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Tomatoes

Posted at 11:02 AM on June 11, 2008 by Scott Swendsen (6 Comments)

Wow - each time I hear or read of the problems with our food supply, I think how thankful I am of my growing dependence on my local food suppliers. I literally can reach out and touch most of my food as it is growing or being harvested.

Here is a recent quote that I think represents why I am a locavore:

"I'm concerned, because I want to be able to trust my food sources," said artist Patrick Gerrity, 33, after shopping at a Vons grocery store near his Echo Park home. "It's strange that so much of our food seems to have problems now, since this didn't use to happen in the past." Search for source of salmonella in tomatoes in high gear - Los Angeles Times, June 10, 2008.

Yes, I agree - these problems mostly did not happen in the past. As I have mentioned in a previous blog, I haven't really read any of the current literature discussing our ongoing conversion of food to mass consumer products and the resulting issues related to that global "manufacturing" process.

In fact, if I really want to think about the last book that I read that talked about the inhumanity of our food production system was probably back in junior high with Upton Sinclair's "The Jungle" .

While his book dealt mostly with the social ills of our American society around the 1900's, the descriptions of how our meat was then being processed made me sick. Now it appears that how our food is currently being processed can really make me sick.

So I am thankful this week that I have a plethora of local food products - some from my CSA, some from the Boise Capital City Public Market, some from the Boise Coop, some from friends' gardens and some from my last group purchase of Idaho's Bounty products. And for the most part, each item was handed to me by the farmer / grower / producer. No middleman. No big factory production line. No big distribution warehouse. No extra transportation other than from the farm to where I bought it at. No extra chances for contamination, spoilage, or mishandling. And best of all - little to no use of herbicides or pesticides, no usage of preservatives, and the wise application of fertilizer and soil amending products.

While there are many reasons to become a locavore, for me, the best reason is that I know where my food is coming from and when the world stops eating tomatoes because of salmonella, I go right on eating my local tomatoes.

Scott

Comments (6)

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Follow-up article from today's LA Times:
U.S. expands salmonella warning on fresh tomatoes.

Interesting quote: "Leery consumers seem to be redirecting some of their tomato shopping away from supermarkets and toward farmers markets, where most produce is grown locally in small batches".

Sounds as if sooner or later, we all are going to have to become locavores....

Scott

Posted by Scott | June 11, 2008 11:27 AM

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Hi Scott,

As a fellow Locavore I couldn't agree more. In fact I was so out of the loop I didn't realize at first that there was a tomato ban. In part because we don't have tomatoes yet in Ohio so I didn't expect to be eating any. I think eating locally is so important for the very reasons you listed, and in eating locally, we inadvertently eat more seasonally. And yes, it is nice to have a tomato any time we want, but at least here in Ohio, tomatoes aren't worth eating until August anyway.

Enjoy your local tomatoes!
April

Posted by April | June 13, 2008 1:22 PM

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I've been trying to listen for what is not being said here, or perhaps has been said before but missed by me. I think that the temptation to put personal profit ahead of concern for other people must be easier to resist when you can put a face to the other person and talk and build a little empathy with them. I once took a vehicle to a local garage and paid a substantial amount of money to them to repair it. Not only was the job not done properly but they refused to do anything about it. Being young and inexperienced, I didn't raise the argument I should have made. Later, while marveling about their willingness to cheat people, which was confirmed by others who told me of similer experiences with the same garage, someone told me "they don't have to strive for repeat customers because this area is big enough that there is always some new sucker coming along." Even though we met face to face, there was this disconnect. It often seems that when it comes to money, for many people it is "get yours how ever you can and too bad about the other person". There is always a danger inherent in allowing too small a group, such as a corporation that markets to a large customer base, to have the control over their product and ultimately their customers, which allows them to fulfill the first goal of a business; to make a profit. There is always the temptation for management to further their goals by making decisions more in their interests than for the good of the consumer. Workers, in striving to produce product to meet the expectations of those who supervise them, may also disregard the interests of the consumer who is nameless and faceless. Let the company have the responsibility for making the right decisions. Perhaps these are the evoulutioary growing pains of the globalization that is the mixed blessing of technological progress in comunications and transportation, though I think these problems have alwalys been present in some form. Personal responsibility is the answer we try to avoid? If these problems are the dark side of human nature, perhaps the Locavore movement and the exchange of information on sites like this are the good side, or the hope for it. The other factor that comes to mind is that when you mass produce, what seem like small bad decisions can be multiplied greatly and passed on sometimes by accident or by people making poor decisions.

Posted by Mike Lawrence | June 15, 2008 8:04 PM

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Thanks April for your message! Last year on my container pots of tomatoes, I was picking fruit by the end of June! That is what the hot sunny Boise summer weather can do for growing food.

But you are right, even the local tomatoes that I am eating right now are from the spring hothouse so they have a bit of a generic taste. It is nice, though, to have a bit of red to go with all of the seasonal greens I am eating right now.

Happy eating!

Scott

Posted by Scott | June 18, 2008 4:50 PM

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Hi Mike! Thanks for your posting! I agree that it is difficult to understand the processes of capitalism and the overwhelming need to make a profit. What seems to be happening though, is that there has been a steady "cheapening" of these processes in order to maximize the profit stream. While there may be increased benefits to some people, to many others there has been a corresponding decline in the quality and safety of the results of these processes.

By being a locavore, I can talk to the producers (as you mentioned) and I can go out to their farms and gardens and see the output of their work processes. This allows me a chance to make that personal decision as to whether or not this local product meets the needs of my desire. And there are times that it doesn't and I have to buy from other sources including non-local. But at least I can give immediate feedback which hopefully will result in an improved local product, more sales and a better local business and economy.

Great post - I appreciate your comments and insight!

Scott

Posted by Scott | June 18, 2008 5:00 PM

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I live about 55 miles north of Scott in Payette. We have a small farm and a large garden with fruit trees. Tomatoes are a long way from ready but we still have sauce and bags of dried tomatoes from last year. When the tomatoes are ready we will be having grilled fresh tomato pizzas with home grown garlic and mozzarella made with milk from our goats.

No good to ask about buying milk or cheese. Idaho law is strict and you must be a licensed dairy to sell to people..otherwise it is pet use and soapmaking only.

We also have our own chickens, geese, beefalo and meat goats.

Posted by Naomi | June 21, 2008 4:22 PM