Should I be prejudiced about tomatoes from Mexico?

[billbuckhead]

Last month I bought an onion from Peru, ate it and didn't die. I didn't think anything of eating it at first, in fact I was positive about it since the ancient Peruvian developed all these world beating crops such as maize, tomatoes, cocoa, potatoes, etc. But later I worried about human waste used as fertilizer. I looked at all the tomatoes in Target tonite and I liked the look of this tomato. I didn't bother to look at the label. I heard in the media there was a glut of tomatoes and assumed it was from Florida. I've bought tomatoes from Holland and Canada and didn't bat an eye about eating them. I thought about cooking this tomato instead of using it in salad. I'm I being prejudiced for no good reason? Besides, do I owe anything to American "heartland" farmers anymore since they vote RepuKKK so dominantly?.

[smurfygirl]

1. wash the tomato with a drop or two of dish soap

that will get rid of the nasty stuff including pesticides

[bobweaver]

2. Grow your own tomatoes, it's extremely easy and they taste much better.

[aMurder.com]

3. You don't owe those farmers a thing

They'd slit your throat in a heart-beat. Who let the sheep become the farmers?

[mitchtv]

4. most likely they are fine.

we get fruit and veges from all over the hemisphere here in Socal. particularly from Chile in the winter. Besides the govt in Mexico is friendlier than that of Florida( where Mexicans probably picked the highly sprayed US product) right now we have some great Mangos from Equador. I don't know where Our fresh corn is coming from, but I am curious.

[karlrschneider]

5. In Georgia, you can grow them yourself year 'round with no problem

I do so here in Oklahoma (same climate)...just take a sheet of that plastic you bought, as we all did (uh huh) for the 'terist attacks', grab a few sticks to hold it up and plant some in your yard. 3 or 4 plants will make more tomatos than you can eat. :D

Might wanna start them indoors preferably on a window sill facing south.
I keep a garden going pretty much all the time, nothing beats fresh veggies. ;-)

[jdj]

11. cool, thanks for the tip.

I live in Piedmont NC, and have heard of the hot box or whatever it is called.

Right now they have been $3.99 a pound for forever.

I don't believe washing them gets off the pesticide. It may get off surface pesticide, but not the stuff that penetrates, and what about chemical fertilizer?

[radwriter0555]

6. Tomatoes from MX have less chemicals and cancer causing fertilizers

and crap than the nasty stuff grown here in bleached out dirt.

Why would something be wrong with a mexican tomato?

[notadmblnd]

7. Washing it off before eating it should be sufficient I think

I don't know how much different human fertilizer is from cow or horse manure, but the later fertilizers have been used for years in planting.

I would imagine there would be some kind of treatment/drying process that would be used on the human waste before using it as fertilizer.

I remember when I was young, I watched my grandfather clean the sceptic tank at their house. My grandfather spread spread it out over the lawn. I swear they had the greenest grass in the neighborhood. I don't recall eating the grass, but we played in the grass after it had dried and never got sick

[Elwood P Dowd]

8. Beware

Some veggies coming from Mexico are irrigated with sewage water and coated in insecticides and herbicides banned in the US. A friend of mine went down there years ago on some USDA trip. Said he would never, ever again eat ANYTHING grown in Mexico after that trip. Not only that, the damn things taste awful compared to those you can grow at home.

[Lisa]

9. some longer-term issues

A woman I know who studies ancient Mexican crop varieties (peppers, tomatoes, corn) says that every time she goes there, fewer farmers are growing the unique traditional types that were originally developed in areas like Oaxaca. The farmers are telling her that they want to keep saving their seeds and growing those unique and special crops. One old guy showed her a type of pepper which is easily hotter than the Caribbean Habanero, the hottest kind sold in most North American stores. It might be extinct by the end of the decade, if he dies and nobody else down there wants to keep up the genetic lines.

However -- the competitive pressure from farmers that have switched to the high-yield commercial hybrids is just too much for many growers. Plus, a lot of North American buyers turn their noses up at "ugly" produce (as we saw recently with Florida's "Uglyripe" tomato, reported earlier on DU). It's "their" approved seed, or no sale!

Some Mexican produce is organic -- I try to buy that, in the hopes that maybe some of the old varieties are being kept up.

[Stinky The Clown]

10. Two things come up for me .......

First, who the hell is the "American Farmer" any more? I admit to living in a big northeastern city and to knowing little more about farmers than I can see from 40,000 feet when I go to the other coast. But isn't the mythical "American Farmer" of American Gothic fame just that ..... a myth? More than likely American produce comes from American Agribusiness. No Lassie and Timmy on **that** "farm".

Secondly, I don't worry much about Central or South American produce. In the end, it doesn't get here without meeting some minimal standards for safety. To be sure, some can slip through (the strawberry scandal a few years ago?). These countries have raised their standards and in many ways rely on such agriculture to counter the temptation to grow drug crops.

I had a Mexican tomato just tonight that actually tasted damn near what a good home grown tomato tastes like. It was a Mexican hydroponic.

[jdj]

12. I think it is something like 3% of the population, down from 50%

in less than a century.

But it may grow if people get sick of agribusiness.

[porkrind]

13. Should be fine unless it was next to a crop of week or coke

the CIA was dropping agent orange on. :)