Most of the book is about the workers who are exploited. Many are illegal immigrants from Mexico and other Central American countries and because they are afraid of being caught, they are open to exploitation. Some are literally slaves - bought and sold by "owners", living in squalid conditions and never earning enough to get out of debt.
The tomatoes grow on sand, so all of the nutrients are supplied, mainly as chemical fertilizer. There is a hardpan layer below the sand which holds rainwater and irrigation water; if there's too much, the fields are drained; if there's not enough, they are irrigated.
The fields are fumigated with one of the most toxic pesticides on the market, a product that also is far more damaging to the ozone layer than hydrocarbofurans that were banned years ago.
Because Florida is so humid and hot, pests and diseases are a major threat. Pesticides are the answer. More types and greater volumes are applied to Florida tomato fields than for any other vegetable crop. Unfortunately, all too often the workers are soaked in pesticides.
The tragedies that arise out of that pesticide exposure are horrifying, gruesome, unacceptable.
And the tomatoes are crap. They are picked green as grass. In fact, if they show the slightest tinge of pink, they are culled. They turn red only because they are gassed with ethylene.
In the last 50 years, plant breeding and field management practices have reduced nutrients - 30 per cent less vitamin C, 30 per cent less thiamin, 19 per cent less niacin, 62 per cent less calcium. However, the average Florida tomato has 14 times as much sodium.
The book is about tomatoes, but too many of aspects explored in this book are common to too many modern fruits and vegetables. I recall writing columns for the Waterloo Region Record 30 years ago, lamenting that plant breeders focus exclusively on factors deemed important by farmers, such as yield, disease resistance and supermarket appearance while ignoring nutritional content and taste.
So today we can eat more, enjoy it less and battle obesity.
