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Killing Bugs And People

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Stephen Goodman

Published: August 4, 2008

Killing Bugs And People

That piece of fruit or vegetable you're grabbing at the supermarket may be pretty and shiny, but don't let that fool you. Powerful poisons are sprayed on it and tons of other fruit. That poison usually dissipates to safe levels by the time it gets to your hands, but not so always for the hands that pick it in the fields.

In Plant City a few months ago, tomato packer Agmart reached an out of court confidential settlement with a family whose son was born without limbs. Agmart, agreed to pay for that child's needs for the rest of his life. It did not admit guilt.

The family's attorney, Mr. Yaffa, said pesticide was sprayed on tomato fields, and pickers, according to the child's mother, were ordered in before the bug killer had time to dissipate to "safe" levels. Often, she said, workers were coughing, sneezing and experiencing burning sensations in their eyes and throats. They also developed skin rashes.

Many of those pickers were and are undocumented workers, the attorney said, therefore afraid to speak up or go to a doctor or hospital for fear of being deported. Possibly many more victims exist unknown to us.

For the record, Agmart produces and sells tomatoes under the names Uglyripe and Santa Sweet.

The question for the Heartland is how much of that type of pesticide poisoning goes on here? Remember, Lake Placid is the site of the first successful prosecution of modern day slavery in the U.S. Back about 2003, a labor subcontractor family was convicted in a courtroom in Fort Pierce for holding Mexican farm workers against their will in deplorable conditions and threatening them if they tried to escape. They finally did escape, thanks to the help of members of CIW, the Coalition of Immokalee Workers, based east of Fort Myers.

If slavery has gone on here as recently as 2003, it's not too much of a stretch to think pesticide poisoning may be happening too.

The big growers cover themselves in layers of legal insulation. For instance, Tropicana, based in Bradenton owns no groves in the state of Florida. They're all leased out and subcontracted. Therefore, Tropicana can say, as other such growers, we don't know anything. Talk to the subcontractors, to those from whom we lease out fields.

Stephen Goodman
Sebring

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