HOW LONG? NOT LONG…

Posted on by CIW

Two more Florida papers weigh in on the Campaign for Fair Food and the need for change in Florida’s fields…

The St. Petersburg Times and the Orlando Sentinel joined the growing discussion on the abysmal conditions facing Florida’s farmworkers and the campaign to bring fair wages and humane treatment to the state’s fields.

In Sunday’s St. Petersburg Times, Bill Maxwell, one of the state’s most respected editorialists, wrote:

"Some deeds and practices define our individual and shared morality. When, for example, we turn our backs on the cruel treatment of farmworkers, we are complicit in inhumanity and are acting immorally."

His op/ed, entitled "Eating that tomato can put you in moral peril," reviewed Florida’s shameful string of six agricultural slavery prosecutions in the past decade and quoted at length the Rev. Aaron McEmrys, a Unitarian Universalist from California who spoke at a recent seminar on farmworker exploitation in Ft. Lauderdale. Here’s an excerpt:

"We all agree that slavery is an abomination — a sin — a crime against humanity. And yet this kind of oppression is exactly what the people who pick our tomatoes have to live with every day. The tomatoes that nourish our bodies and add flavor to so many of our meals come with a price tag. They come at the cost of human dignity, human freedom. Once we know this, we have some real choices to make: We can either change our ways or we can go on eating those cheap tomatoes knowing that we have chosen, by default, to be fed by the suffering of other human beings — human beings just like us.

"It’s not a question of whether we should get involved. If we eat tomatoes, then we are already involved. The only real questions are: What are we going to do about it? How will we be involved from here on out?"

Mr. Maxwell concludes his piece with this: "American consumers have a moral duty to stop the exploitation of farm workers. If we do not, as McEmrys argues, we enable servitude and are guilty of the ‘sin of complicity.’" Read the op/ed in its entirety here.

The Orlando Sentinel also ran a story on the Campaign for Fair Food this Sunday, a front page piece that looked at the recent Burger King victory and the future of the campaign (it also included some great photos by Sentinel photographer Red Huber, including the one of CIW staff member Mathieu Beaucicot, above, and that of the CIW’s Francisca Cortez and her daughter, Noemi, below). The story, entitled "Orlando area immigrants fight to hold the pennies they won," began:

"The battle between Burger King and the Coalition of Immokalee Workers wasn’t a fair fight.

The King had loads of money, spin doctors and a powerful corporate brand. The coalition had little cash, high hopes and leaders making minimum wage.

The fast-food giant never stood a chance."

The story examines the FTGE’s opposition to the campaign, and concludes:

"Growers also dispute the idea that migrants make poverty wages, saying payroll records show workers earn an average of $12.46 an hour — nearly double Florida’s minimum wage. Brown said thousands of workers return each year, lured by the promise of "big bucks."…

Francisca Cortez, meanwhile, just smiles. The 25-year-old Mexican said rebutting Brown’s claim is easy: Just spend some time with the migrants.

"At the end, we’ll always win because we have the key in our hands — which is reality," she said. "Reality can’t hide anything."

Read the Orlando Sentinel article in its entirety here.

Florida’s reporters and editorial writers have been doing their part to focus public attention on the brutal conditions in the state’s fields. Here’s a round-up of the Florida press from the past week alone:

We began this update with the words, "How long? Not long." Forty years ago, Dr. Martin Luther King would return to those words in speech after speech across the South, as he sought to firm the resolve of the Civil Rights movement in the face of stubborn opposition by political "leaders" who refused to recognize that the time for real change had come.

In his March 25th, 1965, speech in Montgomery, Alabama, following the historic march from Selma, Dr. King said:

"However difficult the moment, however frustrating the hour, it will not be long, because truth crushed to earth will rise again.

How long? Not long. Because no lie can live forever."

The lie that all is well in Florida’s tomato industry — a lie that has allowed industry leaders to reap personal fortunes for decades while their workers have remained mired in crushing poverty — is dying, if not already dead.

It is time, now, for all who play a role in the industry — farmworkers and farm employers, the major buyers of Florida tomatoes and consumers across the country — to work together to bury that lie, to confront the exploitation of Florida’s farmworkers head-on, and to move forward toward a more sustainable future.

And if you need a bit of inspiration to keep on fighting until that future is securely won, do take a look at this short video.