While eating from this wonderful bounty I opened a carton of "All Natural" grape tomatoes. I must say it was a terrific treat in the middle of lent as I've cut back on my intake of heavily processed foods. I like tomatoes, and I haven't seen them in a while since the fall. I am excited that Dan and Molly don't like grape tomatoes; Even though I grieve that they don't appreciate such a lovely member of the nightshade family, I celebrate for they are all mine!
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| DELICIOUS! |
Gardeners know tomatoes are somewhat tricky to grow. They like sun, heat, and critters like to eat 'em too. Tomatoes (Solanum lycopersicum) are actually native to the tropics where they are grown as perennials (bearing fruit every year) and here in the US where we have cold winters, we grow them as annuals (re-planted every year). They die each winter and we plant new ones in the spring. Occasionally you can find a greenhouse in the US where someone has kept a tomato alive for several years.
So how does one come across such a warmth-loving, cancer-fighting fruit when there is snow on the ground and a high of 27 degrees? Granted February 2015 in Arkansas is far from terrible this year but when tomatoes need the soil at 70 degrees to germinate, there is no way tomato plants can be "all natural" and still bearing fruit on February 25.
Below "All Natural" the package says "Product of Mexico" I like Mexico. I've been there a few times building houses for farm workers on the Baja peninsula. The tomatoes remind me of those visits....
In the US a growing demand for processed and fresh vegetables started the growth of large farms in the deserts of Mexico and California putting a strain on the water table. To meet labor needs, families would move from Oaxaca to Baja to work in the fields and greenhouses. They were promised a better life, a place to live, and money. In reality they would be placed in terrible company housing, paid less than $5 a day. It would take years for them to save enough to buy land and move, then a few more years to save enough to build a house. They could send their kids to work with them in the fields for some extra income, or spend years of savings on a school uniform and lose that extra income. Our team would work with International Discipleship Training (IDT), now called Heart Ministries to build houses for families that owned their own land. It could free up some money to send the kids to school and have one less thing to worry about. It was a basic house 20'x22' stud and plywood walls on a concrete slab. While there we'd visit some of the farms to see the working conditions. They gave us a taste of the living and economic conditions.
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| Above: temporary structure Lorentino lived in as we built the house. Below: Lorentino and his wife |
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| Some of my team and local children painting Lorentino's new house |
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| Scenes from one of the work camps in Baja |
It was life-changing seeing these things as a sixteen year old. I returned at age 17 and again at 21.
It is possible that those tomatoes I am enjoying now may have been picked by one of Lorentino's sons, or the countless other people I met there whose names I have long forgotten. They may have come from another family housed in a Heart Ministries/ IDT house. They may have come from a better place, or maybe it was worse.
This LA Times Article has a great summary of what I saw in Baja, and Mexican agriculture in general. It explains the situation well.--A situation the US feeds and perpetuates every meal. http://graphics.latimes.com/product-of-mexico-camps/
Someone picked these tomatoes, and I have a tiny taste of what life might be like for them in my memory.
My friend Maggie last year reminded me, "all food has fingerprints on it" It was picked by someone. Somebody touched it. Somebody packaged it, transported it, took it off the truck, put it on the grocery store rack, picked it up and brought it to my house. Someone touched it to put it on my plate. When we pray, "Lord bless this food and the hands that have prepared it," There can be many hands involved--more than we know.
Mom used to tell me not to put things in my mouth because I don't know where it's been......
If we eat tomatoes in February, shouldn't we know where they come from?
Tonight I am reminded of my friends in Mexico and their hands. I think fondly of my time there, the experience of looking at poverty and the life changing confusion upon returning home. I think of the friendships; But I also remember the pains and hardships I saw from those without a life as "good" as mine. Those who maybe can't even afford the tomatoes they pick at the price of the ones I eat.
Some questions return to mind. Ethically, should we buy tomatoes from the farm that didn't pay it's employees enough that they need a mission team to build them a house? Maybe I should boycott that industry because I don't like what they are doing to their workers. Or on the other hand, do I buy their tomatoes and at least in a small way contribute to their business so they get at lest some wages even though it may not be enough to afford a house?
Heart Ministries director Bill said the latter, but it's best to buy USDA Organic label fruits and vegetables from Mexico. On the larger farms in Mexico they still spray pesticides on the fields while the workers are in the fields. If we buy USDA Organic we give preference to the farms that do not use synthetic pesticides and can work toward solving that problem with our dollars. Organic label means slightly better labor practices so the more we buy, the more we push the market in that direction.
I also ask larger questions. Why as a society are we comfortable exploiting farm workers in this country and other countries so we can eat tomatoes in February? Why is it so easy to eat tomatoes this time of year? The supermarket has whole displays of juicy red tomatoes in twelve different sizes packaged eight different ways all year. I am eating some now, a little uncomfortably. What happened to eating in season like most of the world?
And another layer of complexity: Why are the problems so complex in the food system that I found something to gripe about in an amazing meal crafted from scratch by hands of one who loves me? Heather has only good intentions when she goes out of her way to cook dinner for the YAVs. It's not her fault (entirely) that she's contributing to a broken system in her generosity. Heather has taught me a thing or two about economic justice from her own life experiences just the six months I've known her. I now realize these complexities and injustices sneak even into generosity, kindness and gift-giving!!! I can find imperfection in the gifts given by even the folks on my team in this religion of showing love to one another. In her love to me, I can't tell if we showed love to the farm workers who grew the out of season tomatoes far away. YIKES. I have internal conflict criticizing the tomato-purchasing habits of a loving role model in my life as I write this.
Wouldn't anyone with the typical busy schedule and handful of kids just swing by the store and pick up what's there? Probably thinking lovingly, "Alex likes vegetables, oh look tomatoes." How many of us would think twice before buying grape tomatoes? Honestly? If you ordered a salad this week, in February, you probably ate some and it didn't phase you. We don't see a problem. Heck, I didn't see the problem until I took a risk and a week to build a house in Mexico. It is hidden quite well, and overlooked often . We don't see the fingerprints on our food.
But even more importantly for food justice workers, how can we bring this conversation in a loving way? How do we tell the story of migrant farm labor and not get dismissed as the annoying hippie fun-sucker and buzz kill? How can I invite a busy parent in to this confusing world of passionate awareness on one issue and make sure that I also let her know how freaking awesome her Ziti is and how overjoyed I am to eat it!? Trust me, it's been a balancing act bringing this up to her. She is so busy showing God's love in other ways this one gets left out. Lord forgive us when we fall short. Help us to do better and help each other find righteousness.
Well, I'll eat a few more tomatoes while I think on this. I hear they are good for your heart.
"Create in me a clean heart O God, and renew a steadfast spirit within me"
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