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That article was heartbreaking. I have no words.

I was a nutrition major in college and had to take a class called "Food and Society" that discussed, among other things, the travesty of the migrant farm worker.

It's not just tomatoes -- it's citrus too. We watched a film in class (it was old, from the late 60s) detailing the lives of the migrant farm workers harvesting oranges in Florida. It was aweful. I stopped eating oranges after that.

And if not in Florida, than in California where illegal immigrants are paid below minimum wage, and given no health care of workers comp to harvest our strawberries, lettuce, etc.

The food system is horribly broken. The only answer is to support large farms as little as possible, by buying local from small farms as much as possible.

Thank you for posting things, I'm glad it's being brought to people's attention. It's an important issue that far too few Americans are aware of.

not that this issue is specific to FL by any means, but...
ah...Florida. Without question the state with the most f'd up sleazy local politics and haves vs. have nots issues anywhere. Can't imagine that works in favor of the migrant worker.

Update -- the name of the movie we watched in class about migrant farm workers was called "Harvest of Shame"

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Harvest_of_Shame

My professor said that although the movie was 40 years old, little has changed.

I know you don't want to weigh in on illegal immigration/workers, but honestly so many of these problems stem from illegal work/ migration, and is why the government seriously needs to take a look over-hauling the work permit system. There's too much focus on who "deserves" these jobs and not enough on forcing employers to pay a reasonable wage and provide safe and humane working conditions to migrant farmers. If the government spent less time and effort trying to ferret out illegal aliens and deport them and more on preventing employers from exploiting workers, driving down wages and working conditions through the fear of deportation and losing the meager ability to provide for their families that these workers have, then not only would conditions and wages improve, but you'd likely see more American citizens in these jobs.

Blogger brownfemipower has been writing about the abuse of migrant farm workers for a long time.

like here: http://brownfemipower.com/archives/2647

and here: http://brownfemipower.com/archives/2600

and here: http://brownfemipower.com/archives/1995

also see here: http://www.splcenter.org/news/item.jsp?aid=303

That's probably a lot of feminism to throw at AT, but it's all relevant.

It's also one reason I want to hit things when self-righteous vegans say their diet is "cruelty-free."

Thank you for posting. It's so important to understand that "knowing where your food comes from" isn't limited to knowing whether it's organic or not.

Along the lines of the Harvest of Shame comments...The Grapes of Wrath was written by John Steinbeck in 1939. The book was banned by the Salinas Library, in the small farming community where Steinbeck grew up, and Steinbeck was labeled a Communist. The Grapes of Wrath was awarded a Pulitzer Prize for Literature later that year. Things haven't changed much. Perhaps the color of those who harvest our food is different, but little else changed. Think about this not just when we buy and eat food, but when we vote too.

@ bonjoumiette -- I agree completely with your comments. However, if all the illegal farmworkers became legal and had to earn at least minimum wage (which is hardly a livable wage) and other rights afforded American workers (like worker's comp), than that would cut into profits (unlikely) or raise the cost of food.

Unfortunately, American's by and large aren't willing to pay more for food (see the milk post from last week and count the people who buy non-organic milk, or ask anyone who does their grocery shopping at Wal-Mart). This would result in less food being grown inthe US, and more imported from South/Central America, and China. The standards in these countries in terms of labor laws and farming methods are far worse than here.

So while I agree something needs to be done about the rights and welfare of migrant workers, importing more food from worse places isn't better.

@ seraph re: vegan cruelty-free -- HEAR HEAR!

What about canned tomatoes? Are they even grown in the US?

I use them as my main non-seasonal source of tomatoes (and thus my main source, period, since I'm in the northeast) and just realized I have no idea how a can of tomatoes is created.

Thanks for highlighting this issue. It's important and everyone needs to hear it.

i totally agree that the companies who hire illegal immigrants (probably to escape having to provide standard working conditions) should bear the brunt of government enforcements not the workers. the jobs are there - they're not creating the situation. so much food is grown in places far away from our homes. it's not like stopping in at farm stands on the way home so we have to pressure the government to get the FDA to deal with this kind of stuff. i think the last 8 years for the USDA/FDA people to get into meat processing facilities has been quite difficult. there is a whole level of corruption/collusion that prevents the proper safety standards being met.

@mandarinmarie - your can of tomatoes may indicate where it comes from right on the label. If not, try calling the customer service line for the company or writing to them. Its probable they get their tomatoes from a variety of sources, but they should be able to let you know where those sources are.

