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By jamie, February 16, 2012 11:05 am

My daughter loves tomatoes. Her favorites are grape tomatoes, which are bite-sized and sweet. I can’t really tell you what the ones from our garden taste like, because she eats them all, preferably while standing right next to the plant she just plucked them from. She doesn’t like the green ones, though – she tried it once, when she was impatient for more to ripen, and she was pretty disappointed with the flavor. Now she knows it’s worth the wait to let them ripen on the vine.

According to Tomatoland, by Barry Estabrook, vine-ripening is not allowed here in Florida, where most of the nation’s fresh tomatoes are grown. They last longer and prone to bruising of picked without any trace of red, then they are exposed to ethylene gas to force them to “ripen.” Even those who approve of this technique admit that it harms the flavor of the food. I guess this explains why I have never really been a fan of tomatoes – when I was a kid I didn’t like them at all, and now I really only like them if they are served with flavorful dressings or sauces (vinaigrette, mayo, hummus, etc.) or on a cheeseburger. Even then, sometimes I swear that taste like soap.

Flavor is one thing, but evidently they are less healthy for us than they used to be before these factory-farming techniques became the norm. “Today’s industrial tomatoes are as bereft of nutrition as they are of flavor. 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 its 1960s counterpart in one area: It contains fourteen times as much sodium.”

I remember reading – I think it was in a book by Dr. Atkins (the late low-carb guru) – that described fruit (specifically oranges) as being far higher in sugar than it was 100 years ago. I would imagine that most of the sugar increase is due to selective breeding, but it also makes sense that plants “are what they eat” in much the same way humans are. If the soil is pumped with pesticides and bleach and synthetic nutrients selected only to increase yield, it’s no wonder store-bought tomatoes sometimes taste like soap.

I read the introduction to the book as well as the first two chapters, and I will not be able to scratch the surface with my posts. Who knew that a book on tomatoes could be so riveting? I will just choose three points to share with you here:

1. There is a great deal of evidence that human slavery is still occurring in the U.S., specifically in tomato fields in Florida. I’m pretty sure Chapter 3 is going to delve more deeply into this, but I have already read enough that I have decided to avoid tomatoes in restaurants and from the grocery store until I can be convinced that this is no longer the case. Here is the quote that did it for me:

In the chilling words of Douglas Molloy, chief assistant United States attorney in Fort Myers, South Florida’s tomato fields are “ground zero for modern-day slavery.” Molloy is not talking about virtual slavery, or near slavery, or slaverylike conditions, but real slavery. In the last fifteen years, Florida law enforcement officials have freed more than one thousand men and women who had been held and forced to work against their will in the fields of Florida, and that represents only the tip of the iceberg. Most instances of slavery go unreported. Workers were “sold” to crew bosses to pay off bogus debts, beaten if they didn’t feel like working or were too sick or weak to work, held in chains, pistol whipped, locked at night into shacks in chain-link enclosures patrolled by armed guards.

2. Florida is not the optimal place to grow tomatoes without a great deal of effort. As a marginally successful Florida gardener, this makes me feel simultaneously better and worse. As someone who has battled ants, various worms and caterpillars, spider mites, fungi (including the time I accidentally grew some strange mushrooms, presumably by over-watering), extreme heat (which caused my ripening cucumbers to explode this past summer), and seasonal light shifts that necessitate a complicated (and unsuccessful) attempt at using mirrors to bounce enough sunlight onto failing plants, it is a (very small) relief to know that I am attempting to do something that is really hard – particularly without resorting to “chemical, biological, and scorched-earth warfare.’

It really is worth it to buy organic food. Non-organic food can contain really dangerous chemicals, the kind that can cause birth defects, cancers, and other terrible things. We can peel it or wash the food all day long, and we won’t get all of the toxins out, because they slip into the food itself through roots, stems, and any sort of blemish on the surface. And we have been conditioned to prefer pretty produce (round, shiny, etc.) – I have spoken with several people who avoid organic produce because it’s not visually appealing. It makes me sick to my stomach to think that I, too, have passed over the organic section because I thought the food looked a little too beat up (this was before Michael Pollan, but still).

I have two store-bought tomatoes in the refrigerator, as well as two cartons of grape tomatoes. Little Mama and I will finish those up, but then we have buy them from the farmer’s market if we want more. I can’t wait to read on. Also, I have to figure out how many EarthTainers we will need to build this year (we have one so far).

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By jamie, May 29, 2010 4:24 pm

I don’t really like the taste of meat. Hubby teases me about it all the time. I only like it with something else (in a sandwich, in a recipe, if it’s slathered in gravy or dressing, or cut up in a salad or a sauce, etc.). Meat all by itself in the plate? I mix each bite on the fork with whatever else I am eating, and then I like it. The one exception is rotisserie chicken, which I sometimes enjoy all by itself. After reading chapters 13 and 14, I am anxious to try non-factory raised chicken, beef, and pork to see if it is tastier. I caught my daughter’s cold, so we skipped the farmer’s market this morning, or we would be having chicken tonight (I would probably be blogging about the taste).

