...Sean Murray Global Food Systems Tomatoland Response When I think of the about my vegetables, I rarely consider the complications, the production, or even the industry that brings my meal from the ground to my dinner plate. More seldomly are the chemicals used to grow the plant, as well as the people who provide the service considered when buying from the grocery store. Consumers do not really consider where their food comes from, how it is produced, and who produces it. Barry Estabrook, the author of Tomatoland : How Modern Agriculture Destroyed Our Most Modern Fruit, discusses in his book how the industrialized tomato bares no resemblance to that of one purchase from a local market nor one found in a personal garden. The truth is, not only are industrial produced tomatoes created with wide assortments of dangerous chemicals that are bad for you, risk for those picking the vegitized fruit is astronomically higher compared to consumers. Within the United States, the agricultural workforce for industrial tomato production have been subjected to, what is often considered, modern day slave labor. Florida is the largest producer of tomatoes to the rest of the United States. “Commercial seed companies have bred traits into domestic varieties to combat about have of the pest and diseases” (Estabrook, 15). Ironic that these companies would invest so much money in the fertilization and production of tomatoes despite geographic uselessness of Florida’s soil. Florida is not environmentally...
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...The tomato is the edible, often red fruit/berry of the nightshade Solanum lycopersicum, History Etymology The word "tomato" comes from the Spanish tomate, which in turn comes from the Nahuatl word tomatotl,. It first appeared in print in 1595. A member of the deadly nightshade family, tomatoes were erroneously thought to be poisonous by Europeans who were suspicious of their bright, shiny fruit. Native versions were small, like cherry tomatoes, and most likely yellow rather than red. The tomato is native to western South America and Central America. Mesoamerica Aztecs and other peoples in Mesoamerica used the fruit in their cooking. The exact date of domestication is unknown: by 500 BC, it was already being cultivated in southern Mexico and probably other areas. The Pueblo people are thought to have believed that those who witnessed the ingestion of tomato seeds were blessed with powers of divination. The large, lumpy tomato, a mutation from a smoother, smaller fruit, originated in Mesoamerica, and may be the direct ancestor of some modern cultivated tomatoes. Unique varieties were developed over the next several hundred years for uses such as dried tomatoes, sauce tomatoes, pizza tomatoes, and tomatoes for long term storage. These varieties are usually known for their place of origin as much as by a variety name. For example, Pomodorino del Piennolo del Vesuvio is the "hanging tomato of Vesuvius". Five different varieties have traditionally been used to make these "hanging"...
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