Tomatoes in the News

• Gene discovery could lead to better tomatoesSan Francisco ChronicleThe discovery, made by an international research team headed by UC Davis, could have broad benefits to California's tomato industry - a $1.3 billion business. By looking at a collection of mutant and wild tomatoes at UC Davis collected in the 1950s by ...
• Tomatoes Ripe With Powerful Health BenefitsFood Product DesignResearchers from the National Center for Food Safety & Technology, Illinois Institute of Technology and ConAgra Foods Inc. examined current research to discover the role tomato products play in health and disease risk reduction. ...Tomatoes Pack A Nutritious Punch, Study FindsBETTER Health Researchall 3 news articles »
• Small Cancer Benefit Seen with Multivitamin UseMedPage TodayCo-authors disclosed relationships with the Tomato Products Wellness Council, Cambridge Theranostics, DSM Nutritional Products, BASF, Cognis, Pronova BioPharma, Pharmavite, Aurora Foundation, Bristol-Myers Squibb, AstraZeneca, Novartis, Merck, ...and more »
• Eat Your Heart Out With Healthy Red FoodsTyler Morning TelegraphProcessed tomatoes — sauce and paste — are more effective than raw tomatoes at reducing cancer risk. In the raw tomato, the lycopene is bound into the cell walls and fiber. Processing breaks down these cell walls and frees the lycopene to be absorbed ...and more »
• Counsel & Heal Tomatoes May Lower Risk of Stroke and Fight Prostate CancerCounsel & Heal(Photo : Flickr/PurpleFoodie) Experts say in the journal Neurology that cooked and/or processed tomatoes with cooking oil have the highest and most active levels of lycopene. Which makes sun-dried tomatoes the tastiest way to combat a stroke. According ...and more »
• Dan Morain: Will jobs be lost with cap and trade?Sacramento BeeRANDY PENCH / rpench@sacbee.com. Energy is needed to produce the steam that sanitizes gallon containers soon to be filled with processed tomatoes. Cap and trade costs at the plant remain to be determined. 7FO19FLUME.JPG ...

Membership Services Continued

Advocacy

With less than three percent of the population involved in farming, farmers' needs are no longer high priorities for legislators.  From Sacramento to Washington D.C., politicians are making decisions that directly affect growers' business.  The CTGA actively lobbies to protect growers' interests in the areas of water, labor, pesticides, taxation, transportation, trade and land use.

Inspection

After the growers' hard work and the expense of raising a crop, fair grading is essential.  The CTGA's original charter mission was to ensure a fair and impartial grading system.  For this reason, the CTGA worked to form the California Processing Tomato Advisory Board and continues to be involved in this service.

Research

Scientific and technological discoveries allow growers to prosper in the highly competitive global tomato business.  In conjunction with the California Tomato Research Institute and private and public researches, the CTGA supports and assists with a broad range of tomato-related research efforts.  This research gives the grower the edge to produce a tomato crop second to none.

Food Safety

Daily, you feel the growing pressure to produce tomatoes with a minimum use of chemical inputs. In light of the decreasing list of acceptable chemicals, CTGA helps growers explore alternatives such as integrated pest management techniques. Through use of surveys and public relations efforts with the Processed Tomato Foundation, we have taken a leading role in assuring consumers that tomatoes are wholesome, nutritious and safe. And, recognizing the place of chemicals on the farm, we are working to preserve those inputs critical to your operations.