Tomatoes

On your sandwich, on your salad, in your sauce...tomatoes are pretty simple right?

Recently I went with some fellow YAVs to another talk at Vandy. This time it was the Coalition of Immakolee Workers (or CIW), a group that fights for better working conditions and wages for tomato pickers in Florida, in addition to combatting modern-day slavery. (You know how this works: click the link for more info.)

Now, the whole time, I was thinking about the simplicity of tomatoes. Like...how many people think about the tomatoes on their sandwich at a restaurant? It's not like tomatoes themselves are a major food group. Tasty as they are, tomatoes just aren't a food that many people put all that much thought into. But here are these thousands of people who (try to) earn their livelihood by picking tomatoes, often in awful conditions and for little to no pay. So, a big part of what the CIW does is fight to get different businesses to raise the price per pound of tomatoes by one cent. That's it, just $0.01. But as it turns out, that makes a huge difference. And so far the CIW has gotten agreements from Taco Bell, McDonalds, Burger King, and Subway. In addition to that one cent increase, these agreements also feature a code of conduct that guarantees safe working conditions and a zero-tolerance policy on modern-day slavery. As it turns out, now the CIW is focusing on getting supermarkets to agree to the same terms. So far only Whole Foods has agreed.

I am far from an expert on the CIW or food justice in general, but I thought it was interesting enough to share. And you know, as much as I can talk/type about it, it's an entirely different ball game to live it out. For example: halfway through writing this I went grocery shopping Kroger, including tomatoes. I don't know where they came from, but I bought 'em anyway. Why? Because Kroger has good prices. We YAVs just read a chapter on "household economics" for our Friday morning discussion, from Dorothy Bass's Practicing Our Faith. Part of it mentioned living simply, which is in theory (and hopefully practice) a big part of YAV life. It talked about how living simply does not have to mean giving up every single thing you own (though it does usually mean living with less), but instead it can mean being very intentional about the things that you do own. Ok, so, great. Buy fair trade goods and food, etc. and that "counts" as simple living. Well, more often than not, things certified fair trade (or clothing guaranteed to be made in good working conditions, etc) are more expensive. So, what to do if you're on a tight budget? I'm not sure. Granted, we Nashville YAVs could certainly be living far simpler existences, but we do have to put some thought into where we spend our stipends. Not to mention it's just a tricky thing for me to even remember to think about where that tomato came from.

I suppose regardless of whether or not my newfound tomato knowledge makes it into practice, it's a step in the right direction to be aware?

Love,
Allison.