Enjoying Your Salad? Thank A Tomato Picker

The tomato pickers of Florida, organized as  the Coalition of Immokalee Workers,  have been celebrating a victory for their members, after a two year boycott of Taco Bell brought the brand to the table to create more equitable pay and rights for those who do the hard labor of the major tomato suppliers in Florida.

From the Coalition's website:   " Southwest Florida is the state's most important center for agricultural production, and Immokalee  is the state's largest farmworker community.           As such, the majority of our more than 2,500                                   members work for large agricultural corporations in the tomato and citrus harvests, traveling     along the entire East Coast following the harvest in season. Many local residents, and thus many of our members, move out of agriculture and into other low wage industries that are important   in our area, including the construction, nursery, and tourist industries. The community is split,   roughly, along the following ethnic/national origin lines: Mexican 50%, Guatemalan 30%, Haitian 10% and other nationalities (mostly African-American) 10%. "

Back in March Washington Post reporter Evelyn Nieves wrote this after the victory for the tomato pickers: 
"Jonathan Blum, senior vice president of  Yum -- the world's largest fast-food corporation -- ( owner of Taco Bell) said that laws need to be changed to protect workers and that the industry needs to hold growers accountable. He added that the company had included language in its supplier code of conduct to ensure that indentured servitude by suppliers is prohibited -- referring to several cases                  in recent years in which the Coalition of Immokalee Workers helped federal authorities prosecute farm bosses for holding workers as slaves. "

You can take a look at Taco Bell's statement of policy re tomato growers here.

Now the Coalition is moving to bring other food brands to change their purchasing tactics. This month the National Council of Churches released this statement:

  "The NCC publicly calls upon McDonald's, Burger King, and Subway to  support the socially responsible purchasing principles established in this agreement and to meet with the CIW to ensure the highest standards of  human rights in their own supply chains," Edgar (Rev. Dr. Robert Edgar, NCC General Secretary) said.
Farm workers picking tomatoes in Florida are earning 40-45 cents for every 32-pound bucket of tomatoes they pick and have an annual median income of $7,500, according to the Department of Labor. "
The 40 cent wage has remained unchanged, astonishingly, for  30 years.
Those who pick our fruits and vegetables by hand deserve our gratitude and a decent wage.

 "Come, ye thankful people, come
Raise the song of harvest home
All is safely gathered in
Ere the winter storms begin..." 

      

 

Comments

[webmaster]

Chicken/Turkey

ACT 1: Cook extra chicken breasts or turkey cutlets. Cover and refrigerate half the chicken or turkey. Top the remaining half with your favorite seasonings or sauce for serving immediately.

ACT 2: The next night, slice the plain cooked chicken or turkey into strips and combine with lettuce and Caesar salad dressing for a main dish salad.

For More Poultry Recipe Ideas: Check the Web sites of the National Turkey Federation (www.turkeyfed.org) and the National Chicken Council (www.eatchicken.com).

[savasha]

my world history group has been studing and discussing this topic in class