The Price of a Tomato is Too High
Sep 7th, 2008 at 3:31 pm by Susie
If you include the cost of human misery:
Between each December and May, Florida grows nearly the entire U.S. crop of fresh field tomatoes for our homes, restaurants and supermarkets. Although the tomato is essential produce, most consumers do not know, or do not care, that many of the farmworkers who harvest the crop are exploited and otherwise mistreated.
A federal case just ending in Fort Myers, in fact, shows that too many farmworkers, especially tomato pickers, are being held as slaves. Five Immokalee field bosses, all relatives, pleaded guilty to several charges of enslaving Guatemalan and Mexican farmworkers, forcing them to work and brutalizing them.
The 17-count indictment alleged that for two years, ringleaders Cesar Navarette and Geovanni Navarette kept more than a dozen men in boxes, shacks and trucks on their property. The workers were chained, beaten and forced to work on farms in North Carolina, South Carolina and Florida. Incredibly, the indictment shows that the men were forced to pay rent of $20 a week to sleep in a locked furniture van. They were forced to urinate and defecate in a corner of the vehicle.
To keep the workers obligated to them, the Navarettes devised drug, drink and food schemes to increase and guarantee the men’s indebtedness.
[...] A major shame is that Florida’s leading lawmakers, not to mention ordinary citizens, have rarely expressed outage over such abuses, and even fewer have raised a finger on behalf of farmworkers. Former Gov. Jeb Bush and his labor emissary openly criticized the coalition for its work, and Gov. Charlie Crist has yet to show real interest.
Outsiders, such as former President Jimmy Carter, have had to come in and lead the fight. Now U.S. Sen. Bernie Sanders, I-Vt., is the most outspoken elected official in Washington to advocate for the cause of Florida farmworkers. He is a member of the Health, Education, Labor and Pensions Committee.
Following the conviction of the Navarettes, Sanders said in a prepared statement: “I think most Americans would find it hard to believe that people in our country are pleading guilty to slavery charges in the year 2008, but that is what is going on in the tomato fields of Florida.
“While slavery is, of course, the most extreme situation in the tomato fields, the truth is that the average worker there is being ruthlessly exploited. Tomato pickers perform backbreaking work, make very low wages, have no benefits and virtually no labor protections.
It’s going to be very difficult to eat tomatoes this winter without thinking of this. Time to have a talk with the produce manager at our local supermarkets, don’t you think?
My local produce manager isn’t paid very much, and would have no idea about this issue. That’s not his fault, it’s just that most of the grocery stores are chains and have no control over where they get their product.
Good news is, there was a huge article in my local paper today about the groundswell of interest in local farming. All over town, people are tearing up their grass, putting up beanpoles, and building chicken coops (our city has one of the most generous policies in the US–up to fifteen chickens per household, in a city of almost a million!).
Lotsa tomato planting next spring.
Actually, they do have some say - that’s why Caesar Chavez’s grape boycott was so successful. And if enough customers say they’ll boycott Florida tomatoes, the big chains will have to bring pressure to bear on the growers.
Merciless, are you in San Jose too?
About the tomatoes:
Is there some way to distinguish between the products of the good growers/labor contractors and the bad ones?
Or are there no good ones in Florida?