The Indignity of Industrial Tomatoes

Tasteless, indestructible and picked by literal slaves, our favorite fruit has become a national shame

Heirloom Tomatoes - Wiki Image

Barry Estabrook
Gilt Taste

Editor's note: The following is an excerpt from Tomatoland: How Modern Industrial Agriculture Destroyed Our Most Alluring Fruit by Barry Estabrook/Andrews McMeel Publishing

My obituary's headline would have read "Food Writer Killed by Flying Tomato."

On a visit to my parents in Naples, Florida, I was driving I-75 when I came up behind one of those gravel trucks that seem to be everywhere in southwest Florida's rush to convert pine woods and cypress stands into gated communities and shopping malls. As I drew closer, I saw that the tractor trailer was heavy with what seemed to be green apples. When I pulled out to pass, three of them sailed off the truck, narrowly missing my windshield. Every time it hit the slightest bump, more of those orbs would tumble off. At the first stoplight, I got a closer look. The shoulder of the road was littered with green tomatoes so plasticine and so identical they could have been stamped out by a machine. Most looked smooth and unblemished. A few had cracks in their skins. Not one was smashed. A 10-foot drop followed by a 60-mile-per- hour impact with pavement is no big deal to a modern, agribusiness tomato.

If you have ever eaten a fresh tomato from a grocery store or restaurant, chances are good that you have eaten a tomato much like the ones aboard that truck. Florida alone accounts for one-third of the fresh tomatoes raised in the United States, and from October to June, virtually all the fresh-market, field-grown tomatoes in the country come from the Sunshine State, which ships more than one billion pounds every year. It takes a tough tomato to stand up to the indignity of such industrial scale farming, so most Florida tomatoes are bred for hardness, picked when still firm and green (the merest trace of pink is taboo), and artificially gassed with ethylene in warehouses until they acquire the rosy red skin tones of a ripe tomato.

9 Nasty Food Additives to Avoid

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Wellness Warrior

We all love convenience. Who can even remember what life was like before things like internet banking, internet shopping and internet stalking? I mean, networking, internet networking. But it's taking convenience a little far when our health is the price. And we are paying big time! Packaged and processed foods certainly help save time and labour, and thanks to all the preservatives, they last forever. The inclusion of additives means we can have pasta in five minutes, noodles in two and a whole chicken dinner in just under 10, but what are they really feeding us? These unhealthy amounts of salt, refined sugar, bad fats and other ingredients that you need a scientific textbook to decipher, can lead to weight gain, food allergies, vitamin and mineral deficiencies, digestive disorders, skin issues, cancer and much more. We would be here until Suri Cruise heads off to college if I were to go through all of the nasty additives found in processed food, so let’s just go over the most common ones. Here's what you need to look for next time you take a gander at an ingredients label …

Pharming for the Future

Dees Illustration

1MAN
ONE SIDED OPINION 

Whatever you put in to something is what you’re going to get out of it.  This is true in all phases of life: investing, exercise, work, and most importantly, diet.

What is your diet?  Well, before you start thinking that you are not on a diet let’s define diet, “food and drink considered in terms of its qualities, composition, and its effects on health”. So in other words we are all “on a diet”. My question is: what exactly are we eating, and why?

It is past the time for people to start asking some serious questions of themselves and their habits.

People have to start realizing that there is a long chain of lies, loaded with media hype and fabricated information. The system works to benefit corporations, at the expense of our future health.

Flouride: The Hard to Swallow Truth

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Coke, BPA, and the limits of ‘green capitalism’

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By Tom Philpott

GRIST

"Coca-Cola goes green," announced a 2010 Forbes article. Indeed, the beverages giant maintains partnerships with Big Green groups like Conservation International andWorld Wildlife Fund. It recently even completed its takeover of Honest Tea, an organic bottled-tea company. It would clearly like to be seen as a paragon of "green capitalism" -- the idea that doing good and doing well go hand in hand.

Let's put aside questions over what can possibly be "green" about a business model geared to sucking in huge amounts of drinking water, blasting it with what are probably toxic sweeteners and other dodgy substances, and then packaging it in little aluminum cans and plastic bottles and sending them far and wide, to be chilled (using fossil energy) before consumption.

OK, so within those tight constraints, Coca-Cola says it wants to be a "green company." So ... WTF? Last week, Coca-Cola shareholders voted by a 3-to-1 margin to continue using BPA, a toxic industrial chemical, in the lining of its soft-drink cans.

