likely come from Florida, and taste like crap anyway. Your choice of tomato may seem like a small decision, but when more consumers begin to make informed decisions, they can help to change the lives of millions of people.(less)

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Aug 30, 2012 Andrew Mutch rated it 5 of 5 stars

A fascinating exploration of the world of tomato production at an industrial scale, "Tomatoland" opened my eyes to a wide range of abuses that come from the mass production of tomatoes. You'll see how the abuses range from the fruit themselves (which never ripen before reaching the store shelves but are gassed to give them a red color) to the workers (everything from beatings and forced labor to pesticides) to the land itself (growing tomatoes in Florida's barren soil is like trying to grow in a...more

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Jul 19, 2012 Vikki rated it 4 of 5 stars

Shelves: 2012-reads

i've read most of the big foodie books, but i was interested in this one for a couple of reasons. i write about food, so i feel like it's research to stay on top of the literature, but i also love food and love tomatoes, and i wanted to learn more about why the tomatoes you buy at the store are so bad. right now it's peak tomato season in virginia; i brought in ten pounds from my garden the other day, and the tomatoes i ate for dinner tonight are so unlike the tomatoes you buy at the grocery sto...more

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Jul 03, 2012 David rated it 5 of 5 stars

Shelves: sociology, nonfiction, audiobook

This book is sort of a cross between The Omnivore's Dilemma: A Natural History of Four Meals and The Grapes of Wrath. It is both a description of the tomato and how agri-business has transformed the tomato into a tasteless commodity, and a sociological muckraking of the obscene conditions suffered by migrant workers in Florida. The middle portion of the book is extremely depressing. Decades ago, I remember watching the documentary, "The Harvest of Shame" about migrant workers. For so many migran...more

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Dec 05, 2011 Kate rated it 5 of 5 stars

Shelves: kindle-netgalley

This is the one book that I have thought alot about after reading when shopping for tomatoes at my local store. From why are the tomatoes tasteless yet red in the middle of winter, why are they very firm and do not bruise no matter how long I keep them on my counter after purchasing, to why organic is important when selecting tomatoes? This book covers that and so much more. Kept my interest from the start to the end. It contains the history of where the tomato originated and our forefathers who...more

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Nov 27, 2011 Adwoa rated it 4 of 5 stars

Estabrook's Tomatoland offers an incredibly lucid and even-handed look at what is frequently a horrific industry in an unfair state - and for that, I commend him.

As a writer and garden grower of tomatoes who cares about both good food and human rights, Immokalee presents a complex problem. On one hand, you believe firmly that workers should receive fair pay, equitable rights, and a chance to band together: but it's hard to approach that while ignoring the fundamental truth that on a larger level...more Estabrook's Tomatoland offers an incredibly lucid and even-handed look at what is frequently a horrific industry in an unfair state - and for that, I commend him.

As a writer and garden grower of tomatoes who cares about both good food and human rights, Immokalee presents a complex problem. On one hand, you believe firmly that workers should receive fair pay, equitable rights, and a chance to band together: but it's hard to approach that while ignoring the fundamental truth that on a larger level, tomatoes should probably not be grown in Florida at all. Estabrook does a really wonderful job of humanizing the people behind every level of the many conflicting viewpoints on the industry, where admissible.

He has no pity whatsoever for those bosses who run their crews as slave gangs, which is as it should be. The thoroughness of the reporting fosters both deep satisfaction in his careful exposure of both the practices of modern-day slavery and indignation at the corruption that allows the owners of the companies who use the slavers' service to walk away with clean hands. Upliftingly, the book goes one step beyond many Problem Food tomes and documentaries, which frequently condemn big farming operations in broad strokes, champion organic food, and then end without ever addressing the gap in thinking between the two.

In Tomatoland, there are several sections at the end devoted to organizations and individuals who are doing the right thing AND making a profitable living, from attorneys prosecuting for back taxes to architects building habitable structures for migrant workers. A few organic or near-organic farmers even make the cut.