This blog contains a great deal of hemming and hawing about organic food being accessible to people at all income levels. Michael Pollan our new favorite beyond organic farmer (I finally looked up his website: polyfacefarms.com) about the idea that his food is elitist because of the increased cost. Here is the reply:

I don’t accept the premise. First off, those weren’t any elitists you met on the farm this morning [buyers included retirees, young parents, and blue collar workers]. We sell to all kinds of people. Second, whenever I hear people say clean food is expensive, I tell them it’s actually the cheapest food you can buy. That always gets their attention. Then I explain that with our food all of the costs are figured into the price. Society is not bearing the cost of water pollution, of antibiotic resistance, of food-borne illnesses, of crop subsidies, of subsidized oil and water–of all the hidden costs to the environment and the taxpayer that make cheap food seem cheap. No thinking person will tell you they don’t care about it. I tell them the choice is simple: You can buy honestly priced food or you can buy irresponsibly priced food.

It’s difficult to make the decision to give up cheap grocery store meat, especially on a tight budget and in difficult economic times. I have concluded that it is worth it for us to do it whenever we can – Salatin’s quote reminds me that, either way, we are all going to pay – whenever possible I am going to pay up front for “honestly priced food.”As a friend pointed out, “voting with money (and telling others about why you don’t buy certain products) is very important.”

One thing I thought about while reading this section: I used to spend all summer in New Mexico, in a small town located close to ranch land. Sometimes people would give my Reyna some self-processed meat, but we didn’t trust it because it wasn’t from the supermarket. We weren’t sure it was disease free because it wasn’t regulated like the supermarket varieties. Now I realize we made a mistake – sometimes this meat is far “cleaner” and certainly safer than any chain store variety. For one thing, it has not been injected with chemicals and antibiotics. Also, the animals are less likely to have gotten sick because they were not forced to eat things that they are not made to eat. Because far less animals are processed at one time, it is also much easier to keep things free of dangerous bacteria.

I began reading about food because I wanted to make healthier choices for my family. The more I have learned, the more it is becoming about ethics too – I don’t like the way animals are treated on factory farms, and I don’t like the damaging effects this industry has on the environment. It’s pretty much guaranteed that I will not be perfect at this, but I will try.

Other posts about The Omnivore’s Dilemma:

Post 1: The Omnivore’s Dilemma, by Michael Pollan
Post 2: Even Fish Eat Corn
Post 3: Junk Food is Cheap Food
Post 4: Global Garden
Post 5: I Have a Garden. What’s Next, Chickens?
Post 6: Chickens and Pigs
Post 7: Honestly Priced Food
Post 8: Squash is not Poisonous
Post 9: Hunting, Vegetarians, and Animal Kindness
Post 10: Mysterious Mushrooms

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By jamie, May 25, 2010 11:35 pm

I am having trouble with my cabbages. Something is eating them, or, more likely several somethings are. Last week I broke down and went to the local plant nursery for advice. The woman recommended a number of “organic” products, and I ended up getting one that has neem oil as the main ingredient. After reading the next two chapters, I’m afraid to use it. The “true” organic farmers in this section suggest that any kind of outside pest control (as opposed to beneficial insects, etc.) weakens the soil, makes plants less nutritious, and increases the chances of other insects or plant diseases overall. Oh dear. I’m trying to do the right thing, but the truth is, I’m NOT a farmer, just a rookie gardener who is getting most of her information from the Internet and from helpful friends and learning as she goes.

Basically, the rules for being certified as “organic” are pretty lax. This makes sense given how much food producers stand to profit from selling mass quantities of organics. It’s much easier to grow fruits and vegetables when you can use herbicides pesticides (I now know this first hand – I had no idea how hard it would be to keep my little garden healthy). They use machines and migrant workers to weed and harvest. They use unsustainable methods just like the non-organic farms do. It makes sense to me now why some farmers do not want to be included with “certified organic” farming techniques when they are producing the kind of food I want my family to eat.

The most disturbing part of this section is about eggs and chickens. I buy the “free range” eggs, and have felt pretty good about this decision. As it turns out, just because the package says that the chickens CAN go outside, they usually don’t – ever. The best that they can hope for is a couple of extra inches to move around inside, and a door leading to a patch of grassy land that they wouldn’t dream of going through – partly because they do not have access to this door until about their fifth week of life (out of seven on average for non-egg layers), and they have no idea what is out there.

