Veggie delight

The country's largest field-tomato grower is looking south.

“I was supposed to be in Cuba today,” says Kent Shoemaker, the CEO of tomato giant Lipman, from his office in Immokalee in rural eastern Collier County.

When the Russians left Cuba in the early 1990s, they took their fertilizers and pesticides with them. The result is that Cuba has the largest virgin territory for growing organic vegetables and fruits, hot commodities for American supermarket shoppers today.