There is frequently little room in literature for conscientious Floridians. To see our state in print is usually to see it skewered as a depressing, corrupt wasteland: more backwards than the deep South and even less able to nourish its residents without extreme measures (intellectually or agriculturally). But what our topsoil lacks in nutrients, it makes up in narrative. Bravo to Barry Estabrook, for taking the time to tell one of our most insidious - and vital - stories.(less)

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Oct 25, 2011 Linda Watson rated it 5 of 5 stars

Tomatoland is this year's irresistibly juicy page turner. Investigative journalist Barry Estabrook first exposed the horrific conditions in Florida's industrial tomato fields in Gourmet magazine. The article won a James Beard award (think Oscar) and allowed him to continue investigating sunny Florida's dark secrets about the $10 billion fresh-tomato industry.

Much of the book tells the story promised by the subtitle: How Modern Industrial Agriculture Destroyed our Most Alluring Fruit. You'll lear...more Tomatoland is this year's irresistibly juicy page turner. Investigative journalist Barry Estabrook first exposed the horrific conditions in Florida's industrial tomato fields in Gourmet magazine. The article won a James Beard award (think Oscar) and allowed him to continue investigating sunny Florida's dark secrets about the $10 billion fresh-tomato industry.

Much of the book tells the story promised by the subtitle: How Modern Industrial Agriculture Destroyed our Most Alluring Fruit. You'll learn why "salad tomatoes" feel and taste like tennis balls: gassed from green to greenish-red without developing any unwanted softness or character. You'll learn why the big growers in Florida don't care about taste: it's too hard to breed for and anyway, taste happens after the sale, so who cares?

More importantly and grippingly, Estabrook described the forced servitude—the slavery—that the tomato pickers endure. Slavery is not too strong a term when shackles, shotguns, and brutal beatings keep unwilling workers on the job. Other "incentives" for working including manufactured and inescapable debts and threats to the workers' families and co-workers.

But if Tomatoland were all gloom and despair, I wouldn't be urging you to read it. Estabrook also introduces you to a wide range of people trying to create decent conditions for the workers, better environmental practices, and yes even tasty tomatoes. Read moving interviews with day-care operators, lawyers, housing developers, tomato breeders, and sustainable farmers. Tomatoland's David-and-Goliath vignettes make it a page turner, complete with spies and prison breaks. These sections not only offer hope and a few laughs. They also suggest ways to vote with your fork against slavery and poison and for human dignity and fragrant, heavy, truly ripe tomatoes.

Who should read Tomatoland? Everyone who eats. Everyone who cares about babies, social justice, immigration, the environment, or good food.

What groups should read and discuss Tomatoland? Book clubs. Co-ops. Farmers' market associations. Groups interested in ethics, from churches to political organizations. Next summer, I hope many universities pick Tomatoland as the freshman book assigned to all incoming students to stimulate conversation across disciplines. This lively read would provide a starting point for conversations on everything from architecture to genetics to writing.(less)

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Oct 20, 2011 Patrick rated it 4 of 5 stars

Supermarket produce sections bulging with a year-round supply of perfectly round, bright red-orange tomatoes have become all but a national birthright. But in Tomatoland, which is based on his James Beard Award-winning article, The Price of Tomatoes, investigative food journalist Barry Estabrook reveals the huge human and environmental cost of the $5 billion fresh tomato industry. Fields are sprayed with more than one hundred different herbicides and pesticides. Tomatoes are picked hard and gree...more Supermarket produce sections bulging with a year-round supply of perfectly round, bright red-orange tomatoes have become all but a national birthright. But in Tomatoland, which is based on his James Beard Award-winning article, The Price of Tomatoes, investigative food journalist Barry Estabrook reveals the huge human and environmental cost of the $5 billion fresh tomato industry. Fields are sprayed with more than one hundred different herbicides and pesticides. Tomatoes are picked hard and green and artificially gassed until their skins acquire a marketable hue. Modern plant breeding has tripled yields, but has also produced fruits with dramatically reduced amounts of calcium, vitamin A, and vitamin C, and tomatoes that have fourteen times more sodium than the tomatoes our parents enjoyed. The relentless drive for low costs has fostered a thriving modern-day slave trade in the United States. How have we come to this point? Estabrook 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.(less)

