Across Space and Through Time: Tomatl Meets the Corporate

Tomato

Corporate Tomato and Tomatl

• Tomatl is the Aztec word for tomato, and is used here to indicate a traditionally grown tomato.

• Corporate tomatoes are the type of tomatoes grown as a commodity in large scale operations and treated with technology.

The Journey of the Corporate Tomato

21 steps from production to consumption for a corporate tomato

Steps 1-10: Mexico

Tomato’s Early History Tomatoes first domesticated by the Mayansand Aztecs (named Tomatl, meaning round and plump)• grown for centuries in Mexico by indigenous people using

traditional agricultural practices (great variety)

Step 1: Colonial ConquestSpanish conquistadores brought tomatoes to Europe where they were

widely believed to be poisonous. • caught on in Europe when the Italians started to use them in their

cuisine• French settlers brought tomatoes to Quebec and Louisiana (18th

Century)Tomato is now the most widely grown and traded fruit in the Americas.

Step 2: Struggle for Land

Mexican Campesinos are loosing access to land that has been traditionally used for growing tomatoes.

•1980s – government policies privatized communal lands and encouraged foreign investment

•1990s- NAFTA increased agroexports

Even those who have land have been affected- land has been degraded by years of fertilizer and pesticide use

Step 3: Monocultures led by US Agriculture

History of Mexico’s tomato exports to US

• Tomatoes were the first fruit produced for export to the US• Have been exported since 1880s• Gradually adopted standardization procedures to compete with the US• By 1994, tomatoes accounted for 22.6% of all fruit and vegetables exported from Mexico while using only 3.5% of available land

Monocultural and Cash Crop Production has replaced traditional tomato cultivation (“factories in the fields”)

The low wages of those that work for large agribusinesses as labors reflect the assumption that they would also have to subsistence farm in order to survive.

Step 4:Multinationals Control Technology

Seeds have become the intellectual property of multinational corporations resulting in both

• loss of ownership and control of the seeds• Loss of knowledge about traditional varieties of seeds

Those that own rights to the seeds often push their own brand of agrochemicals

Agrochemicals• produced overseas by large corporations• promoted to uphold the “blemish free” ideal in produce• workers are not trained in safe use of these products and an

estimated 3 million are poisoned by agrochemicals each year

Step 5: Gendered FieldsMost workers in the field are women and children

(they are thought to be more gentle when picking) • Pick 40 pails a day to earn 28 pesos (about $5 US)

Step 6: Selecting and Packing the Perfect Tomato

Tomatoes are unloaded from crates into a chute that sprays them with water, they are then dried and sprayed with wax

Then the tomatoes are hand sorted into grades by size, ripeness and color

“Perfect” tomatoes are exported Imperfect tomatoes are sold domestically (for 1/3 the price) Perfect?

Step 7: Tomatoes, Trade and AgroexportsMexico has a comparative advantage in producing tomatoes (more sun,

cheaper labor, more land available), more and more large agrobusinesses are moving growing operations there

• ships 700,000 tons of tomatoes to the US and Canada each year

Tomatoes often wait at processing plants waiting for prices to change • stored at cool temperatures to prevent ripening• sprayed with ethylene to speed up ripening (rooms are locked for 24 hours

because ethylene is dangerous for humans to inhale

Step 8: El NinoIn recent years, bad weather like snowstorms and heavy rains have been devastating to tomato crops.

Global weather is changing due to pollution and environmental damage

Step 9: Processing

Second grade tomatoes are sold in Mexican markets or processed into products like salsa and ketchup

Step 10: TruckingTomatoes are transported in refrigerated trucks across the border by

independent truckers

The average lifespan of a tomato is only 4.7 days

Step 11: Controlling the Gates

US companies “dump” chemicals that have been banned in the US on the Mexican market

Tomatoes treated with these agrochemicals are then imported back into the states

USDA inspects imports at several points• looking more for drugs or those seeking illegal entry into the country

Step 12: Checking for QualityMost inspection takes place on the Mexican side of the border

• Tomatoes are checked for defects (mostly appearance) • to be suitable, no more than 10% can have quality defects

Step 13:Border of InequalitiesThe Mexican/US border (symbolic)• tomato prices rise across the border, so does standard of living• divides worker and management

Step 14: Keeping Pests and Pesticides at Bay

Some trucks are subjected for further testing on the US side of the border to a US Customs facility to be tested by the USDA and the FDA• a tomato is randomly selected and a chunk is sent to a lab to be tested for pesticides (only1% of all incoming tomatoes are tested)•checked for pests or plant life

Step 15: Exporting/ImportingTransported to warehouse and sold to wholesalers

The Hidden Cost of Production

Consider the hidden costs of ecological damage and transportation of goods

Tomatoes as a Commodity • Changing attitudes about tomatoes and tomato production have

changed tomatoes from a living entity into a commodity• Food is viewed as a purely financial endeavor (profit)• Global agriculture destroys biodiversity, cultural diversity,

indigenous knowledge and understandings of nature• Farming has become increasingly industrialized and business

oriented

Industrialization of Farming•Farmers are sold “technological package”

-seeds, agrochemicals, machinery

•US policy of subsidizing created food surplus which were exported as “food aid”

-undermined local prices and forced industrialization

Ecological and social effects of Industrialization

• Farmers forced to buy seed every year, increasing costs and dependence on purchasing and agribusiness

• Reduced biodiversity, which lead to crops that were venerable to pests

• Increased the need for harmful agrochemicals (chemical treadmill)• Failed to take into account structural inequalities, applied policy

without regard to culture or economic and social consequences• Development of transgenic plants

– Developed by multinational corporations who own intellectual property rights (monopoly control of the seed market)

The Flavr Savr Tomato• One of the first widely known genetically

altered foods• Altered to keep fresher longer on the vine

without rotting, could be picked ripe • extracted from a tomato cell the gene

responsible for turning on the production of the enzyme that produces ethylene (which causes ripening and rotting), reversed the elements on the gene to slow both processes; and they reinserted the mirror image version into the tomato plant (antisense)

• Consumers were wary of genetically engineered foods, and it’s buyers (Campbell’s soup) backed out of using the tomatoes in 1995

• Calgene (owned the patent on the Flavr Savr) invested $4.2 million in developing it, company financially ruined (bought out by Monsanto)

NAFTA and Tomato Disputes

• Pre 1995- Limited Mexican tomato imports in certain months • In 1995, Florida tomato growers took complaints to International Trade

Commission (ITC) -wanted punitive tariffs on Mexican tomatoes -wanted to charge Mexico with illegal competition, or dumping.

(the first tests of the dispute mechanisms established byNAFTA.)• In July 1996, the ITC ruled in Mexico's favor on the first issue and decided

not to impose punitive tariffs.

• Became politically charged issue in the 1996 election• October 1996- the U.S. government reached agreement with the• Mexican producers • -suspended the dumping charge and fixed the floor price for

Mexican tomatoes (still sold at 17.56 below market price).