Tomato production in Florida

Florida is the largest producer of fresh-market tomatoes in the United States.^[1]^[2]

Season

Harvest is almost year-round, from October to June.^[1] The highest temperatures of the summer from July to September end profitable yield and even the heat of June and October limit productivity, such that April to May and November to January are the largest harvests of the year.^[1] Federal Crop Insurance for fresh tomatoes specifically excludes insects and diseases.^[3]

Diseases

Tomato Bacterial Spot is caused by Xanthomonas axonopodis pv. vesicatoria. Tomato Bacterial Speck is produced by Pseudomonas syringae pv. tomato. Both are economically significant in fresh-market tomato here.^[4]

Treatments

Acibenzolar-S-methyl (ASM) is a plant activator producing systemic acquired resistance (SAR).^[4] In a very widely regarded experiment Louws et al., 2001 used ASM to protect fresh tomato cultivation here against Tomato Bacterial Spot and Tomato Bacterial Speck.^[4] Over four years they treated with ASM as an alternative to copper bactericide and achieved almost total control with no yield loss.^[4] (Some fungicides were required to complement the bacterial control of ASM.)^[4] This result is spoken of worldwide when discussing basic plant biology, SAR, induced systemic resistance, the biology of Xanthomonads, and the need for alternative pesticides due to resistance, including phage therapy in agriculture.^{[citation needed]}

Labor

The Florida tomato industry has historically relied on migrant labor.^[5] Exploitation of that labor was widespread with the town of Immokalee, Florida being "known as ground zero for modern day slavery."^[6]

References

^ ^a ^b ^c "FE1027/FE1027: The US Tomato Industry: An Overview of Production and Trade". Electronic Data Information Source (EDIS). Institute of Food and Agricultural Sciences (IFAS), University of Florida. 2021-08-30. FE1027. Retrieved 2022-06-28.
^ "Tomatoes". Agricultural Marketing Resource Center. 2022-06-27. Retrieved 2022-06-28.
^ "7 CFR § 457.139 - Fresh market tomato (dollar plan) crop insurance provisions". Legal Information Institute (LII). 2016-07-25. Retrieved 2022-06-28.
^ ^a ^b ^c ^d ^e
- Louws, F. J.; Wilson, M.; Campbell, H. L.; Cuppels, D. A.; Jones, J. B.; Shoemaker, P. B.; Sahin, F.; Miller, S. A. (2001). "Field Control of Bacterial Spot and Bacterial Speck of Tomato Using a Plant Activator". Plant Disease. 85 (5). Scientific Societies: 481–488. doi:10.1094/pdis.2001.85.5.481. ISSN 0191-2917. PMID 30823123. S2CID 73460581.
- Balogh, B.; Jones, Jeffrey; Iriarte, F.; Momol, M. (2010-01-01). "Phage Therapy for Plant Disease Control". Current Pharmaceutical Biotechnology. 11 (1). Bentham Science Publishers: 48–57. doi:10.2174/138920110790725302. ISSN 1389-2010. PMID 20214607. S2CID 20820594.
- Jones, J.B.; Jackson, L.E.; Balogh, B.; Obradovic, A.; Iriarte, F.B.; Momol, M.T. (2007-09-08). "Bacteriophages for Plant Disease Control". Annual Review of Phytopathology. 45 (1). Annual Reviews: 245–262. doi:10.1146/annurev.phyto.45.062806.094411. ISSN 0066-4286. PMID 17386003. S2CID 5855317.
- Vallad, Gary E.; Goodman, Robert M. (2004). "Systemic Acquired Resistance and Induced Systemic Resistance in Conventional Agriculture". Crop Science. 44 (6). Crop Science Society of America (Wiley): 1920–1934. doi:10.2135/cropsci2004.1920. ISSN 0011-183X. S2CID 6247143.
- Bostock, Richard M. (2005-09-01). "Signal Crosstalk and Induced Resistance: Straddling the Line Between Cost and Benefit". Annual Review of Phytopathology. 43 (1). Annual Reviews: 545–580. doi:10.1146/annurev.phyto.41.052002.095505. ISSN 0066-4286. PMID 16078895. S2CID 21909342.
- Beckers, Gerold J. M.; Conrath, Uwe (2007). "Priming for stress resistance: from the lab to the field". Current Opinion in Plant Biology. 10 (4). Elsevier: 425–431. doi:10.1016/j.pbi.2007.06.002. ISSN 1369-5266. PMID 17644024. S2CID 23649117.
- Walters, Dale; Heil, Martin (2007). "Costs and trade-offs associated with induced resistance". Physiological and Molecular Plant Pathology. 71 (1–3). Elsevier: 3–17. doi:10.1016/j.pmpp.2007.09.008. ISSN 0885-5765. S2CID 83039636.
- Potnis, Neha; Timilsina, Sujan; Strayer, Amanda; Shantharaj, Deepak; Barak, Jeri D.; Paret, Mathews L.; Vallad, Gary E.; Jones, Jeffrey B. (2015-04-29). "Bacterial spot of tomato and pepper: diverse Xanthomonas species with a wide variety of virulence factors posing a worldwide challenge". Molecular Plant Pathology. 16 (9). British Society for Plant Pathology (Wiley): 907–920. doi:10.1111/mpp.12244. ISSN 1464-6722. PMC 6638463. PMID 25649754. S2CID 22892749.
^ Jonsson, Patrik. "Trafficking: In Florida's tomato fields, a fight for ethical farm labor grows". Christian Science Monitor. Retrieved 15 May 2023.
^ Cohen, Lisa (30 May 2017). "How America's 'ground-zero' for modern slavery was cleaned up by workers' group". CNN. cnn.com. Retrieved 15 May 2023.