Articles from July 2011



“Let Me Just Say It, Buy this Book.” Sam Fromartz, Author of “Organic, Inc.” Reviewing “Tomatoland” at Chews Wise

Posted by Barry on July 18, 2011

Over the past few years, a slew of food books have appeared on everything from oysters to oranges, Twinkies to beans. Heck, I’m even writing one about grains and bread, which explains my relative absence here recently. But in Tomatoland: How Modern Industrial Agriculture Destroyed Our Most Alluring Fruit, Barry Estabrook takes what might appear [...]

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It’s Official. This Week Has Been Declared “Tomatoland” Week Here at Politics of the Plate. Time for You to Step Up to the Plate. Please.

Posted by Barry on July 11, 2011

So, do you enjoy Politics of the Plate? Do you occasionally come across something about our dysfunctional food system on this site that other reporters don’t or won’t cover? If so, I would like to ask a big favor. If you ever plan to buy a copy of my book, “Tomatoland,” could you do it [...]

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The New York Times Reviews Tomatoland

Posted by Barry on July 6, 2011

Jonathan Lethem has seen the future of agribusiness, and that future is strange. In his novel “Girl in Landscape” (1998), he imagined humans inhabiting a new planet where meals grow inside “potatoes” that can be planted and harvested. Among the flavors: meat, cake and tea. “Fish,” one character announces, as if he were Ferran Adrià, [...]

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