Seasonal, local

It's not that I'm trying to bum you out, first with the description in last night's post of EC 112's treatment--that was the contextual (and thought-provoking) means to a humorous end--and now with this investigative report on the forced labor behind winter tomatoes. It's just that... I thought you'd want to know.

I'm a hypocrite; the weekend before last, I purchased five pounds of Florida strawberries without really thinking about it. I consume summer produce throughout the winter. It's not that I don't think about the labor that goes into producing my food; it's that I'm too lazy to change my habits.

Is this case similar to the sweatshop situation, where the last thing you want to do is stop buying and put people out of business? I don't know. I can say that with this:

The Campaign for Fair Food, as it is called, first took aim at Yum! Brands, owner of Taco Bell, Pizza Hut, KFC, Long John Silver’s, and A&W. After four years of pressure, Yum! agreed to the one-cent raise in 2005 and, importantly, pledged to make sure that no worker who picked its tomatoes was being exploited. McDonald’s came aboard in 2007, and in 2008 Burger King, Whole Foods Market, and Subway followed, with more expected to join up this year. But the program faces a major obstacle. Claiming that the farmers are not party to the arrangement, the Florida Tomato Growers Exchange, an agricultural cooperative that represents some 90 percent of the state’s producers, has refused to be a conduit for the raise, citing legal concerns

I'm definitely done with Florida tomatoes.