Wanna See Something Really Scary?

I will never forget, when I was about nineteen, my mother said, “tomatoes don’t taste like tomatoes anymore.” I was perplexed by this comment. If tomatoes didn’t taste like tomatoes, then what did they taste like? To which my mother answered, “they don’t really have any taste.”

Sadly, it would be several years before I fully understood the impact of my mother’s comment. The truth was, even though I had been on the planet for nearly two decades, I had never really tasted a tomato and therefore I had no idea what it was my mother remembered. In fact, my most poignant tomato story was roughly five years ago at an Italian restaurant in West L.A. The owner came to our table and lectured us on the many varieties of tomatoes – different colors, flavors and sweetnesses. He spoke of his personal gardens and clarified that he grew all of the tomatoes on the menu.

Fast-forwarding to this past August, I flew to L.A. for just under two weeks. Shortly before my departure, one of my aunts had paid me a visit from Trinidad. She was traveling around the U.S. for the entire summer visiting both family and friends. Just before her Atlanta arrival, she had been in Maryland visiting another set of relatives who happen to have an organic garden. Our Maryland cousins sent my aunt with several bags of produce. I was pleased to see among other things tomatoes, cucumbers, carrots and yellow squash. Although we tried, we were unable to eat everything before the both of us departed. As I locked up my house, I didn’t realize the experiment that was about to take place. In addition to the organic vegetables in my refrigerator, there were also what are now known as “conventional vegetables.” These where purchases I had made at the grocery store even before my aunt’s arrival. Conventional vegetables are not organic and are sometimes dyed, waxed and/or irradiated to preserve freshness. Most of the large grocery store chains are filled with conventional vegetables although they are catching on and now have organic corners where organic produce is displayed.

On day 12, when I returned from L.A., I opened my refrigerator and was stunned by what I saw. There were two organic cucumbers and one organic yellow squash. The organic cucumbers had shriveled to one-third of their original size and they were covered in mold. It appeared as if they had festering sores as liquid oozed from them. And the organic yellow squash was not much better. But it was fascinating to compare these pieces to the conventional yellow squash that looked as if I had just bought it a few days before. It was still a shiny, rich, yellow color and it appeared to be exactly the same size that it was when I left. And don’t forget I had bought it even before my aunt’s arrival. It had surely been in my refrigerator for more than three weeks. In my haste to clean out my refrigerator, I dashed the rotten organic vegetables in the trash. Again, I apologize for not photographing them first to share how marked a difference there was with you.

But here’s the problem I have with how things turned out. Remember whether it’s for decomposition or digestion, bacteria is what causes food to break down. Conventional produce has been tinkered with in many different ways to prevent it from breaking down. Even after weeks in the refrigerator, conventional produce will look brand new. And the chains of distribution that we use like this because it gives them extra time to get the produce on the shelves. In fact, millions of dollars are spent on pesticides and genetic engineering as well as on irradiation, waxing and dyes. But I still ask a question I find quite logical. If all of this processing prevents it from breaking down in the environment, does it also prevent the bacterial breakdown necessary for digestion? Think of that as food for thought.

Given what I know now I try to buy exclusively organic produce, but this is not always possible as conventional produce still represents the majority of what’s in the marketplace.

In the spirit of the Halloween season, I say to you “Caveat Emptor” or buyer beware. Just as we disguise ourselves as something we are not, foods are being presented to us that are not quite what they seem. A few weeks ago, I arrived in a store that normally carries organic avocados, but this day there were only conventional ones. The avocado pictured is a conventional one that seemed to be ripening quite well, but when I cut it open, it appeared to be rotting from the inside out. With conventional avocados I have found this phenomenon on several occasions, which is why I try to avoid them. Perhaps it relates to the same root cause of why conventional tomatoes have no taste. In any event, it is only recently that I have begun to understand the value of fresh, organic food in terms of the taste and the energy that it supplies. And I hope none of your produce purchases are Jack O’lanterns when you bring them home.