Slave Tomatoes
If you were going to buy a tomato from the grocery store this winter, but the price was high, would you still buy it? What if the price was affordable but maybe the quality wasn’t top-notch? Would you buy that? But what if the sign said “slave-picked”? Is that where you draw the line? Of course it is. Who could rationalize buying a tomato that was slave-picked? Well, listen up: It is a fact that an American who has eaten a fresh tomato from a grocery store or a food-service company during the winter has eaten fruit picked by the hand of a slave, according to the chief assistant U.S. attorney based in Fort Meyers, FL. That’s quite a statement, and I read it in an article in the March 2009 issue of Gourmet Magazine, in Barry Estabrook’s series called “Politics of the Plate”. In his article Estabrook interviews growers, tomato workers, law-enforcement officials, packers, and others. The conclusion I made from reading the article? If I’m eating a tomato in the winter, I’m eating bad karma. In 2001, the Campaign for Fair Foods, started by a workers’ coalition in Florida, asked, among other things, that no worker be exploited in the picking of tomatoes. It took four years for the owner of numerous fast food restaurants including Taco Bell, Pizza Hut, and KFC, to sign on. Since 2007 McDonald’s, Burger King, Whole Foods, and Subway have joined. So far Whole Foods is the only grocery chain that’s signed on. It’s not perfect, and a lot of the growers in Florida have refused to join, but it’s a start. And meanwhile, in the winter, Estabrook suggests avoiding tomatoes from Florida or Mexico. I think I could avoid eating tomatoes for a few months. In fact, it’s probably the least I could do.
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