The trail of Cheap Tomatoes

By: Linda Gross

I recently got an email from a friend of mine who got it from HER friend in Ohio, who got it from some teacher in Arizona. It was titled Cheap Tomatoes. So I tracked the sources. It seems the initial impetus of this letter was a piece in 2007 by Eric Scholosser on tomato growers in Florida. Picked up later by the Economist, and then revived again in February of 2008 by bloggers who posted the letter. Attached is one bloggers response to some of the fallacies and misstatements. Now, fast forward to April of 2010, and this very same letter is now being circulated to support Arizona’s immigration law, SP1070.

It’s a letter that can make middle-class blood boil. The only problem is…it isn’t the truth, the whole truth…and nothing but.    Here are the links to the trail of “Cheap Tomatoes”

November 30th, 2007 The Economist

ERIC Schlosser’s opinion piece on tomatoes in the New York Times managed in relatively few words to blame the troubles of migrant farm workers on nearly every economic villain in the popular imagination: the fast food industry, fat-cat CEOs, private equity … the piece even invoked Charles Dickens.

Jan 2008 A teacher in California writes a letter titled Cheap Tomatoes which blames the ills of education and economic woes on illegal immigrants. This letter is widely circulated at the time, showing up on Diggers Realm , among others. A response to the letter by one blogger, “Made of Glass “, points out the inaccuracies.

April 2010: The piece is again being re-circulated on the internet in response to Arizona’s immigration law.