Why is a backwards, irrelevant cabal like the FTGE being given so much space in the Hoya?

And perhaps more tellingly, what is the FTGE so afraid of that it needs to devote so much time and energy, drudging up its full arsenal of lies and misinformation, to respond to an obscure article in a student publication?

Unfortunately, Mr. Brown, there *have* been actual cases of modern-day slavery, as defined by strict federal guidelines, involving the Florida tomato industry. The fatal technicalities and shortcomings in the law that result in only the most direct supervisors/bosses being prosecuted in such cases as opposed to the growers or other higher-ups in the industry who profited from (and knew of) these conditions do not absolve "commercial tomato growers" from responsibility.

Mr. Brown, it's wonderful that you think cases of modern-day slavery should be brought to light and prosecuted to the fullest extent of the law. But until the everyday poverty and powerlessness in which US farmworkers live and work is substantially changed, the fertile terrain for slavery to take root will remain.

It is not acceptable that slavery exists in the US, or anywhere, in the year 2008. It is not acceptable to simply wait for the next horror story to emerge from Florida's fields and then, after everything is said and done, after lives are irreparably shattered, rigorously prosecute (some of) the wrongdoers. The underlying conditions that give rise to slavery must be improved.

One obvious way to remedy this is to harness the tremendous power and influence that the fast-food and corporate food industries have accrued over the past decades -- which to this point they have used only to squeeze growers and workers alike, directly resulting in the deplorable conditions and sub-poverty wages in the fields -- to demand -- and to help put into place enforceable safeguards to guarantee -- fair wages and an end to human rights abuses in the fields, up to and including their most heinous manifestation, modern-day slavery.

Mr. Brown, we agree that "protesting restaurant chains" is not a solution in and of itself. We would love to be able to stop protesting. We would love to see a world where farmworkers and their families earn decent wages, health benefits, enjoy freedom of association, decent housing, and freedom from human rights abuses. We would love to snap our fingers tomorrow and magically persuade the food industry to come to the table in an honest, open dialogue with farmworkers about how to remedy the conditions in the fields that the food industry's own massive purchasing power has directly caused.

But, Mr. Brown, we live in the real world, and sadly, protest and pressure from consumers seems to be the only thing that gets these corporations to understand that the time for real change is past overdue.

Mr. Brown, I find it interesting that you failed to mention the FTGE's role in stopping payments that were already coming from Yum Brands directly to farmworkers as a result of the March 2005 agreement between the Coalition of Immokalee Workers and Yum. In case you needed to be reminded, here's a bit more information: http://www.ciw-online.org/BK_grower_strategy_exposed.html

Your claim that somehow, suppliers for McDonald's and Yum are currently paying higher wages despite what you (and your friends at Burger King) have done to sabotage progress for farmworkers, is, like the rest of the claims in your letter, utterly laughable.

Frankly, Mr. Brown, you should be ashamed. You oppose agreements to improve farmworkers' sub-poverty wages and sub-human working conditions, even though these agreements would cost you and your member growers absolutely NOTHING. It's time, finally, for the tomato industry to join the rest of us here in the 21st century. It's time for relics of a shameful past such as the FTGE and slavery to once and for all make their way to the "dustbin of history."

To paraphrase Dr. King, "there is nothing more powerful than an idea whose time has come."

Growers' wage records are notoriously inaccurate. Since people are paid piecework rates per bucket picked, a common scheme among growers is to underreport the number of hours that pickers work so that workers' average wage per hour appears much higher than it really is. Growers also often don't count waiting time, even though the law says that if you are required to be at the work site, then you have to be paid for your time because the employer is using it.

The agricultural industry in Florida has historically yielded a 'bumper crop' of abuses against workers in violation of the law. The passage below comes from a 2003 Palm Beach Post article (http://www.palmbeachpost.com/hp/content/moderndayslavery/reports/numiddl...):

"According to the U.S. Department of Labor, in the past four years, Florida labor contractors were cited 916 times for failure to pay wages when due, 464 times for failure to provide safe transport vehicles, 442 times for failure to present workers with proper wage statements, and 431 instances of interfering with federal investigators -- among other violations. Most violations draw warnings, not fines. Of 6,605 violations recorded by DOL inspectors the past four years, only 869 drew fines, and the average penalty was less than $300.

The Florida Department of Business and Professional Regulation fined contractors another 1,083 times in the past three years and it revoked the licenses of 173 contractors, according to department figures. But no one believes that all the violations have been reported."

1,083 fines in three years is almost one every day, and that's only the state agency's fines and doesn't include the hundreds of violations uncovered by the federal inspectors mentioned in the first paragraph! That makes me more than a little bit skeptical when a growers' association claims that the average wage is over 12 dollars an hour.

Silly Reggie, tricks are for kids!... and modern-day slavery is real:

http://www.antislavery.org/homepage/antislavery/award/coalition_of_immok...

http://www.rfkmemorial.org/legacyinaction/2003_CIW/

http://www.newyorker.com/archive/2003/04/21/030421fa_fact_bowe
("Justice Department official calls (South Florida) “ground zero for modern slavery.”)

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

http://www.news-press.com/apps/pbcs.dll/article?AID=/20080118/NEWS01/801...

http://ngm.nationalgeographic.com/ngm/0309/feature1/

http://www.palmbeachpost.com/hp/content/moderndayslavery/reports/brownin...

http://naplesnews.com/news/2006/sep/23/labor_camp_owner_hawking_crack_co...

http://www.ciw-online.org/news.html#nobodies

Those cases of modern day slavery were tried and convicted in federal court. You can't just make sh*t up Mr. Brown!

Remember when FTGE tried imposing a $100,000 fine for growers who wanted to pay their workers one penny more? But Reggie Brown says "Our members are free to sell their tomatoes to whomever they wish." That doesn't make any sense.

Reggie Brown and the current crew of BK executives: the modern-day Bull Connors of the human and civil rights movement being led by the CIW. History will judge you accordingly.