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Sep 20, 2011 Sara rated it 4 of 5 stars

I never buy those tasteless tomatoes from the grocery store--I save my green ones from the garden in the fall in a cardboard box where they continue to ripen and then I do without. This book explains how the Florida Tomato Committee (a strictly growers assn not a government agency)has forced all producers to use only a perfectly round tasteless tomato that they must pick when green and can be shipped and then ripened artificially so that it is at least somewhat red in the stores. Whenever anyone...more

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Sep 10, 2011 Joe rated it 4 of 5 stars

This is definitely one of my top five books about tomatoes. OK, OK, it's my absolute top book about tomatoes.

In "Tomatoland", Barry Estabrook discusses modern tomato farming practices in Florida, and how the ridiculous situations has gotten to this point. Tomatoes like dry conditions -- not humid, like Florida, where they are susceptible to fungal diseases; like most plants, they require nutrients from the soil -- although in Florida, tomatoes are typically grown in nutrient-free sand; tomatoes...more This is definitely one of my top five books about tomatoes. OK, OK, it's my absolute top book about tomatoes.

In "Tomatoland", Barry Estabrook discusses modern tomato farming practices in Florida, and how the ridiculous situations has gotten to this point. Tomatoes like dry conditions -- not humid, like Florida, where they are susceptible to fungal diseases; like most plants, they require nutrients from the soil -- although in Florida, tomatoes are typically grown in nutrient-free sand; tomatoes can benefit from a climate that has a cold winter, to kill off pests -- but in Florida, pests are a constant problem.

So why in the world does Florida grow about 1/3 of America's fresh tomatoes? Two main reasons: 1) the warm winters mean that it's possible to grow some sort of tomatoes there year-round, and 2) there continues to be a market for bland, lifeless tomatoes.

Tomatoland does a great job of going through the entire cycle of tomato growing, from the nasty chemicals that are used to prepare the land, to the enormous quantity of pesticides that are used during the growing season -- about eight times as much as California, per acre of tomatoes grown -- to the way they are picked ripe, then reddened with ethylene. The book continues, talking about the terrible conditions for workers: at best, exposed to terrible chemicals and poor working conditions, at worst stuck in true modern-day slavery.

Finally, the book talks about commercial alternatives: smaller farms growing better-tasting tomatoes, in some cases organically, people trying to develop tomatoes that have better natural resistance to pests or cold, and researchers trying to create tomatoes that have the strength and durability of market tomatoes, but have better taste and nutrition.

This book is easy to read, and absolutely compelling. It's well worth reading. The only problem I have with it is that it focuses almost completely on Florida's tomato growing; they do grow about a third of America's fresh tomatoes, but that leaves a lot of other tomatoes (including all canned tomatoes, a completely separate category) that this book almost completely ignores.(less)

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Jul 25, 2011 Tony rated it 4 of 5 stars

Shelves: non-fiction-general

Estabrook, Barry. TOMATOLAND. (2011). ****.
Although often written in a tedious manner, this book provides an expose of the tomato farming practices in Florida that most of us don’t know about. We know that Florida tomatoes have no taste. They are grown for taste, but for size, weight, and uniformity. The problem is that Florida soil is mostly sand, not sandy soil, but sand like you find at the beach. It contains no nutrients. They have to be added. Add to this drawback the fact that sand and th...more

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Jul 24, 2011 NJMetal rated it 3 of 5 stars

During the opening of the food documentary, Food, Inc Michael Pollan refers to the tomatoes we buy in the supermarket as only "an idea of a tomato." I had been left perplexed by what exactly he meant by that. Barry Estabrook's TOMATOLAND answers that question. Why do tomatoes no longer taste like tomatoes?
The book revolves mainly around the winter crops picked in Florida. Those tomatoes you can buy in mid-January that are red and blemish-free and harder then granite. Estabrook delves into why th...more

