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Bred for durability, grown in the inhospitable Florida sand, exposed to any number of harmful pesticides, prematurely harvested by the hands of slaves, and finally gassed to ripeness — or rather, redness — within the confines of a warehouse: This is the biography of the modern American tomato as told by Barry Estabrook in his 2011 book, Tomatoland. Borne of a James Beard Award-winning article in Gourmet Magazine, Tomatoland exposed the myriad ills of the Florida tomato industry, which Estabrook described on his blog as “the most repressive agricultural sector” in the country at the time.
Since the book’s publication, much has changed for America’s tomato growers — and much for the better. In fact, by the time the Tomatoland-inspired documentary Food Chains was released in 2014, Estabrook said the once-repressive industry had transformed into one of the nation’s most progressive.
We caught up with the food writer via email to learn what progress has been made in the past five years — and where our food systems might be headed from here.
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