The Politics of Tomatoes

[maxx]

http://zesterdaily.com/zester-soapbo...to-farmworkers
One more penny per pound for tomatoes could change the lives of farmworkers who work in near slavery conditions.

http://opinionator.blogs.nytimes.com...t-of-tomatoes/#
"Mass-produced tomatoes have become redder, more tender and slightly more flavorful than the crunchy orange 'cello-wrapped' specimens of a couple of decades ago, but the lives of the workers who grow and pick them haven’t improved much since Edward R. Murrow’s revealing and deservedly famous Harvest of Shame report of 1960, which contained the infamous quote, 'We used to own our slaves; now we just rent them.'...”

Other articles:
http://www.ciw-online.org/

NPR's "Fresh Air" interviewed the author of "Tomatoland" today.

[maxx]

http://www.ciw-online.org/

Trader Joe's reveals its inner WalMart...

[jiminnm]

Good for them. Another reason to shop there.

[maxx]

Good for them. Another reason to shop there.

You're just full of the milk of human kindness.


" In its excellent working paper entitled, Ending Walmart’s Rural Stranglehold,' the United Food and Commercial Workers quoted none other than John Tyson of Tyson foods who, when confronted by an activist farmer on the untenably low price paid for meat to the farm, said, Walmart’s the problem. They dictate the price to us and we have no choice but to pay you less.'
That exact same dynamic – that exact same unequal bargaining relationship – exists at the next level down the chain, between the farmer, or grower, and his labor. And so the cut in pay is passed along to the last person, the picker, after whom there is no one left to turn to in the chain..."

And that same dynamic is giving us tasteless tomatoes, some with thick skins and hardly any juice.
It is also driving manufacturing out of this country.