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Jul 10, 2011 Brenda rated it 4 of 5 stars · review of another edition

Shelves: have-own-copy

If you've ever tasted a homegrown tomato and then compared it to the one you may have purchased in the grocery store, you'll know there is no comparison. The store-bought variety is generally lacking in taste, texture and nutrition. How surprised should we be when we learn that most commercially grown tomatoes are picked green and artificially ripened with ethelyene. Blech.

From investigative food journalist and author Barry Estabrook, Tomatoland delves into the tomato industry and what it takes...more

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Jul 07, 2011 Lynn Anne rated it 5 of 5 stars

Tomatoland is an expansion of a James Beard Award-winning article Barry Estabrook originally wrote for Gourmet Magazine, for which he was a contributing editor before the magazine folded. The book is at once a meandering survey of tomato history, and a detailed expose’ of the modern Florida tomato industry.

Early on, Estabrook takes readers through rural Peru on a hunt for the modern tomato’s tenacious forebears, then follows the tomato through to its place on the modern American plate. But much...more Tomatoland is an expansion of a James Beard Award-winning article Barry Estabrook originally wrote for Gourmet Magazine, for which he was a contributing editor before the magazine folded. The book is at once a meandering survey of tomato history, and a detailed expose’ of the modern Florida tomato industry.

Early on, Estabrook takes readers through rural Peru on a hunt for the modern tomato’s tenacious forebears, then follows the tomato through to its place on the modern American plate. But much of the book is a harsh indictment of the Florida tomato industry, led by the Florida Tomato Council. Readers learn that the indestructible ‘off season’ Florida tomatoes we find in our supermarkets from October through June are unripe by design – harvested ‘mature green’ and then gassed for a couple of days to turn them colors mimicking those of ripe tomatoes. Estabrook presents statistics showing how much richer in nutrient (and lower in sodium) our grandparents’ tomatoes were. We are shocked (I hope) to learn that Florida tomatoes are doused with insecticides so toxic that their use has been forbidden for all but four US crops, necessitating a chlorine bath (also appetizing!) for every tomato as it comes away from the field. And the darkest parts of the book, dealing with worker abuse involving both the lethal pesticides and the culture of modern day slavery in Florida (so commonplace that we meet in the book a US District Attorney in Florida who specializes in prosecuting slavery cases) provide a discomfiting amount of detail.

Estabrook provides more villains than heroes in Tomatoland, but one can walk away with a glimmer of hope that maybe it’s not too late to make changes that will begin to reverse the damage that’s been done. Maybe. Will reading this book turn you into a local tomato advocate, eschewing forever supermarket and fast-food tomatoes? Maybe. Will it have you thinking, as you take a bite out of your next tomato, about its origins, and the good or bad that went into its production? Ohhh, yeah. Tomatoland is a thoughtful, engaging read, well worth including on your summer reading list.
The takeaway: Pick up Esterbrook’s informative eye-opener, Tomatoland, for a stark look at the ills of today’s Florida tomato production practices, and learn to enjoy (even more than you already do) the sustainable, humanely grown seasonal harvest of your more local tomato farmers. Reading this book will, in the end, give you a greater appreciation for this fruit in its all its beauty and variety.(less)

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Jun 07, 2011 Amy rated it 4 of 5 stars

Shelves: netgalley-arc

I feel a personal connection to Tomatoland since tomatoes are always a source of drama in my home. My husband has a fear of tomatoes that has only grown more severe over time. I've never cared much for them, but I grew up in California, so "fresh" sliced tomatoes came on everything: burgers, tacos, milkshakes. . . Okay, maybe not the milkshakes, but just about everything else. I've become accustomed to just picking them off and going along on my merry way, but after reading this book, I now know...more

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Jan 02, 2012 Jacquelyn rated it 4 of 5 stars

Shelves: sustainability

After seeing Tomatoland: How Modern Industrial Agriculture Destroyed Our Most Alluring Fruit (by Barry Estabrook) on sale at Barnes and Noble this summer, I added it to my reading list. Unfortunately, I couldn’t get my hands on a copy until yesterday. I expected to be bored with a history of industrial tomato production in Florida.I read the whole thing between last night and this afternoon. Bored would have been an improvement over how I am feeling right now.

