1. Across Space and Through Time: Tomatl Meets the Corporate Tomato

2. 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.

3. The Journey of the Corporate Tomato
21 steps from production to consumption for a corporate tomato

4. Steps 1-10: Mexico

5. Tomato’s Early History
Tomatoes first domesticated by the Mayans
and Aztecs (named Tomatl, meaning round and plump)
grown for centuries in Mexico by indigenous people using traditional agricultural practices (great variety)
Step 1: Colonial Conquest
Spanish 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.

6. 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

7. 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.

8. 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

9. Step 5: Gendered Fields
Most 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?

10. Step 7: Tomatoes, Trade and Agroexports
Mexico 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 Nino
In 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

11. The average lifespan of a tomato is only 4.7 days
Step 9: Processing
Second grade tomatoes are sold in Mexican markets or processed into products like salsa and ketchup
Step 10: Trucking
Tomatoes are transported in refrigerated trucks across the border by independent truckers
The average lifespan of a tomato is only 4.7 days

13. 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 Quality
Most 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

14. Step 13:Border of Inequalities
The 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/Importing
Transported to warehouse and sold to wholesalers

15. The Hidden Cost of Production
Consider the hidden costs of ecological damage and transportation of goods

16. 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

17. 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)

18. 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)

19. NAFTA and Tomato Disputes
Pre 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 by
NAFTA.)
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 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 below market price).