When I was in high school in the late 70s, I fell into a can of peeled tomatoes, and have not come out of it since…
Although the processing tomato industry has been feeding me since the late 80s, consuming tomato products and information has not been enough to improve my heart health, prevent me from getting Covid or having failing eyesight... Which just goes to show that I have also been telling a lot of “nonsense” in the columns of Tomato News for almost 25 years!
With the permanent risk of the distorting prism of disinformation or over-information, the continuation of the writing of Tomato News, an arduous task started with Bernard Bièche then carried out under the leadership of the Board of Directors of Tomato News (and the very critical eye of its founder and self-proclaimed "Tomatosaurus" Mr. Jacques Miklichansky), has therefore transported me from the pre-industrial era to the era of artificial intelligence; it has also brought me its share of satisfactions, disappointments, enthusiasm and perplexity, but also sometimes real astonishments…
Tomato processing sketch, a very famous project by Leonardo da Vinci
This quarter of a century was that of the discovery of the “amazing” health benefits of lycopene but also of the “Long March” towards their impossible recognition; after the final disappearance of 25 kilograms wooden crates replaced by one tonne ones, it was also that of the replacement of wood with plastic, that of crates replaced by trailers, that of cylindrical barrels erased by conical steel drums…
For the readers of Tomato News, it was the time for emergence and progress in innovative aseptic technologies, the success of flexible packaging, of foldable aseptic containers, the lively debates about European subsidies, the CAP reversals, the adoption of drip irrigation, the discovery of new diseases or resistances, the use of drones and scientific imaging, the craze for Artificial Intelligence, the commitment to respectful environmental, social and ethical policies, the fight to reduce CO2 emissions and its cost.
All this time, I tried to explain the ever-increasing operating costs, to understand the sudden abysmal falls in the price of tomato paste and their equally unexpected prodigious increases, to illustrate climate change and the migration of growing areas, to measure the impact of the Covid health crisis; but above all I followed our tomato processing industry throughout the inconceivable repetition of its phases of “optimism, euphoria, denial, dismay, despair, then optimism again”...
These years of writing were the opportunity to attend ever larger and highest-level informative World Tomato Processing Congresses and Symposiums, and to observe the quiet confidence of Californian growers and processors, the unwavering aplomb of Chinese industrialists and the “sustainable” pragmatism of European operators. There were many exhibitions, CibusTec in Parma, Food Processing Expo in Sacramento, SIAL in Paris and many others; I attended many Gala Dinners, wore so many improbable ties and had a few meetings with flamboyant characters, and tense exchanges with often demanding - sometimes dissatisfied but always constructive - readers or shareholders.
These 25 years were punctuated by the still unsolved secrets of customs codes and figures, the challenging assessment of global consumption, the insoluble commercial question of the gap between Brix and dry matter, the never-ending implementation of relevant processing ratios between raw materials and finished products and, fortunately, the emergence of evaporative technologies so efficient that they will soon produce more energy than they consume…
Ptéro-Dactylus Tomatonius
Like many Tomato News readers, I have noticed that legislation everywhere is becoming increasingly complex, restrictive, and sometimes truly mind-boggling, labeling rules increasingly controversial and invasive, and the notion of origin increasingly vague...
And, in the midst of all this, I had the opportunity to witness unfailing optimism and unwavering confidence of agronomic, technical or financial managers, of business leaders or owners, of growers, administrators, members of cooperatives, ag advisors and stakeholders at all levels, in dozens of companies, large and small, on all continents, who strive year after year, despite droughts or floods, frost or hail, diseases or fuel prices, to grow, transport, process, package, improve and sell their fantastic tomato products to large retailers that are more convinced by the profitability than by the intrinsic quality, and to consumers who are all the more demanding as they are increasingly informed but still unaware that cans of peeled tomatoes do not grow on trees in winter...
As time went on, Tomato News was first the commitment to the monthly paper Magazine managed by the World Information Center on Processing Tomatoes, then the adventure of color and Yearbooks with TomatoLand, and finally the reasoned independence and the big leap towards the World Wide Web within Tomato News SAS.
But everything must come to an end and this is here and now my last – and once again too long – article as editor-in-chief, an opportunity for me to thank all those responsible for the Global Tomato Industry for their unwavering trust, and to wish the entire fantastic Tomato News Team and its Readers as much pleasure and success as I have had during all these years spent in their company.
So, remembering the late Kebede Gashaw, introducing himself as an "Independent Farmer" at a WPTC meeting many, many years ago, I cannot resist today, as I embark more modestly on the impressive adventure of retirement, the pleasure of introducing myself, in my turn and in the image of my illustrious ancestor, as an "Independent Writer".
Once again, I thank you all for your valuable support and sincerely wish you all the best for the future,
About, With, By and For the Tomato Processing Industry,
Sustainably yours,
F-X “Dactylus tomatonius” Branthôme
And, as usual, some complementary data
Some of the qualities and virtues essential to be an effective decision-maker in our tomato processing industry:
Strength: being able to crush a tomato Skill: being able to dodge a tomato
Courage: being able to eat a green tomato
Intelligence: knowing that a tomato is a fruit
Wisdom: knowing that you should not put tomatoes in a fruit salad
Charisma: being able to sell a fruit salad with tomatoes...
To can or not to can?
(All Images generated by Microsoft Bing Image Creator)
