![\"brigit](\"\/wp-content\/uploads\/2018\/12\/1a-woodland.jpg\")
one of the students pointed out that she loves the smell of tomatoes. i tried to imagine what i thought tomatoes smelled like, before taking a big breath in through my nose. to my surprise, tomatoes did have a very distinct smell, and it was pretty overwhelming at first. it is now also a smell i will never forget. gigantic trucks, each towing two industrial sized dumpster-like things, piled high with red, orange, and even green tomatoes, filed into the production plant.<\/p>\n
even after a full tour of the plant, i could hardly picture just how huge and complex this operation was \u2014 from farmers, harvesters, and truck drivers, to quality check or teams who work in the offices keeping track of all the transportation, temperatures and each machine. the operations at the plant go nonstop, 24 hours a day, for about three months on end. i had never considered how much human energy, time, and money goes into the operation in order to supply the demand for things such as packaged tomato sauce that we use on spaghetti or pizza whenever we want it.<\/p>\n
the tour guide informed us that the time it takes for the tomatoes to be harvested, inspected, and processed is approximately one hour. one hour from farm to finished: and ready to be sent to companies like campbell\u2019s or heinz. i also was surprised at the company’s willingness to give students a complete tour of their operations and answer all of our questions. the operation is almost completely zero-waste; any parts of the tomato not suitable for processing are used for animal feed or composting. for certain products, they can use the yellow or green tomatoes depending on what the company is and the demand they are processing it for.<\/p>\n after the tomato processing plant, we continue to work backward through the journey our produce takes on the way to groceries and markets. next, we visited schreiner farms, which grows the tomatoes for morning star, along with other crops for other companies. the farmer, eric schreiner, seemed excited to talk about his work and answer our questions. with us was a seed sales representative, who had set up a meeting with the farmer. they started the meeting with a little small talk, and delved further into seeds, changing prices, competitors, and many other things that take part in making the production succeed.<\/p>\n schreiner is a third generation farmer, trying and seemingly succeeding at keeping up with the competitive and risky business of growing crops. he has to stay on top of the technological advances happening in the farming industry in order to make his work as efficient and effective as possible. he showed us his recent investments, which included a big harvester with sorting technology, and a scary looking machine that removes old drip tape. he explained that farming today is nothing like what the generations before him had done.<\/p>\n schreiner farms has seen three generations of extensive change and adaptation in the agricultural sector of this nation\u2019s economy. before this trip, i had no idea how complex and overwhelming the agriculture industry had become. the technology farmers use today is more advanced than i could have ever imagined; including things such as gps navigation, drones, and radars that can detect disease-ridden plants in the densest fields, or even biologically\/genetically engineered seeds that can withstand the toughest cycles of nature.<\/p>\n the use of engineering and technology in agriculture is needed in order to keep up with population growth, increasing hunger, and decreasing access to fresh fruits and vegetables. if this kind of technology was implemented within agriculture, it would be simply an adaption to the ever-changing world around us.<\/p>\n farmers like schreiner, who dedicate their life to the efficient and sustainable production of the nation\u2019s food are undeniably necessary. farming is universal, but also communal. as consumers, we need to further educate ourselves on the complexity of the networks that provide simple things such as almonds or tomatoes. by understanding the time, effort, and labor it takes to produce a farm-to-table item, it allows us as consumers to reconnect with our food and therefore creating a level of appreciation and respect we never would have perceived before. to put it simply, wasting these products is a waste of this effort.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":" in the next story in our tackling food waste series, eckerd college student brigit kenney looks at the broad connection between food production to actually getting that food on our plates. it’s a much larger process than she expected to see.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":9699,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_acf_changed":false,"footnotes":""},"categories":[4919,4896,5196],"tags":[112,1700,4077,1454,129,4078,591,221,4079],"storyfest_categories":[],"class_list":["post-12116","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-agriculture","category-food","category-past-storyfest","tag-agriculture","tag-consumers","tag-davis","tag-farm-to-table","tag-food-waste","tag-pfincali","tag-storyfest","tag-sustainable-agriculture","tag-woodland"],"acf":[],"yoast_head":"\n![\"a](\"\/wp-content\/uploads\/2018\/12\/4-woodland.jpg\")
![\"eric](\"\/wp-content\/uploads\/2018\/12\/3-woodland.jpg\")
![\"tomato](\"\/wp-content\/uploads\/2018\/12\/2-woodland.jpg\")