As someone who lives not far from Im...more After seeing Tomatoland: How Modern Industrial Agriculture Destroyed Our Most Alluring Fruit (by Barry Estabrook) on sale at Barnes and Noble this summer, I added it to my reading list. Unfortunately, I couldn’t get my hands on a copy until yesterday. I expected to be bored with a history of industrial tomato production in Florida.I read the whole thing between last night and this afternoon. Bored would have been an improvement over how I am feeling right now.

As someone who lives not far from Immokalee, which is a major subject in the book, it backs up everything I have ever heard on the news, from my high school Spanish teachers, and my mother on the conditions of the tomato laborers. But the truth is so much more-conditions and prospects are much worse than anyone has ever let on. I feel ashamed to live so close to this poor, often enslaved, community and have not known more about it before now. Reading through the chapters on the Coalition of Immokalee Workers (CIW) broke my heart over the situations these people have been put through.

Estabrook does a good job highlighting the complex interplay of economic and social aspects in the tomato business. At times, it seems as though he has failed to highlight environmental aspects. And then you read about the pesticide use and the health abuses against these workers from being sprayed with pesticides while working in the fields, in violation of laws set up to prevent this. He scares the reader with the sheer amount of chemicals spread on the fields, let alone the toxicity of these. He names each possible chemical that could be used and its harmful side effects. He writes about several cases of birth defects in the Immokalee area caused by improper exposure to pesticides. I cried through this part; I was heartbroken for these families. Yet they remain optimistic for their children and their prospects in the United States.

He presents the CIW and highlights their work to improve the lot of the migrant workers in Immokalee. National campaigns against large fast food companies have been successful, but the CIW still has its work cut out for them. They have taken part in several cases to expose modern-day slavery in the area when police didn’t have enough evidence, at the risk of their own personal safety. Estabrook has highlighted those that help these workers well, the lawyers that fight tirelessly to get minimum wage for the workers.

Not all of the book is spent on the issues of Immokalee. Estabrook also goes into the lack of taste in industrial tomatoes. He highlights current research being done at UF (Go Gators!) on how to improve taste in tomatoes while preserving the shelf-life and disease resistance of the breed. Progress is being made. In Florida, At this point, all seems hopeless for the tomato industry. Only now does Estabrook provide hope for both the industry and the tomato itself. He brings in Lady Moon Farms, which grows organic produce in Florida (thought to be impossible by some experts). Not only does Beddard, the owner, turn a profit, he pays his workers fairly and provides free housing when the staff must migrate to Georgia and Pennsylvania. He also presents Tim Stark, owner and operator of Eckerton Hill Farm in Pennsylvania, who grows tomatoes and pays his workers a fair wage. There is a way to sustainably produce tomatoes and pay workers fairly. The tomato industry of Florida should take note-it can be done. If not for the sake of treating their workers humanely, then for the sake of bettering their public relations, which would improve their bottom line.

As someone interested in researching what happens to the tomato culls not sent to be packed and sold, I was a little disappointed that Estabrook did not elaborate on this ridiculous amount of waste. However, that is a small issue for me. I am so glad someone wrote this book and the information is compiled for those interested in this subject. This book provides something for everyone: science, social justice, sustainability, economics, law, government. Everyone should read it, especially if you live in Florida. Estabrook has provided the information to the public, and it remains to be seen what the public will do once they know the truth behind the tomato industry.(less)

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Apr 11, 2012 Sandra Mann rated it 4 of 5 stars

I think the information in this book is five star material but I gave it 4 stars because it wasn't a fun or easy read. It's difficult to read about: a) the injustices done to people, b) the sacrificing of good wholesome food for tasteless, toxic food that makes the growers in FL a lot of money, and c) the contamination of the environment for said tasteless, toxic tomatoes that make growers rich.

