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Tomato plants have been removed from stores in half a dozen states as a destructive and infectious plant disease makes its earliest and most widespread appearance ever in the eastern United States.

Late blight -- the same disease that caused the Irish Potato Famine in the 1840s -- occurs sporadically in the Northeast, but this year's outbreak is more severe for two reasons: infected plants have been widely distributed by big-box retail stores and rainy weather has hastened the spores' airborne spread.

The disease, which is not harmful to humans, is extremely contagious and experts say it most likely spread on garden center shelves to plants not involved in the initial infection. It also can spread once plants reach their final destination, putting tomato and potato plants in both home gardens and commercial fields at risk.

Meg McGrath, professor of plant pathology at Cornell University, calls late blight "worse than the Bubonic Plague for plants." - AP via Yahoo Finance

Labels: disaster, disease, Tomatoes

Purchasing managers for Kraft Foods and Frito-Lay have admitted taking a total of $318,000 in bribes from a broker at a major Central California tomato processor while arranging to buy the company's products at inflated prices, federal prosecutors said Tuesday.

A third defendant pleaded guilty Tuesday to defrauding his former employer, a tomato products manufacturer and marketer, out of $975,000 before leaving in 2005 to join the tomato processor, SK Foods of Lemoore (Kings County). The charges, filed in U.S. District Court in Sacramento, are part of a federal price-fixing investigation involving SK Foods.

...Prosecutors have said the corruption alleged in the case has raised consumer prices for tomato sauces, soups and salsas. The charges announced Tuesday provided the first few details. - SFGate

Before World War II, there were commercial growers and canners in many states — including Delaware, Virginia, Utah, New Jersey and New York — and California produced only 20% of the nation’s tomatoes. Thanks to the development of both mechanical harvesting equipment and tomato varieties that can be picked by machine, the number rose to 50% in 1953, and reached 95% in 2007.

...Concentration in the tomato industry goes beyond the farm, into the seed business, where just three companies — Heinz, Bayer CropScience and Monsanto — control 90% of the market.

Labels: California Agriculture, farming, Frito-Lay, Illegal, Kraft Foods, Tomatoes

Labels: FDA, Jalapenos, Peppers, salmonella, Tomatoes

Labels: cartoons, Tomatoes, YouTube

And this salmonella scare isn't California's fault.

Labels: FDA, Recalls, Tomatoes

Star of the kitchen
Originally uploaded by Rune T

...Nearly a year ago, Burger King’s top competitor, McDonald’s, signed a groundbreaking agreement to pay a penny more per pound to workers harvesting tomatoes, which means the workers get 72 cents to 77 cents for every 32-pound bucket of tomatoes they pick, up from 40 cents to 45 cents.

But Burger King, the world’s second-largest hamburger chain, has rejected working with the CIW to improve farm workers’ wages and conditions. - aflcio and indybay

Labels: farming, Fast Food, labor, Tomatoes, unions