God Save the Tomatoes.
Posted on August 11, 2009 by diane
The NYTimes had a great Op-Ed piece recently on the plight of organic farmers. Titled “You Say Tomato, I Say Agricultural Disaster“, the story spells out the latest challenge for farmers in the Northeast: a plant disease that attacks potatoes and tomatoes. This year the disease appeared much earlier than usual in the growing season.
The disease is called “late blight”, hence it typically appears “late” in the season. This year however it showed up early and covered the Northeast in just a few days. Topical organic preventative measures have been much less effective than in years past:
Jack Algiere, head vegetable farmer at the Stone Barns Center for Food and Agriculture… lost more than half his field tomatoes in three days. Other organic farmers were forced to make a brutal choice: spray their tomato plants with fungicides, and lose organic certification, or watch the crop disappear. Even for farmers who routinely spray, or who reluctantly spray precautionary amounts, this year’s blight lowered yields. (Fungicides work only to suppress the disease, not cure it.) As one plant pathologist told me, “Farmers are out there praying and spraying.”
If you’re like me and enjoy flavorful organic tomatoes, it’s going to be much harder to get them this year. And when you do find them, expect to pay more. So goes the challenge of organic farming… It’s more difficult to control the spread of disease without the use of conventional methods (and pesticides), but it’s oh so much better tasting and better for you.
Fingers crossed that this setback does not hurt farmers too badly. I need my tomatoes.
