Tomatoland (30 page)

Leaning on her cane:
I interviewed Linda Lee and Jeannie Economos on June 3, 2010.

In a survey of workers conducted:
Ron Habin, “Lake Apopka Farmworkers Environmental Health Project Report on Community Health Survey,” Farmworker Association of Florida (May 2006).

Located fifteen miles northwest of Orlando:
“Lake Apopka Timeline,” Friends of Lake Apopka,
http://www.fola.org/PDFs/LakeApopkaTimeline.pdf
.

In one sweet deal:
Edward Ericson Jr., “A Cool Deal, Going Once, Going Twice,”
Orlando Weekly
, December 12, 1998.

researchers determined that the cause of the deaths was pesticide poisoning:
See “Final Lake Apopka Natural Resource Damage Assessment and Restoration Plan,” United States Fish and Wildlife Service (June 2004).
http://restoration.doi.gov/Case_Docs/Restoration_Docs/plans/FL_Lake_Apopka_RP_06-04.pdf
.

One Sunday morning:
Sara Olkon, “Pesticide Drift to Be Investigated: Churches Fear Effect of Toxin,”
Miami Herald
, February 22, 2001.

Subsequent air tests:
Described in a joint press release from the Farmworker Association of Florida and the Friends of the Earth (February 22, 2001).

initiated thirty-nine investigations:
Frederick M. Fishel and J. A. Ferrell, “Managing Pesticide Drift,” The University of Florida, Institute of Food and Agricultural Sciences,
http://edis.ifas.ufl.edu/pi232
.

“This will kill agriculture”:
This and the quotation later in the paragraph come from an article by Richard Dymond, “Growers Don’t Like the Smell of Zone Bill,”
Bradenton Herald,
June 9, 2007.

according to a 2009 report:
Mark Mossierm, Michael J. Aerts, and O. Norman Nesheim, “Florida Crop/Pest Management Profiles: Tomatoes,” University of Florida, Institute of Food and Agricultural Sciences, CIR 1238 (revised March 2009).

a team led by Karen Klonsky:
K. M. Klonsky and R. L. De Moura, “Sample Costs to Produce Processing Tomatoes,” University of California Davis, Cooperative Extension (2001); and “Production Practices and Sample Costs for Organic Processing Tomatoes in the Sacramento Valley,” University of California Davis, Cooperative Extension (1993–1994).

In Florida, nematodes:
Stephen M. Olson and Bielinski Santos, eds.,
Vegetable Production Handbook for Florida 2010–2011
, University of Florida Institute of Food and Agricultural Sciences (2010): pp. 29–38, 47–54.

the fumigant was approved:
See “Extension of Conditional Registration of Iodomethane (Methyl Iodide),” U.S. Environmental Protection Agency, August 13, 2009,
http://www.epa.gov/pesticides/factsheets/iodomethane_fs.htm
.

despite a letter of warning:
The letter was sent by Robert G. Bergman of the University of California Berkeley and Ronald Hoffmann of Cornell University to Stephen Johnson at the U.S. Environmental Protection Agency on September 24, 2007.

A report by the federal government:
This was from U.S. State Department document “USA CUN11 SOIL TOMATOES Open Field,” a federal government application for an exemption to the methyl bromide ban on tomatoes submitted in 2009 for the year 2011.

There are already signs:
Jacob Adelman, “Calif. Pesticide Opponents Deploy Florida Report,”
San Jose Mercury News
, September 14, 2010.

Dr. J. Routt Reigart:
From the February 28, 2008, deposition of John R. Reigart, Case No. 06-001725, Circuit Court of the Thirteenth Judicial District in and for Hillsborough County, Florida, Division B,
Francisca Herrera and Abraham Candelario v. Ag-Mart Produce, Inc
.

Dr. Kenneth Rudo:
From the July 9, 2007, deposition of Kenneth Mark Rudo, Case No. 06-001725, Circuit Court of the Thirteenth Judicial District in and for Hillsborough County, Florida, Division B,
Francisca Herrera and Abraham Candelario v. Ag-Mart Produce, Inc
.

On the morning of June 23, 2006:
From the June 23, 2006, deposition of Francisca Herrera, Case No. 06-001725, Circuit Court of the Thirteenth Judicial Circuit in and for Hillsborough County, Florida, Division B, Francisca Herrera and Abraham Candelario vs. Ag-Mart Produce, Inc.

After a break:
From the June 23, 2006, deposition of Abraham Candelario Alphonso.

Cisneros and I agreed:
Interviewed Cisneros on June 4, 2010. She also repeated much of what we spoke about during our lunch at her September 13, 2006, deposition. See above.

When word reached him:
John Lantigua, “Produce Firm President Talks to Parents of Children with Defects,”
Palm Beach Post
, March 26, 2006.

Yaffa’s five-hour deposition:
The deposition took place on August 22, 2006. See above.

To Yaffa’s disappointment:
Laura Layden and Janie Zeitlin, “Health Officials: Pesticides Not Likely at Fault for Birth Defects,”
Naples Daily News
, October 13, 2005; and Geoffrey M. Calvert, Walter A. Alarcon, Ann Chelminski, Mark S. Crowley, Rosanna Barrett, Adolfo Correa, Sheila Higgins, Hugo L. Leon, Jane Correia, Alan Becker, Ruth M. Allen, and Elizabeth Evans, “Case Report: Three Farmworkers Give Birth to Infants with Birth Defects Closely Grouped in Time and Place—Florida and North Carolina, 2004–2005,”
Environmental Health Perspectives
vol. 115, no. 5 (May 2007): pp. 787–91.

FROM THE HANDS OF A SLAVE

In 2008 Moody’s rated greater Naples:
See
http://www.city-data.com/forum/business-finance-investing/314367-richest-cities-us-statistics.html
.

