I do love a fresh tomato. The top reason I love summer is that it’s tomato season. It’s a short window for that juicy goodness so all the canker sores from eating too many tomatoes is worth. I know it’s short lived. Come November, the maters are long gone. Those fleshy, dull red orbs in the grocery aisles that pass for tomatoes are anything but. Beware the Caprese salad that lurks out of place overstaying her welcome come December. Those tomatoes aren’t fresh, and we’re paying a hefty price for them.
Today is Blog Action Day.
I imagine you are wondering what Blog Action Day has to do with tomatoes. Stick with me here.
We’re talking about human rights today. Bloggers from 126 countries are telling their stories of human rights violations, heartaches, and triumphs. You can follow @blogactionday on Twitter and follow the hashtags #BAD2013 #humanrights. There are stories from all points of the earth that will leave your mouth agape.
Today I want to shed some light on a human rights issues closer to home. And it involves the innocuous tomato.
Barry Estabrook has written Tomatoland. And more than Barbara Kingsolver’s Animal, Vegetable, Miracle, Tomatoland has changed how I eat, shop, and order at a restaurant. The mass-produced tomato today comes with a slew of political, social, environmental, nutritional, economic, and human rights concerns. The human cost is one I knew nothing of until I read Estabrook’s account of slavery in the tomato trade. In the United States. Today. In the Sunshine State.
“Of the legal jobs available, picking tomatoes is at the very bottom of the economic ladder. I came into this book chronicling a case of slavery in southwestern Florida that came to light in 2007 and 2008. And it was shocking. I’m not talking about near-slavery or slavery-like conditions. I’m talking about abject slavery. These were people who were bought and sold. These were people who were shackled in chains at night or locked in the back of produce trucks with no sanitary facilities all night.
“These were people who were forced to work whether they wanted to or not and if they didn’t, they were beaten severely. If they tried to escape, they were either beaten worse or in some cases, they were killed. And they received little or no pay. It sounds like 1850. … There have been seven [legal cases] in the last 10 or 15 years … successfully brought to justice in Florida involving slavery. And 1,200 people have been freed. The U.S. Attorney for the district in Southern Florida claims that that just represents a tiny, tiny tip of an iceberg because it’s extraordinarily difficult to prosecute a modern-day slavery case.”
I urge you to read Tomatoland and learn more about this ubiquitous fruit that adorns our plates. This is far from a pretentious foodie tome. This is an enlightening, well-research account of the tomato industry in the United States and the toll it takes on human beings just to grant us the “joy” of a tomato in November. Never mind that it’s a mealy flavorless imposter of its seasonal summer sister.
Want to help? Check out the Coalition of Immokalee Workers.
People would be surprised at how many human rights violations happen every day right under their noses. I suppose that’s why we need to get the word out, so they can awaken and eliminate the injustices. I will read tomatoland and spread the word in my social networks.
I was scared to read this because I get practically orgasmic over my garden tomatoes, and there are only a few left to ripen, and then I will start eating the inferior ones because I love tomatoes that much. I need to get better about ordering locally so that I can stop contributing to things like this. Buying the book now…
Oohh…my. But. How.
This would be a great book for book club. Thank you for this post. But also, man, I wish I could un-know this.