I usually buy “4Grain Free Range Eggs.” They are brown eggs, and they look like the must be good for us. Now that I know organic egg producers do not actually have to take the hens outside, I am very suspicious of the claims made on the egg packaging. Instead of paraphrasing the pretty picture described in the carton, here’s a quote from their website:

4Grain Organic eggs come from cage free hens that are fed a certified organic version of the all-natural, all-vegetarian hen feed. 4Grain organic eggs are derived from hens reared, housed, and fed in compliance with the regulations of the National Organic Program administered by the USDA. This requires strict adherence to rules concerning the source and type of ingredients in diets, housing, and freedom from exposure to pesticides, as well as chemicals or substances which are not approved. Hens producing eggs under the National Organic Program are allowed free access to the entire area of their houses and have access to outside protected areas.

See? They are allowed “access.” Nowhere does it say they ever actually go outside. Needless to say, I am now wary of buying eggs and chicken, even if they are “certified organic,” which evidently means very little. This is so difficult.

The next chapter describes a farm where cows are fed grass. Pollan describes the week he spent working at this farm (Joel Salatin’s farm). The cows get excited when it is time for them to move to fresh grass, and it’s an entirely different atmosphere from the factory farm. Honestly, this got me tempted to become a beef farmer, or at least buy a few chickens. Of course, I’m afraid of animals, so this was only a short-lived daydream – we won’t be erecting a chicken coop anytime soon.

I packed up the family on Saturday and went in search of better-than-organic food. We went to the local farmer’s market, which I had never been to even though it’s about ten minutes away from our house and takes place every week (The shame…) We found a source for grass-fed beef – it is really expensive. We also found a couple of sources for fresh free range eggs, and a farm co-op that sells Community Supported Agriculture (CSA) boxes, weekly packages of seasonal vegetables and fruits [click here to find a farm near you]. My plan is for us to go back weekly, with a shopping list, and I’ll supplement at the market.

Favorite quote:

The ninety-nine cent price of a fast-food hamburger simply doesn’t take account of that meal’s true cost–to soil, oil, public health, the public purse, etc., costs which are never charged directly to the consumer but, indirectly, possibly, to the taxpayer (in the form of subsidies), the health care system (in the form of food-borne illness and obesity), and the environment (in the form of pollution), not to mention the welfare of the workers in the feedlot and the slaughterhouse and the welfare of the animals themselves. If not for this sort of blind-man’s accounting, grass would make a lot more sense than it now does.

Other posts about The Omnivore’s Dilemma:

Post 1: The Omnivore’s Dilemma, by Michael Pollan
Post 2: Even Fish Eat Corn
Post 3: Junk Food is Cheap Food
Post 4: Global Garden
Post 5: I Have a Garden. What’s Next, Chickens?
Post 6: Chickens and Pigs
Post 7: Honestly Priced Food
Post 8: Squash is not Poisonous
Post 9: Hunting, Vegetarians, and Animal Kindness
Post 10: Mysterious Mushrooms

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By jamie, May 20, 2010 3:42 pm

According to Pollan, one in three U.S. children eat fast food on a daily basis. He explains that much of this food is derived from corn. When my daughter was an infant, I made her baby food, using as my best source of advice a website called wholesomebabyfood.com. Here is what that website says about corn: “During the first year of baby’s life, it is very important that baby receive all the nutrients possible. “Corn really has very little nutritive value. It is comprised mostly of starchy carbs and is considered an ‘empty’ calorie food for the most part. Waiting to introduce corn in favor of a more nutrient dense food may be a better option.” I guess the main trouble with most of our foods being derived from corn is that we are using this food in place of better, more nutritious options. Even when manufacturers “fortify” the processed stuff (they spray on liquid vitamins, etc.), the foods they end up with are probably substandard to compared to whole foods.

Chicken McNuggets, as it turns out, are 56% corn (if you choose the cheeseburger instead, that’s 52%, plus 23% for the fries). They also contain an entire assortment of sketchy looking ingredients, including TBHQ, “an antioxidant derived from petroleum that is either sprayed directly on the nugget or the inside of the box it comes in to ‘help preserve freshness’” and is “a form of butane (i.e., lighter fluid).” Other ingredients include “dimethylpolysiloxene[,] a suspected carcinogen and an established mutagen, tumorigen, and reproductive effector.” Oh dear.

The fast food chapter finishes off Section 1, and I also read the first chapter of Section 2 for good measure – it is about pastoral farming. He talks about a farmer in Virginia who refuses to fill out the paperwork to become a certified organic farmer, and who manages his farm much better than the “certified organic” label requires. The farmer, Joel Salatin, refuses to ship Pollan any meat products because “I don’t believe it’s sustainable– or ‘organic,’ if you will–to FedEx meat all around the country.”