Immokalee’s per capita:
Data from the U.S. Census Bureau:
http://factfinder.census.gov/servlet/ACSSAFFFacts?_event=Search&geo_id=&_geoContext=&_street=&_county=immokalee&_cityTown=immokalee&_state=04000US12&_zip=&_lang=en&_sse=on&pctxt=fph&pgsl=010
.

Your chances of becoming a victim:
From
http://www.neighborhoodscout.com/fl/immokalee/crime/
.

As a United States attorney:
I interviewed Molloy on October 21, 2008.

From 2005 to 2007:
Much of this information was obtained through court records related to
United States of America v. Cesar Navarrete, Geovanni Navarrete, Villhina Navarrete, Ismael Michael Navarrete, Antonia Zuniga Vargas
, United States District Court, Middle District of Florida, Fort Myers Division, Case no. 2:S07-cr-136-FtM-29DNF. On several occasions, I also interviewed members of the Coalition of Immokalee Workers who had knowledge of the case. U.S. Attorney Douglas Molloy and Collier County Sherriff Charlie Frost sat for lengthy interviews. Anyone writing about the conditions in Immokalee owes an enormous debt to Amy Bennett Williams for her ongoing coverage of a story that most Floridians did not know about. U.S. Attorney Molloy told me that slavery could not survive if the light of the media was shone upon it. No one has brightened that dark corner of our society more than Williams.

“The food was terrible”:
I interviewed Medel by telephone on November 15, 2010.

He allerted his colleague Charlie Frost:
I interviewed Frost on October 21, 2008.

a total of about fifteen thousand:
Due to the nature of the crime, human trafficking statistics are difficult to pin down. My source was the Polaris Project,
http://nhtrc.polarisproject.org/images/nhtrcdocs/human-trafficking-statistics2.pdf
. Data on murder rates came from the Federal Bureau of Investigation’s Criminal Justice Information Services Division,
http://www2.fbi.gov/ucr/cius2009/index.html
.

Slavery and agriculture have had a close relationship in Florida:
See “An Examination of the History and Evolution of Slavery in Florida’s Fields,” Florida Modern-Day Slavery Museum,
http://www.ciw-online.org/freedom_march/MuseumBookletWeb.pdf
.

tranquility was shattered:
See John Bowe,
Nobodies: Modern American Slave Labor and the Dark Side of the New Global Economy
(New York: Random House, 2007), p. 44.

It required four more years:
All information about the Flores case came from
United States of America v. Miguel A. Flores, Sebastian Gomez, Andres Ixcoy, and Nolasco Castaneda
, District Court of the United States, District of South Carolina, Charleston Division, Criminal case no. 2:96.806, October 10, 1996; also U.S. Department of Justice press release
http://www.justice.gov/opa/pr/1997/November97/482cr.htm.html
, United States Court of Appeals for the Fourth District,
United States of America v. Miguel A. Flores
, No. 98-4178,
http://vlex.com/vid/us-v-flores-18328685
; and Kevin Bales and Ron Soodalter,
The Slave Next Door: Human Trafficking and Slavery in America Today
(Berkeley: University of California Press, 2009), pp. 54–59.

Like Lucas Domingo:
See Bales and Soodalter, pp. 49–50. Also see Department of Justice press release,
http://www.justice.gov/opa/pr/1999/May/216cr.htm
.

Laura Germino is a slender woman:
I interviewed Germino numerous times between October 2008 and September 2010 in person and on the telephone. Our tour of Lake Placid took place on March 24, 2010.

Ariosto Roblero was a Guatemalan:
For an excellent chronicling of the Ramos case see John Bowe,
Nobodies: Modern American Slave Labor and the Dark Side of the New Global Economy
(New York: Random House, 2007), pp. 3–77. See also
United States of America v. Ramiro Ramos, Juan Ramos, and Jose Ramos
, District Court of the United States, Southern District of Florida, case no. 01-14019-CR.

Jose Navarrete broke down:
Amy Bennett Williams, “Five Plead Guilty in Immokalee Slavery Case,”
Fort Myers News-Press
, September 3, 2008.

That day arrived:
Amy Bennett Williams, “Immokalee Family Sentenced for Slavery,”
Fort Myers News-Press
, December 20, 2008.

awarded a farmer:
See Florida Fruit and Vegetable Association press release,
http://www.ffva.com/iMIS/files/06/24/93/f062493/public/AM/Images/Layout_Assets/1508site_1508_20080325T143026/pdf%20library/distinguishedservice.pdf
.

Viacava, the Navarretes’ defense attorney:
See Amy Bennett Williams, “Immokalee Family Sentenced for Slavery,”
Fort Myers News-Press
, December 20, 2008.

According to testimony:
For a reference to Orrin Hatch’s efforts to remove “knowing or having reason to know,” see written testimony of Lucas Benitez, Joint General Interest Hearing Regarding the Rights of Migrant Workers in the United States, Inter-American Commission on Human Rights Hearing. 122nd period of Sessions (March 3, 2005).

AN UNFAIR FIGHT

I met Geraldo Reyes:
This meeting and interview occurred on October 20, 2008.

life expectancy of a migrant worker:
Alberto Moreno, Migrant Health Fact Sheet, Oregon Department of Human Services (July 2010),
http://www.oregon.gov/DHS/ph/omh/migrant/migranthealthfactsheet.pdf
.

According to U.S. Labor Department figures:
See “National Agricultural Workers Survey,” U.S. Department of Labor Employment and Training Administration,
http://www.doleta.gov/agworker/naws.cfm
.

Reyes introduced me to a worker named Emilio Galindo:
The interview with Galindo took place on March 24, 2010.