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Our Deadly, Daily Chemical Cocktail

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Kristin Wartman

Chemicals and additives found in the food supply and other consumer products are making headlines regularly as more and more groups  raise concern over the safety of these substances. In a statement released yesterday, the American Academy of Pediatrics (AAP) asked for reform to the Toxic Substances Control Act of 1976. The group is particularly concerned about the effects these substances have on children and babies.

Last month, the U.S. Food & Drug Administration (FDA) held hearings on the safety of food dyes but failed to make a definitive ruling—the most recent study on Bisphenol-A (BPA) added to growing doubts about its safety but the FDA’s stance remains ambiguous. Meanwhile, in 2010, the Government Accountability Office (GAO) reported that the FDA is not ensuring the safety of many chemicals.

Yet while the FDA drags its heels and hedges on the safety of these substances, Americans are exposed to untested combinations of food additives, dyes, preservatives, and chemicals on a daily basis. Indeed, for the vast majority of Americans consuming industrial foods, a veritable chemical cocktail enters their bodies every day and according to the GAO report, “FDA is not systematically ensuring the continued safety of current GRAS substances.”

The Health Dangers of Table Salt

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By Dr. Edward Group
Global Healing Center

Salt is a wonderful thing. Whether from the far reaches of the Himalayan rock mountains, to the depths of the oceans floor, salt is a beautiful and necessary mineral. It’s an important element in keeping the proper mineral balance in practically all of the earth’s living creatures.

In fact, every cell in our body needs salt. Our bodies rely on salt to keep good bone density, proper circulation and stabilized blood sugar levels. But how could something so wonderful and natural become a poison? Here are a few common misconceptions and dangers of salt.

Salt vs. Naturally Occurring Sodium

“Table Salt” is a manufactured form of sodium called sodium chloride. While similar to naturally occurring rock, crystal, or sea salt, table salt merely mimics the taste of these elements.

Avoiding MSG is trickier than you think

Editor's Note: Even if you are not 'allergic' to MSG, removing this excito-toxin from your diet has profound impacts on health.

Coping with MSG blog

Names and addresses of ingredients that contain processed free glutamic acid (MSG) 

The first essential to coping with MSG is understanding where MSG is hidden -- just in case you would like to avoid it, or would like to begin to understand how much MSG you are able to tolerate without having an obvious adverse reaction.

Everyone knows that some people have reactions after eating the food ingredient monosodium glutamate -- reactions that include migraine headaches, upset stomach, fuzzy thinking, diarrhea, heart irregularities, asthma, and/or mood swings.  What many don’t know, is that more than 40 different ingredients contain the chemical in monosodium glutamate -- the processed (manufactured) free glutamic acid -- that causes these reactions.  These ingredients have names like maltodextrin, gelatin, citric acid, and sodium caseinate, that don't give the consumer a clue to the presence of MSG.

The Idiot Cycle (Movie Trailer)

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Toxic BPA For Babies: Chemical Lobby Gets Its Way in US Senate

Last-Minute Calls to Republicans Scuttle Bi-Partisan Agreement to Ban BPA from Baby Bottles, Sippy Cups

Common Dreams

WASHINGTON - November 19 - For several years now, Environmental Working Group (EWG) has been warning of the risks associated with bisphenol A (BPA) - especially the BPA in baby bottles, sippy cups and cans of infant formula. EWG has also been a leader in trying to get state and federal agencies to regulate this hazardous chemical.

Thanks to the efforts of Sen. Dianne Feinstein (D-Calif.), there was briefly a deal this week - after months of negotiations - to include some regulation of BPA in a food safety bill that will probably pass the Senate soon after Thanksgiving. The deal, agreed to by leading Republicans and trade associations, including the Grocery Manufacturers Association, would have banned BPA in baby bottles and sippy cups in six months, directed FDA to finalize its assessment of the safety of BPA by December 2012 and protected the right of states to take even stronger action.

Then the American Chemistry Council (ACC) swooped in with last minute objections. The Council's lobbyists whispered in enough Republican senators' ears, and the agreement was scrapped. The chemical makers' trade group has spent millions of dollars over the last few years to fight regulation of BPA across the country.

Despite the Council's richly funded efforts, environmental and health advocates have had successes on the BPA front. At least seven states have now passed laws to regulate the chemical in one way or another. Canada has declared BPA toxic and banned it in baby bottles; Denmark and Germany have also acted.

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