Recipe for Change Resources

Tomato farmworkers in Immokalee, Florida, get ready for a day of work. Chief Assistant U.S. Attorney Douglas Molloy once called Florida’s tomato fields “ground zero” for modern-day slavery in the United States.

Immokalee, a rural town in southwest Florida, is the heart of the US tomato industry. Each season, ten to fifteen thousand workers, largely immigrants from Guatemala, Mexico, and Haiti, flock to Immokalee to find work picking tomatoes.

Tomato fields span the area around Immokalee. From November to May, 90% of tomatoes sourced domestically and consumed in the United States are picked by farmworkers in and around Immokalee.

The buckets in these photos are brimming with tomatoes – no longer the industry standard. Workers were required to pick tomatoes over the level of the brim, but only received pay for one bucket: meaning that for every ten buckets a worker picked, he or she would be giving the equivalent of one for free to their employer. (Photograph by Scott Robinson)

As part of the Fair Food Program, the Coalition of Immokalee workers has helped introduce a new standard in the tomato industry, eliminating the “snow cone top” off of the bucket, so farmworkers like this one are paid for every tomato they pick.

A man throws his full bucket of tomatoes up to what is called a “dumper,” the person who deposits the tomatoes into a truck and gives the worker a token for each bucket he picks.

Under the Fair Food Program, Corporations that join the Fair Food Program agree to pay a small price increase for fairly harvested tomatoes (1.5 cents more per pound), and promise to shift purchases to the Florida tomato growers who abide by these higher standards – and away from those who won’t.

The Fair Food Program includes provisions to protect female farmworkers, who have faced sexual assault and abuse in the fields.

Earlier this year, nearly 1,000 supporters joined farmworkers on a 3-mile march to urge Publix supermarket to join the Fair Food Program.

Benito Garcia, a member of the Coalition of Immokalee Workers, stands with a family during a six-day fast in Lakeland, FL, to urge Publix supermarket to join the Fair Food Program. (View more photos by Forest Woodward and learn more about his experience with farmworkers in Immokalee: http://forestwoodward.com/blog/2012/01/farm-labor-day-life-immokalee-fl.)

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The Problem

Slavery and other human rights abuses are an ongoing threat in U.S. tomato fields.

The Solution

A unique partnership between farmworkers and tomato growers called the Fair Food Program has made enormous strides in ending slavery and other abuses in Florida’s tomato fields. Supermarkets can help guarantee an end to slavery and other serious abuses in the tomato supply chain by joining the Fair Food Program. Learn more by downloading IJM’s factsheet.

Your Role

This summer, we have a Recipe for Change: Join us as we campaign for guaranteed slave-free tomatoes. Click here to learn how you can get involved!

Experts on the issue: The Coalition of Immokalee Workers is a community-based organization of migrant workers that advocates for the rights of farmworkers in Immokalee, Florida. CIW investigates and exposes cases of slavery and other serious abuses on Florida's tomato farms, and developed the Fair Food Program to protect Florida's tomato pickers from exploitation.

Fair Food Standards Council: The Fair Food Standards Council (FFSC) oversees implementation of the Fair Food Program, a unique farmworker- and consumer-driven initiative. The FFSC protects farmworkers by promoting:

• A farmworker wage increase, supported by a premium paid by corporate purchasers of Florida tomatoes (1.5 cents more per pound);
• A human rights-based code of conduct, applicable throughout the Florida tomato industry.

Read more: Tomatoland, Barry Estabrook "The True Cost of Tomatoes," Mark Bittman, The New York Times "Everything You Ever Wanted to Know About Immokalee Florida," Jennifer Mascia, The New York Times "Making Tomato Farming Less Brutal," The Herald-Tribune "After Long Fight, Farmworkers In Florida Win An Increase In Pay," The New York Times "Cultivating Fear: The Vulnerability Of Immigrant Farmworkers In The U.S. To Sexual Violence And Sexual Harassment," Human Rights Watch

Rooted In Faith: Connecting your faith to the issue Slavery in my own backyard? Read insight from a Florida-based IJM supporter. Read more: "Is This Not The Fast That I Choose?" GENERATE Magazine "Tomato Justice," Evangelicals for Social Action "David In The Fields," Bread for the World Get inspired by other faith-based campaigns to help end slavery in U.S. tomato fields: Check out the resources The Presbyterian Church (PCUSA) has created in their work with the Campaign for Fair Food, which the denomination has supported since 2002. Faith Moves Mountains (FMM) is the spiritual resource and advocacy campaign of the Interfaith Action of Southwest Florida coalition. FMM supports the goals of the Campaign for Fair Food with prayer, church resources and peaceful solidarity. Is your church helping combat slavery in U.S. tomato fields? Please share your resources at www.facebook.com/RecipeForChange!