The Ecology of Pizza
(Page 4 of 7)
June/July 2006
By Sandra Steingraber
Cost of conventional olive oil: $1.44
Cost of organic olive oil: $2.35
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Tomato (Lycopersicon lycopersicum)
Tomatoes are vulnerable to at least 14 fungal diseases (with names that end with words like blight, rot, wilt or canker) and an equally impressive number of insect pests. Many commercial tomato farms in Florida sterilize the soil with a fumigant called methyl bromide. This chemical kills everything its vapors touch — insects, weeds, fungus, earthworms, rodents, disease pathogens.
Methyl bromide is highly toxic to those who apply it. Colorless, odorless and instantly absorbed in the lungs, the fumigant is responsible for more than 1,000 documented pesticide poisonings in the United States since 1932. It is a neurotoxin that causes seizures, vomiting, tremors, slurred speech and pulmonary edema. A recent study of more than 55,000 U.S. farmers found that methyl bromide is associated with cases of prostate cancer — those with the most exposure had triple the risk.
Methyl bromide also destroys more ozone than chlorofluorocarbons. Its use was scheduled to be phased out in the United States by 2005. However, the United States requested permission from the United Nations to use more methyl bromide in 2005 than in 2003 — that’s more of a phase-in than a phase-out. Florida uses almost half the methyl bromide applied to U.S. fields.
So, our tomato-buying habits can subsidize an industry desperately lobbying for the right to use a chemical that destroys the part of the atmosphere that protects us from sunburn and skin cancer. As a mother who struggles mightily to limit my childrens’ exposure to sun, I would like the pizza sauce I feed them to be in line with my efforts to keep their hats on at the beach.
Charles Wilber, an organic tomato grower in Alabama, appears in the Guinness Book of World Records for the biggest tomato yield on a single tomato plant — 342 pounds! His secrets are mulch and birds. Wilber places birdhouses around his fields and provides birdseed in the winter. The birds, in turn, eat the hornworms on his tomatoes. He uses cardboard collars to keep cutworms off the stalks and plants Austrian peas around his fields to distract aphids. “My methods compete with synthetic fertilizers,” Wilber says.
Cost of conventional tomato paste: $0.50
Cost of organic tomato paste: $0.99
Cost of conventional fresh tomatoes: $1.20
Cost of organic fresh tomatoes: $0.69
Garlic (Allium sativum)
Garlic reproduces by cloning itself; one clove buds off about 12 to 15 more. This is not a lot of bang for the buck, considering that farmers who save their own planting stock must keep 10 percent to 12 percent of their harvest. The miserly asexuality of garlic is one reason for its high price.
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