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Article

1 Mar 2009

Author:
Barry Estabrook, Gourmet Magazine [USA]

Politics of the Plate: The Price of Tomatoes

Immokalee is the tomato capital of the United States... According to Douglas Molloy, the chief assistant U.S. attorney based in Fort Myers, Immokalee…is [also] “ground zero for modern slavery.”... Since 1997, law-enforcement officials have freed more than 1,000 men and women in seven different cases. And those are only the instances that resulted in convictions... Large packers...own or lease the land upon which the workers toil. But the harvesting is often done by independent contractors called crew bosses, who bear responsibility for hiring and overseeing pickers... The Campaign for Fair Food...[has convinced fast food & supermarket companies to agree to a] one-cent raise [for pickers]...and, importantly, [a pledge] to make sure that no worker who picked [their] tomatoes was being exploited... But the program faces a major obstacle. Claiming that the farmers are not party to the arrangement, the Florida Tomato Growers Exchange...[which] represents some 90 percent of the state’s producers, has refused to be a conduit for the raise, citing legal concerns. [refers to Taco Bell, Pizza Hut, KFC, Long John Silver’s, A&W (all part of Yum! Brands), McDonald's, Burger King, Subway, Whole Foods]