A few hours ago, my daughter asked me what I was reading, and what it was all about. “I’m reading a book called Tomatoland, and I am learning why we can’t buy tomatoes at the grocery store anymore.” She got a disappointed look on her face, so I continued, trying to explain human rights atrocities in language appropriate for a three-year-old: “The companies that grow tomatoes and sell them to the grocery store are run by people who don’t care about anyone but themselves. They keep bugs off of their plants by spraying them with poisons, and if there are workers picking tomatoes, they spray them with poison too, even though it makes them sick and hurts their babies.”

She got a look of horror and confusion on her face. After a minute or so, she said, “I guess that means we have to plant a lot of tomatoes in our garden instead.” Indeed we will.

So, we still have grape tomatoes in the fridge, packaged with a “Santa Sweets” logo – imagine my sadness when this company (AgMart) was actually used as a case study in how horrible the Florida tomato industry is [I read Chapters 3-4]: After several women gave birth to severely deformed babies (one died) after they had worked in AgMart tomato fields throughout their pregnancies, a lawsuit was filed. The book excerpts the testimony of Donald Long, AgMart CEO at the time. Talk about weaselly – he said that employees were warned of the risks of pesticides – signs, written in English, were posted at the work sites, even though the workers could not speak or read in English (or Spanish in many cases). The worst part of his testimony: though he acknowledged that animal studies found that the chemicals used in the fields were likely to cause reproductive harm, he repeatedly insisted that this evidence was not enough to prove that humans would (or could) also be harmed in this way.

I have heard a lot of people complain about illegal immigrants, calling them “criminals” and recommending that no social services be provided to them and their families. Their anger is misplaced, and I wish we would regulate businesses at the same level as we regulate immigration – the real criminals are company executives who knowingly allow human rights violations to happen in their fields and factories.

Many illegal immigrants are here because they were recruited specifically by companies, or those working for them – in some cases they are promised a place to live, a good job, and sometimes they are led to believe they will get assistance with obtaining legal citizenship. Because they are here illegally, smugglers (and employers) know that they are unlikely to report human rights violations, so many don’t think twice about doing things like spraying them with deadly pesticides, or selling them into slavery.

“Government statistics suggest that a total of about fifteen thousand new human trafficking incidents take place in the United States each year (no one has a precise figure).” The book describes people being locked in the back of box trucks and forced to work in the fields. If they try to escape, they are beaten or even killed. Because victims are here illegally, and because they are constantly terrorized, they are very unlikely to notify authorities, so most of these crimes go unreported. Even when unscrupulous “crew bosses” are prosecuted, they are still able to find employment at other major tomato companies after they serve their sentences.

Here’s just one of many disturbing quotes in these chapters:

The original version of the Victims of Trafficking and Violence Protection Act included language that would have made it possible to jail those who profit by “knowing or having reason to know” that workers under their ultimate control were enslaved. That would have included the executives of the large tomato companies. According to testimony by the coalition’s Benitez at a hearing of the Inter-American Commission on Human Rights, just as it seemed like the bill would pass easily with that language, Senator Orrin Hatch (R-UT) insisted that the clause be removed from the act.

Shame on you, Orrin Hatch, and other politicians like you. I hate that politicians claim to be so morally upstanding, and then they show how immoral they really are by letting big businesses get away with whatever they want in favor of a higher bottom line (and higher campaign donations).