Estabrook

"Estabrook," he said, leaning forward toward me with his lips compressed, "sometime, perhaps years from now, perhaps never, but, if you choose, to-night -- you may know what a problem I have had to solve, and what it will cost me to say to you that which I am going to say."

The Blue Wall A Story of Strangeness and Struggle Richard Washburn Child 1908

But in his new book, Tomatoland: How Modern Industrial Agriculture Destroyed our Most Alluring Fruit, two-time James Beard Award-winning journalist Barry Estabrook tells us why the modern factory-farmed tomato in most grocery stores is a poster child for nearly everything that is wrong with industrial agriculture.

Kurt Michael Friese: Why the Modern Tomato is Flawed: Inside Tomatoland Kurt Michael Friese 2011

Barry Estabrook followed the life of one such worker, Lucas, in an article he wrote for the now defunct Gourmet Magazine.

Lael Hazan: Who Picks Your Tomatoes? Lael Hazan 2011

Estabrook illustrates how California and Florida grow the same acreage of fresh market tomatoes each year.

Ann Gentry: Is Food Getting Dumbed Down Since My Tomatoes Are Gaining Weight Too? Ann Gentry 2011

Mr. Estabrook traces the history of the "love apple"—both the specific heirloom varietal which has roots in Peru, and the clones bred in Florida today.

Food for Thoughtful Fathers 2011

Tomatoland is based on Estabrook's James Beard Award-winning 2010 article "The Price of Tomatoes," and is an in-depth investigation of what's wrong with the modern tomato and by extension, modern agriculture.

Kurt Michael Friese: Why the Modern Tomato is Flawed: Inside Tomatoland Kurt Michael Friese 2011

In fact, Estabrook relays a story of nearly losing control of his car as it was pelted with the tough green orbs bouncing off the back of a tractor-trailer on a Florida highway.

Kurt Michael Friese: Why the Modern Tomato is Flawed: Inside Tomatoland Kurt Michael Friese 2011

But in his new book, Tomatoland: How Modern Industrial Agriculture Destroyed our Most Alluring Fruit, two-time James Beard Award-winning journalist Barry Estabrook tells us why the modern factory-farmed tomato in most grocery stores is a poster child for nearly everything that is wrong with industrial agriculture.

Kurt Michael Friese: Why the Modern Tomato is Flawed: Inside Tomatoland Kurt Michael Friese 2011

In fact, Estabrook relays a story of nearly losing control of his car as it was pelted with the tough green orbs bouncing off the back of a tractor-trailer on a Florida highway.

Kurt Michael Friese: Why the Modern Tomato is Flawed: Inside Tomatoland Kurt Michael Friese 2011

Tomatoland is based on Estabrook's James Beard Award-winning 2010 article "The Price of Tomatoes," and is an in-depth investigation of what's wrong with the modern tomato and by extension, modern agriculture.

Kurt Michael Friese: Why the Modern Tomato is Flawed: Inside Tomatoland Kurt Michael Friese 2011