BREAKING NEWS: Explosive LA Times investigative report blows lid off “story of exploitation and extreme hardship” in Mexican tomato fields… “The real truth is that we’re work animals for the fields” Child labor, forced labor, debt bondage, violence against workers, inhumane living conditions, and more make up the mind-boggling Los Angeles Times portrait of an industry out of control — rife with labor abuse and effectively immune to government or market forces for reform — in Mexico, where virtually all US food corporations source fully 50% of all tomatoes consumed in the US. (All images and video in this post are from the original Los Angeles Times report) Fear, corruption, corporate indifference allow greed and abuse to run rampant; Contrast to Fair Food Program, Florida tomato industry, could not be more stark; Ball now in US retailers’ court, denial no longer an option… Where to begin? We have brought you news of forced labor in Mexico’s tomato harvest before.  The conditions were indeed shocking, but the story died quickly. We have shared with you our analysis of how Mexico’s current descent into a spiral of anarchy, political corruption, and drug violence renders any hope of real human rights protections for farmworkers there a distant dream.  In that piece, entitled “Fear and Fair Cannot Coexist,” we touched on the recent disappearance of 43 student human rights activists in the state of Guerrero and reflected on its meaning in relation to the historic human rights advances taking place in Florida’s fields today. But nothing we have read or written before on the state of human rights in the Mexican tomato industry compares to the multi-part investigative series, “Product of Mexico: Hardship on Mexico’s farms, a bounty for U.S. tables,” published by the Los Angeles Times this week.  Yesterday, the first in the four-part series — an overview of the industry and the forces that shape farm labor poverty and exploitation there entitield “Harsh Harvest” — appeared in the Sunday Times, with the promise of three more to come on the topics of forced labor, company stores, and child labor.   “The more protected they are, the less they work” The scope of the report and the degree of abuse are so great that it is almost overwhelming.  The video below, which accompanies the online version of the first installment in the series, provides an excellent summary of the reporter’s findings... Don't miss more on this incredibly important, groundbreaking report from the LA Times at the CIW website!

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