I believe that many, if not most, of us, have always known or suspected that this form of modern day slavery still goes on, especially in agriculture.

What I think is sadder, though, is that (from reading the Gourmet article) there seems to be an indifference on the part of many public officials as to the plight of these immigrant workers.

I hate to say it, but I think this indifference is a reflection of a belief that somehow these illegal immigrants asked for this slave treatment by entering this country illegally. That somehow they, not the employers, are to blame for all of this.

The sympathy we tend to show toward the less fortunate . . . . They may have entered into this country illegally, but it's unlikley they knowingly signed up forbeing beat, cut with knives, shackled to posts, etc.

I don't know how anyone living in california can be surprised by this... but it is easy to pretend it's not happening.

ilovebutter: you're right. most americans won't be willing to pay more for food. like most other things in our lives, we have come to believe that the ultra-low prices that have been set due to cheap, foreign labor are what the prices 'should' be. so, if something is made in our country and the costs that make it go up because of fair wages, etc. and thus the price for the customer goes up, we feel ripped off and refuse to buy it (and someone is always there to import it for less). we feel we have the 'right' to cheap products, and that right apparently supercedes human rights. it's sad but it's going to be very difficult to get people out of that mindset.

justveggingout: also right. illegal immigrants have become the focus of a lot of resentment. people argue that they chose to come here and they snuck in, so they get what they deserve and hey, it's probably better than in mexico. like the enemy in war, we've dehumanized them. is it technically 'wrong' that they're here? yes, in the sense that it's illegal. but I don't think we can complain about that when we use them for the labor that provides us with our food.

but sadly, I don't think any of this will change any time soon. corporate farming only worsens it. even if individuals stop buying this fruit, most people won't do the research required to make sure they aren't using products that use the fruit. immigration reform is trench warfare and progress is slow and met with a lot of opposition.

but awareness is the first step...

Yet another reason we try to local, seasonal, and organic. Know where your food comes from and who produces it.

We try to buy organic everything but not if it requires importing. Still, working in organic agriculture, even organic agri-business is a hell of a lot safer for farmworkers than traditional agriculture. I try to balance this view with my no-imports rule.

"It's also one reason I want to hit things when self-righteous vegans say their diet is "cruelty-free."

*thank you*.

As for tomatoes in general.... they're so awful in the winter I won't buy them. I grow my own in the summer, supplement with farmer's market purchases, then make a sauce and freeze it. I froze enough this year to fill 12 2-serving containers.

This year I want to learn canning techniques for peeled tomatoes because I'm sure I don't have enough room for more containers in my freezer!

My point is this: make time to get involved in your own food production, even if you can't grow it yourself. It's rewarding, tastes better, and will allow you to feel as self riteous as some of those vegans.

kimg924 - canning tomatoes is pretty easy. The Ball Blue Book of Preserving is a great resource and has a picture guide on canning tomatoes. You can often get the jars at thrift stores, too.

We belong to a CSA that provides our veggies for about half of the year, plus I grow a garden in the summer. There's always one week or so of our CSA when we can take as many tomatoes as we want, and I pick a couple of shopping-bags full for canning and making sauce. I plan to make salsa this year as well. We supplement the home-canned stuff with a lot of store-bought canned tomatoes.

This will be our third season with the CSA and each year I've been able to get our summer bounty to last longer into the winter with canning and freezing. We get a lot of winter squash in the fall that keeps pretty well for most of the winter, too.

I still have 2 gallon-sized bags of carrots, and another of beets in my fridge from my CSA. They're doing just fine. Turnips and rutabagas are lasting a long time too. Also, you can use a foodsaver to save corn, green beans and other yummies from the summer too!

This article was truly heartbreaking. And while I belong to a CSA, and will now avoid other tomatoes, I don't feel like that is enough. What about canned tomatoes, ketchup, soup, tomato sauce? No one should be supporting this.

The Gourmet article links to the Coalition of Immokalee Workers site: http://ciw-online.org/
You can click here to send an email to the governor of Florida asking him to take action on this abuse: http://action.americanrightsatwork.org/campaign/FloridaFarmworkers/

Also, the author of the Gourmet article adds in the comments regarding immigrant workers that two out of the seven successfully prosecuted slavery cases in Florida over the past several years involved groups of enslaved United States citizens.