Labor camps kept workers in servitude with crack cocaine | naplesnews.com | Naples Daily News

This really tops the latest list of things it's not possible to believe humans have actually constructed. The Naples Daily News reports that Ron Evans Sr. was operating several labor camps in Northern Florida and North Carolina, recruiting homeless people from Miami and NOLA by luring them with crack cocaine, in exchange for working off the drug payments on their labor camp. I don't even know if Abraham could plead for pity on behalf of these guys...

In the realm of Florida labor issues, I never realized just how close Immokalee, FL is to all my relatives living in the fancy, shmancy splendor of Weston, FL, a town which was plopped down a few years ago on what used to be the Everglades. Google Maps says it's about a two-hour drive. Straight form the Connecticut-in-the-summer country clubs and shopping malls to the tomato pickers fighting for UN CENTAVO MAS. Well, they got it from Taco Bell, at least in theory--we'll see how that goes.
Check out the Alliance for Fair Food to see the work that's being done in a similar vein for McDonald's suppliers.

How ironic (and reflective of the complexity of our food system's problems): The CIW wants to include a community garden in the community center they are trying to bring to Immokalee.



Coming soon: a few photos from the fab Indigo Girls concert last night at the Orpheum Theater, Boston, MA.