Harvesting and Canning Tomato

choi

Mark Bittman, Not All Industrial Food Is Evil. New York Times, Aug 18, 2013 (in print).
opinionator.blogs.nytimes.com/2013/08/17/not-all-industrial-food-is-evil/

Quote:

"Water and fertilizer are supplied through subsoil irrigation — a network of buried tubing — which reduces waste and runoff and assures roughly uniform delivery along the row.

"The tomatoes are bred to ripen simultaneously because there is just one harvest.


Note:
(a) "I headed to the Sacramento Valley in California to see a big tomato operation"

For Sacramento Valley, see Central Valley (California)
en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Central_Valley_(California)
(comprises the Sacramento Valley in the north, and the San Joaquin Valley in the south)
(b) "I began by touring Bruce Rominger’s farm in Winters. * * * here are diversity, crop rotation, cover crops"
(i) Winters, California
en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Winters,_California
(a city; The name is in honor of Theodore Winters, who provided half of the town's land)
(ii) cover crop
en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Cover_crop

For example, section 1 Soil fertility management takes about growing legumes to fix nitrogen from air.

(c) "I mounted the harvester, a 35-foot-long machine that cuts the vine underground and lifts it into its belly, where belts and sensors return dirt, vine, root and green tomatoes to the soil. (All this material is either turned back into the soil or left for sheep to graze on.) Two people on each side sort the continual stream of tomatoes manually before a conveyor transfers the tomatoes by chute to a gondola. When one gondola is full (it holds 25 tons), it’s replaced by another. This way, Rominger can harvest around 20 acres in a 24-hour period: 1,000 tons. He estimates his cost at $3,000 per acre and hopes for a $500 profit on each. * * * Fifty years ago, tomatoes were picked by hand, backbreaking piecework that involved filling and lugging 50-pound boxes. * * * the mechanical harvester was controversial when it was first introduced — the United Farm Workers fought its use, fearing it would cost jobs — it revolutionized the industry. (Its impact has been compared to that of the cotton gin.) Yields have more than doubled since the 1960s, and California now produces almost all the canned tomatoes and paste in the United States and more than a third of the world’s. For 12 to 14 weeks every summer, Rominger and other growers are harvesting 24/7."
(i) Gondola has many different definitions. Here:

Gondola (disambiguation)
en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Gondola_(disambiguation)
(may refer to  Gondola (rail), a type of railroad car with an open top and enclosed sides, for carrying loose bulk materials)
(ii) mechanical harvester (as well as two gondolas hauled by a motor alongside) for tomato in Rominger’s farm:

California Tomato Research: America's Heartland. Uploaded by americasheartland on Dec 19, 2011.
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=xKIgX_wBmFs

At both 3:07-3:20 and 4:12-4:23 is a mechanical harvester at work. At 1:14-1:20 are the two gondolas.

(d) "The canneries also operate nonstop. My next visit was to Pacific Coast Producers (PCP), a co-op down the road. * * * This year, it’s [PCP's paymenbt to tomato growers is] somewhere around 3.5 cents per pound; if you’re wondering what percentage of the price of the canned tomato you buy goes to the farmer, I’m figuring it’s around 2. * * * the [cannery] plant is unionized. So, according to a P.C.P. spokesman, the average wage is about $17 an hour, and there are benefits."

There are video clips uploaded by PCP, but I do not find them informative.