Tomatoland: How modern industrial agriculture destroyed our most alluring fruit review
There is a very good reason why tomatoes are the most popular vegetable grown in the home garden, you can’t beat the taste of a home grown tomato. Tomatoland
Matter of Taste
As many of you may or not know below is what your delicious red tomato looks like when picked from the vine. By picking the tomatoes young this helps prevent fungal diseases prone to the humid Florida area where a good portion of our tomatoes from grocery stores and restaurants are grown. This also assists in the transportation of these tomatoes without damage to areas like where I live which is about far away from Florida as you can get. So how does these less appealing tomatoes look like the perfect ones we see in the stores? Once they reach their destination they are gassed with ethylene to give them their nice red appearance.
There have also been decades of breeding to produce a perfectly round, high yielding tomato, disease tolerant, and of proper size. Unfortunately during this process taste has not really been a consideration into this breading process. Along with taste tomatoes have lost much of the nutritional value they have had in the past. “According to analyses conducted by the U.S. Department of Agriculture, 100 grams of fresh tomato today has 30 percent less vitamin C, 30 percent less thiamin, 19 percent less niacin, and 62 percent less calcium. So you grandmother may have been correct telling you to eat your vegetables back in the day…sadly maybe this is no longer the case.
Human Factor
Most people are aware that insecticides and pesticides are used to grow most of our commercially produced produce. We have been told that end up on our fruits are so small that there is no risk to humans. This statement is definitely an easily arguable statement but in this book the author goes into great detail of the effects of these pesticides on the farm workers who were forced to go into fields too soon before application and in many cases pesticides actually being sprayed directly on the workers. As a result this led to many cases of reproductive issues with the farmers leading to many cases of amoralities of children at birth as well as sickness and injuries, rashes during the immediate exposure.
The book also details the outright slavery existing in the Florida tomato fields as less than a decade ago. This is something that surprised me that I had not heard about this. There are also examples of modern day indentured servitude by offering an appealing wage but then extorting money from the workers for simple items such as water, “showers” (using a garden hose to rinse of pesticides, food, and premium rent at living quarters which normally would include sharing a small trailer with several other men.
Overall
Overall I thought Tomatoland was a great book and help reinforce my reasons for growing my own produce and supporting my local organic farmers. It also encouraged me to me aware of who’s hands my food my travel as I decide to make a purchase at my local grocery store. I would recommend this book to anyone who feels that paying a little extra for organic products is just too much to pay or anyone simply interested in how the tomato industry is run.
Can Planting Vegetables in Vacant Lots Save Cleveland?
http://www.wired.com/wiredscience/2011/08/growing-self-sufficient-cities/?utm_source=feedburner&utm_medium=feed&utm_campaign=Feed%3A+wired%2Findex+%28Wired%3A+Index+3+%28Top+Stories+2%29%29
Light LED’s with FIRE!
Reader [Andre] sent in a link which tells us all about this “cool” Copper Oxide Thermoelectric Generator. All you need is a bit of solid copper wire and a gas torch. Burn the wire so it gets a nice coating of oxide. From there, it is a matter of making the 2 sections of burned wire cross at a point and heat up only one of the wires. Whichever is hotter forms a cathode and whichever one is cooler is the anode.
Just one of these junctions is enough to produce a few hundred millivolts, but the author takes it a step further, well 16 steps further. He made a ring of these junctions in series, which is enough to light a bright blue LED. While the author notes that this thing is producing a considerable amount of voltage, its not producing much amperage. This could come in very handy in the future, like if you need some additional LED lighting for your camp stove.
Filed under: chemistry hacks
Need a Job? How About $600 for 4 Hours a Day
Wanted: 20 Healthy Males Who Want over $600 for 4-Hour Work a Day for One Month to Help Disaster-Affected TohokuIt's probably a job in the disaster-affected area called Fukushima I Nuclear Power Plant...
Anyone care to join "Fukushima 50"? It's not too late. They need fresh workers in the "new normal" at the plant where 10 sieverts/hour radiation is considered no big deal. (TEPCO says it doesn't matter because no work is planned in the area of 10-plus sieverts/hr radiation.)
Someone in Japan (t2aki) posted the photo of an ad on a utility pole, which reads:
Urgently Wanted
50,000 yen [US$648] per day
4 hours a day work
(and in handwriting)
Only for one month (20 working days)
2 days of training given
Work to assist recovery in the disaster affected area in Tohoku
No age limit
Healthy males
20 workers wanted
Probably an ad by a subcontractor of a subcontractor of a subcontractor .... many degrees removed from TEPCO.
Death By XBOX
Game addict, 20, killed by deep vein thrombosisDeep vein thrombosis (also known as deep venous thrombosis and usually abbreviated as DVT) is the formation of a blood clot (“thrombus”) in a deep vein. http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Deep_vein_thrombosis
A LAD of 20 has been killed by a blood clot caused by playing his Xbox for up to 12 hours at a time.
A post mortem revealed that Chris Staniforth – addicted to games such as Halo – had suffered a deep vein thrombosis. It can be triggered by sitting in one position for long spells.Stunned dad David, of Sheffield, said: “He lived for his Xbox. I never dreamed he was in any danger.”As a parent you think playing computer games can’t do them any harm because you know what they are doing.”Kids all over the country are playing these games for long periods – they don’t realise it could kill them.”
Chris collapsed seconds after telling a friend how he had been experiencing a strange sensation in his chest.
The pair were chatting outside a JobCentre where Chris had an interview.
David said: “He told his friend how he was woken in the night by a strange feeling in his chest.
“He said his heart rate had been incredibly low but it went back to normal and he fell asleep again.
Read more: http://www.shtfnews.com/death-xbox-no-bs/#ixzz1TiCPmgZj