Apparently tomatoes should not be grown in FL and would never grow if it weren't for all the fertiliz...more

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Oct 09, 2011 Dana rated it 5 of 5 stars

Rarely, if ever, has a book made me this angry. I had no idea that today, here in the USA, in Florida, people are being held against their wills as slaves, beaten, subjected to cancer causing and birth defect causing caustic chemicals, living in horribly disgusting substandard conditions, sometimes locked up and killed, and we have all eaten tomatos that they picked. Our country, the land of the free, is not adequately protecting migrant farm workers from horrific abuse and working conditions an...more Rarely, if ever, has a book made me this angry. I had no idea that today, here in the USA, in Florida, people are being held against their wills as slaves, beaten, subjected to cancer causing and birth defect causing caustic chemicals, living in horribly disgusting substandard conditions, sometimes locked up and killed, and we have all eaten tomatos that they picked. Our country, the land of the free, is not adequately protecting migrant farm workers from horrific abuse and working conditions and substandard pay.

This book brings these issues to light and they are issues that we all need to be aware of. Migrant farm workers who come to this country illegally are not trying to steal jobs from Americans. They are just trying to earn a living and are willing to work hard in conditions that legal Americans would not put up with and that we should not allow to exist in our country. Even though it is legally not supposed to happen, tomato pickers are routinely forced to work in fields where pesticide is being sprayed causing them to have respiritory problems and skin rashes and to have babies born with no arms and legs and other, often life-threatening and deadly birth defects. One man walked through what he thought was water as he worked and when he went home and showered, all of his toenails fell off.

Not only are we eating tomatoes that have been grown in and routinely sprayed with these poisons that we may be ingesting, but the workers who plant and pick those tomatos are getting all kinds of horrible illnesses from the pesticides that our country allows to be sprayed on our food. Is it worth that cost to eat tasteless tomatoes?

This book also chronicles the different types of tomatoes that are grown and shows that it is possible to grow tasty tomatoes organically and in safer conditions for the workers. The author tells about the Coalition of Immokalee Workers, which is assisting the migrant farm workers to earn at least minimum wage and to prosecute those tomato farmers and field bosses who are engaged in human trafficking.
Here is their website: http://ciw-online.org/slavery.html

I personally won't buy tomatoes from Florida any more. I realize, however, that the Florida tomato fields are not the only part of our agricultural industry that incorporates slave labor. We all need to become aware of the injustices and horrible abuses of human rights that are going on in our country and we need to do something about it. This book was a real eye-opener for me and I hope that others read it and are touched by it and moved to action against these abuses as well. (less)

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Jun 25, 2011 Kay rated it 4 of 5 stars

Shelves: nonfiction, best-of-2011

By the time I was halfway through, I had already decided that I will NEVER under any circumstances buy a Florida tomato. Of course, I had always known that the tomatoes shipped from Florida in the winter were tasteless and a waste of money. What I didn't realize was the extent to which the growers must use deadly fungicides like methyl bromide, which are banned in most states but are granted "exceptions" in Florida, thanks to the power of the Tomato Growers Association. However, things got much...more

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Mar 17, 2012 Mary rated it 3 of 5 stars

While I found this book somewhat interesting, the title is definitely a misnomer. Only about half of the book describes how modern agricultural- primarily the the practices surrounding growing tomatoes in Florida in the winter months which requires them to be bred to be hardy, disease-resistant, and perfectly round orbs (although not necessarily tasty) and picked while still green so they can be shipped up north (and gassed in local warehouses) before appearing in grocery stores way up in New En...more

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Jun 15, 2012 Naftoli rated it 4 of 5 stars

Shelves: 2012, food

This is an excellent book which -in many aspects - follows the pattern established by Michael Pollan's books concerning the evolution, domestication, and current use of various plants. In this case, obviously, it's the tomato.

