How many of you see those tasteless tomatoes in grocery stores year after year? You wait, with excited anticipation for that first Brandywine to appear in the local farmer’s market every summer. Tomatoes are, without a doubt America’s favorite food. And yet, did you know that the fresh tomato industry uses slave labor to pick those balls of red that can actually bounce off a counter and survive unharmed? Not only does the U.S. fresh tomato industry, which supplies 1/3 of the U.S. tomatoes every winter, use 100’s of pesticides banned from many other crops, they pick the tomatoes with slave labor! 7 cases of slave labor have successfully been tried at court over the last 15 years in Florida, where many other cases have also been ignored. According to Barry Estabrook, author of Tomatoland (p xvi), if you, as a consumer, have eaten a fresh tomato from the grocery store, fast food restaurant, or food-service company in winter, you have eaten a fruit picked by a slave.
So I ask you for this: that you wait each year for those wonderful ripe summer tomatoes, and ignore the gassed balls of pseudo-tomatoes each winter.
Please make note that pasta sauces and other canned tomatoes in the winter are fine, as they are produced by a distinctly different California based industry.
And now a recipes for winter using those canned tomatoes :)
Chicken Pizza (serves 4)
Ingredients:
1/2 c. chopped cooked chicken (I used chicken thighs)
1 c. shredded cheese (a four cheese blend is different and good)
1/2 c. tomato-basil pasta sauce
1/2 carrot, finely diced
1 clove garlic, minced
2 tbsp diced onion
1/2 c. shredded spinach
1 refrigerated pizza crust
1 tsp olive oil
pinch of dried oregano
Directions:
1. Preheat oven to 400F
2. Spread pizza crust on cookie sheet.
3. Brush crust with olive oil, and dust with oregano.
4. Top with carrot, garlic, and onion.
5. Bake for 5 minutes and remove from oven.
6. Add, in the following order, the remaining ingredients. Sauce, chicken, spinach, cheese.
7. Bake for 5-10 more minutes until cheese is melted and crust browns.
8. Slice and serve!
Enjoy!
For more information check out:
"Tomatoes" by Thomas Whiteside (the New Yorker, January 24, 1977)
"A Matter of Taste: Who Killed the Flavor in America's Supermarket Tomatoes?" by Craig Canine (Eating Well, Jan/Feb 1991)
"Politics of the Plate: The Price of Tomatoes" by Barry Estabrook (Gourmet, March 2009)
