FORT MYERS (Florida) NEWS-PRESS

March 5, 2009

Foodies seek answers in Collier

Celebrities visit Immokalee

By AMY BENNETT WILLIAMS

A group of international food celebrities converged on Immokalee to see for themselves the place and its people - and learn what the Coalition of Immokalee Workers is trying to accomplish.

Part walking tour, part scholarly panel, part tent revival, the event drew about 100 people from as far away as Africa. Guests included bestselling author Frances Moore Lappe, who wrote "Diet for a Small Planet," Josh Viertel, president of Slow Food USA, and Raj Patel, author of "Stuffed and Starved."

The question of the day: Why doesn't society respond to food-borne injustice with the same outrage as it responds to food-borne disease?

The visit came on the heels of a feature in Gourmet magazine about labor conditions in Immokalee, the nation's winter tomato capital, 30 miles from Fort Myers. In the article, Chief Assistant U.S. Attorney Doug Molloy called the town "ground zero for modern slavery."

In addition to working to raise farmworker wages, the coalition has helped Molloy and the U.S. government successfully prosecute seven cases of modern-day slavery and free more than 1,000 people.

Coalition member Lucas Benitez led the group through Immokalee's dusty streets, stopping in front of the now-empty home that was the site of the most recent federal slavery case. Members of the Navarrete family pleaded guilty to enslaving and brutalizing 12 migrant workers. Molloy called it one of the region's "biggest, ugliest slavery cases ever."

The group also crowded into a tiny rundown shack shared by eight men. The monthly rent: $1,280. Rafael Gomez, 31, who came to Immokalee from Guatemala, lives nearby. On a good day, Gomez said, he can make between $80 and $100. Lately, there haven't been many good days. In fact, for the last week, he hasn't found any work at all.

Though some on the tour were shocked at what they saw, the conditions were familiar to writer Patel, who's lived and worked in South Africa. "It looked a lot like apartheid," he said, with the poor living in squalor "so the rich, white people could live in comfort and splendor."

On Monday, U.S. Labor Secretary Hilda Solis made her first speech as a member of President Barack Obama's Cabinet in Miami. She talked about visiting Immokalee, where, "you kind of feel they were left behind somewhere." Solis pledged to help those who've been displaced because of unfair trade practices and globalization, especially areas like Immokalee, "where we know people are hurting."

For his part, Gov. Charlie Crist hasn't visited Immokalee, nor has he spoken with the coalition, though the group has repeatedly asked him to.

On Monday, members will travel to Tallahassee with a petition signed by thousands, asking Crist to meet with the group, condemn slavery and improve harvesters' working conditions.

"Why aren't people scandalized by this?" asked farmworker and member Gerardo Reyes Chavez. When there are salmonella outbreaks, he pointed out, the government mobilizes to find the source immediately - "what farm, even what plant. If a farmer is found to be responsible for a disease outbreak, there are million-dollar consequences," he said. "It's sad to see that in this society, there isn't the same reaction to food-borne injustice.

"It's as if the fact of our being farmworkers makes the fact of our humanity worth less than the humanity of others."