The beginning and end of the book were wonderful narratives about the orgins of the tomatoes and various ways that farmers and consumers deal with the tomato. However, the middle of the book takes political positions via the narrative that even a blind man can see. In my es...more

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Sep 06, 2011 Simone rated it 4 of 5 stars

Shelves: 2011-read, food

Everyone. Go. Read. This. Book. Now, before you eat another bad tomato.

"Any American who has eaten a winter tomato, either purchased at a supermarket or on top of a fast food salad, has eaten a fruit picked by the hand of a slave. That's not an assumption', said Douglas Molloy, a U.S. attorney in Florida, 'that is a fact."

And he's not talking, slave like, or something resembling slavery. He's talking legit whipped, kept in chains, badly fed, whipped for trying to escape slavery. If the conditio...more

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Jun 26, 2011 Sherri aka SDMomChef rated it 5 of 5 stars

Shelves: worthy-non-fiction

There are certain books that have changed my viewpoint and shopping habits; this is one of those books. At some point in my consciousness, I knew that tomato workers were treated poorly. I vaguely recalled the time when Chipotle became the first restaurant to insist that its tomatos were purchased from sources that agreed to pay workers more. I knew that pesticides and other chemicals were used to grow tomatoes.

In Tomatoland, the author painstakingly details the multiple horrors of the tomato in...more
There are certain books that have changed my viewpoint and shopping habits; this is one of those books. At some point in my consciousness, I knew that tomato workers were treated poorly. I vaguely recalled the time when Chipotle became the first restaurant to insist that its tomatos were purchased from sources that agreed to pay workers more. I knew that pesticides and other chemicals were used to grow tomatoes.

In Tomatoland, the author painstakingly details the multiple horrors of the tomato industry in Florida where nearly all tomatoes that are sold to grocery stores and restaurants are purchased. Chemicals lingering on tomatoes are the least of the issues with the commodity tomato farmers - workers are routinely sprayed with chemicals in the field and when they complain about the effects, such as burning eyes, they are told to get back to work. Too many complaints can lead to, at best, firing, and at worst, a beating. As horrific as the disregard of the health of the workers was the stories about the migrant workers who literally were slaves of the crew bosses.

The author highlights organizations that are fighting for these workers with no voices - and with some success, but there is a long way to go to change the standards in the industry. The author also highlights some of the successes in the industry, such as organic farms and farms that pay minimum wages to the workers. And the emerging hydroponic greenhouse tomatoes, cutting into the demand for the Florida tomatoes.

And, to think that all these people are treated so horribly to bring to consumers tomatoes that have no flavor. Interwoven with the story of the tomato workers, the author also discusses the course of the tomato to being the bland deceptive looking object today and the success of other varieties that can be commercially grown and taste like a tomato. Alas, those tomatoes are not readily available in all grocery stores.

Readers of Omnivore's Dilemma or Fast Food Nation will likely appreciate this book and the spotlight on the deplorable tomato industry.(less)

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About Barry Estabrook

James Beard Award-winning journalist Barry Estabrook was a contributing editor at Gourmet magazine for eight years, writing investigative articles about where food comes from. He was the founding editor of Eating Well magazine and has written for the New York Times Magazine, Reader's Digest, Men's Health, Audubon, and the Washington Post, and contributes regularly to The Atlantic Monthly's website...more

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“According to analyses conducted by the U.S. Department of Agriculture, 100 grams of fresh tomato today has 30 percent less vitamin C, 30 percent less thiamin, 19 percent less niacin, and 62 percent less calcium than it did in the 1960s. But the modern tomato does shame it's counterpart in one area: It contains fourteen times as much sodium.” — 3 people liked it

“Workers who pick the food we eat cannot afford to feed themselves.” — 1 person liked it

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