Tomatoland is a great book . A dark , scary , underbelly - of - the - atomic number 47 - industry book .
If you ’ve ever eat atomatoin the wintertime and you hold out in a latitude where winter mean snow , perhaps you ’ve wondered how a tomato appeared in your food market when it was cold-blooded enough outside to immobilise love . grant toBarry Estabrook’sTomatoland , if you live in the Northeast U.S. , that tomato plant most likely occur from Florida .
Tomatolandbegins as Estabrook is drive through Florida , following a tractor - dawdler truck that he consider is charge with Granny Smith apple . After a few of the fruit - in - interrogation sail off the truck and hit his car , he examines the projectile only to discover that they ’re hard , indestructible green tomatoes . Thus begin Estabrook ’s journey into how multi - billion one dollar bill corporations have turned a yummy yield into something unsavory .
Florida , it sprain out , has one of the bad climates and worst soils in which to grow tomatoes : the air is very humid ( tomatoes choose bone ironic ) , which arrive at the plants very susceptible to a litany of fungal disease ; tomatoes did not evolve in Florida , so they have n’t adapted to the insect life there – consequently , hordes of pest continuously crunch on the flora , and the soil is sandlike and porous ( tomato plant prefer loamy soils ) . As a result , tomato in Florida are awash in a nous - boggle amount of fertilizer andpesticides .
So why get to produce tomato in a climate so inhospitable ? The reason is simple : Florida is within hauling distance of major metropolitan essence like Washington , Baltimore , Philadelphia , Boston , and New York City .
The most spectacular Revelation of Saint John the Divine inTomatolandis the abhorrent intervention of Florida ’s field workers , many of whom have enter the state illegally , speak no English , and have an underlying fearfulness of law enforcement . Thus , the workers ’ abuse goes for the most part unreported for fear of reprisals .
ButTomatolandisn’t all downside . Estabrook also explores the inception of the tomato on the shores of Ecuador , where phytologist believe it start , its domestication by Mayan farmers in ancient Mexico , its foundation to Europe by Spanish IE , its further development by the British for its believed curative powers , and its extensive New nurture in North America . He also spends some time with a chemical - free love apple agriculturalist from eastern Pennsylvania nicknamedTomatoman , who sells gastronome love apple on the street of New York City and supplies fine restaurants there . Tomatoman’stomatoes are so popular and so delightful that he can barely keep up with demand .
Estabrook is extremely deft at thread all of these elements into what sometimes is a secret and is always an exciting story of great discoveries inTomatoland .
