It Matters Where You Buy Your Food
Beauty May Only Be Skin Deep
I just read an unsettling article in the March issue of Gourmet, where they report on a very disturbing reality when it comes to the harvesting of tomatoes. Apparently there’s a virtual slave trade involving the illegal, immigrant migrant workers who harvest Florida tomatoes under the employ of independent contractors that are hired by the large packers. The workers live in squalor within walking distance of the buses that pick up the day laborers, paying exorbitant rents to live in these pitiable conditions, instead of sending their money home to poor family as originally intended. In some especially horrible cases, workers were locked in their quarters at night by the men for whom they worked, and only taken out in the day to be brought to the fields, and threatened with violence if they try to escape. Any money “earned” was kept by the boss in payment for food and board. Since 1997 law-enforcement officials have freed more than 1,00 men and women in seven different cases like this.
There is a group called the Coalition of Immokalee Workers (CIW) that is working to change this. For one, they’ve identified these slavery situations to the police. They are now working to ask large customers to pay one cent more per pound for the tomatoes, directly to the workers, although there are obstacles with the Florida Tomato Growers Exchange who have legal concerns.
So what can we do, hundreds of miles away from this crime, to improve the situation? First, we can purchase tomatoes only when they are in season locally. We all know a winter tomato isn’t very good, no matter who picks it. Second, if you have access to a Whole Foods, buy your tomatoes there in the winter because they have signed on to the CIW Campaign for Fair Food, meaning they won’t buy from growers who tolerate worker abuse, and they agree to pay a price that supports a living wage for the workers. Finally, look at the origin of your tomatoes and don’t purchase the ones that come from Florida or Mexico where conditions are worse. Buy hydroponic greenhouse tomatoes instead, including the tomatoes that are sold in clusters on the vine. Although many may have issues with the fact that these workers are illegal immigrants, we still cannot tolerate this human violation. We can make a conscious choice by letting our conscience guide us not to support this shameful situation.
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