This got me thinking about sustainability in food purchasing. I remember attending a “sustainability conference” a few years ago in Arizona. They ran the air conditioning so cold that I had to keep going outside to warm up, and they trucked in blue glass water bottles from New York so they would not have to use plastic. They gave people free parking for driving their hybrid cars to the event, but did not choose a “green” hotel for us to stay at. These things disappointed me.

Yesterday I bought strawberries from California, a watermelon from Mexico, and bananas from Guatemala. The blueberries we purchased were grown here in Florida, so score one point for us there. But then I talked to my husband about it, and he pointed out that in a global society, a lot of things are going to be shipped here and there – not just food. Electronics might share shipping space with a food product – is it better for us not to ship the electronics, or waste resources shipping less over? I don’t know the answer to this. What do you think?

Other posts about The Omnivore’s Dilemma:

Post 1: The Omnivore’s Dilemma, by Michael Pollan
Post 2: Even Fish Eat Corn
Post 3: Junk Food is Cheap Food
Post 4: Global Garden
Post 5: I Have a Garden. What’s Next, Chickens?
Post 6: Chickens and Pigs
Post 7: Honestly Priced Food
Post 8: Squash is not Poisonous
Post 9: Hunting, Vegetarians, and Animal Kindness
Post 10: Mysterious Mushrooms

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By jamie, April 19, 2010 7:59 pm

This last Friday we had a dinner party. We served pork tenderloin with a Cajun rub, penne with broccoli and mushrooms, a sauteed vegetable medley, and spinach salad. For dessert we served strawberry shortcake. We made an overabundance of food, and are still eating leftovers (hubby was out of town on Saturday, and we ate at his parents’ place yesterday). Funny thing about eating whole foods – they fill you up faster than the other stuff, so we still have food for one more night, then I have to get cooking again.

In the last chapter of the book, Pollan advises us to “eat less.” He takes issue with the idea that we have to eat every couple of hours, and says that snacking is not necessary. Instead, we should “eat meals.” Here’s another public confession: I have gained weight since my daughter was born, mostly because I do not follow this wisdom. Sometimes I will realize, at 3 or 4 in the afternoon, that I have not eaten a thing all day long. So I have a snack. Then we have dinner. Then another snack. Then more snacking, sometimes until right before I go to bed. (I’ve been doing much better the past week or so, eating within two hours of waking most days, and aiming for one hour.)

He again acknowledges that his new way of eating is expensive: “Not everyone can afford to eat high-quality food in America, and that is shameful; however, those of us who can, should.” This still bothers me – we should all be able to eat high quality food. When I was in the grocery store the other day, I noticed a sign in the produce section advertising that WIC recipients can now buy fresh fruits and vegetables with their vouchers. They couldn’t before?! I suppose if people eat less, they might be saving money too, and end up without too much of a net increase in their food budget. And those who CAN afford to pay more for food can “vote” for better choices for everyone by choosing the better food. I’m still not happy though.

His final food policy: “Cook and, if you can plant a garden.”

I can’t remember if I have told you about a policy my sister recently made for herself: She decided that, whenever she wants to eat something sweeter than fruit, she will bake it instead of buying it. I can imagine that this will really cut down on the eating of treats. Cooking will do the same thing for helping avoid eating junky food – french fries (Pollan’s example) sound less enticing when eating them involves washing, peeling, seasoning, and frying potatoes. I wonder how far I should take this – I have an ice cream maker, and I might eat less ice cream if I have to make it first!

As for the garden, we are working on setting up our first garden right now, starting with tomatoes and strawberries! I’ll keep you posted.

Since finishing the book this weekend, I have been thinking a lot about what I have learned, especially about milk – I spent a long time in the grocery store on Saturday trying to choose yogurt – most of it is low fat and contains milk powder, which I am now afraid for my family to ingest. I ended up getting Baby Girl’s favorite brand, but I chose vanilla instead of her usual flavors, to sort of transition her. She liked the vanilla, so I am encouraged to take the next step. I think I am going to buy Greek yogurt this week and blend fresh fruit into it (I still need to check labels though before I decide).

Scroll down for other posts about In Defense of Food:

Other posts about In Defense of Food:
Review
Post 1: In Defense of Food, by Michael Pollan
Post 2: Breakfast Cereal is not a Food?
Post 3: Chocolate Science
Post 4: “Hourly Yogurt Enemas?!”
Post 5: Hunting and Gathering
Post 6: Look Mom – No Cavities!
Post 7: Mainlining Glucose or “I’m Not an Addict!”
Post 8: Food is Religious and Political
Post 9: Whole Milk Sounds Almost Sinful
Post 10: I Don’t Like the Salad, Mommy
Post 11: Let’s Plant a Garden