Tomatoland: How Modern Industrial Agriculture Destroyed Our Most Alluring Fruit

In Tomatoland, investigative food journalist Barry Estabrook examines the human and environmental costs of the $5 billion fresh tomato industry. He traces supermarket tomatoes from their origin in Peru's deserts to Immokalee, Florida, the tomato capital of the United States, visiting seedsmen developing varieties that balance commercial durability with flavor, large-scale growers operating thousands of acres, and a Pennsylvania farmer producing tomatoes for top restaurants. Estabrook profiles key figures in the tomato industry: an octogenarian whose company grows one in eight tomatoes consumed in the United States; an ex-Marine leading the group that sets standards for Florida tomato shipments; a U.S. attorney prosecuting human traffickers; and a Guatemalan peasant who came north seeking money for his parents' medical bills and was enslaved for two years. The book presents an indictment of modern agricultural systems in the tradition of investigative journalism, examining the tomato industry's practices over the past half-century.