A few months ago, Joe Turner wrote on this site about Burger King’s refusal to join its fast food compatriots, McDonalds and Taco Bell, in agreeing to a 1 penny a pound wage increase for tomato pickers in Florida. We learned a few weeks ago from Oxfam America that Burger King has finally given up its ridiculous fight to keep these farm laborers in abject poverty. While a penny a pound is a pittance, it also could represent almost double the wages for some of these workers. How is that possible? The farm workers currently earn a measly 45 cents for every 32 pound bucket of tomatoes. The penny increase will bring that up to 87 cents for 32 pounds. It’s still shameful wages for back breaking work. What is more shameful is that the cost to the "Home of the Whopper" to implement this is a whopping $300,000. Yep, they fought this increase, lied about the reasons and disparaged the workers for nearly a year over $300,000. I wonder how much the damage control PR firm they hired to fight the workers in the press cost Burger King? Probably a lot more than $300,000.

Burger King’s agreement to the increase, and to the enforcement of a code of conduct pertaining to human rights in the fields, was in large part due to the efforts of the Coalition of Immokalee Workers (CIW) who took on not just Burger King, but also the Florida Tomato Grower’s Exchange, which represents Florida tomato producers and whose website reads like they are a groovy cooperative of fair wage farms and worker’s rights advocates, although they continue to fight the wage increase. Oxfam America’s collection of 37,000 consumer signatures in support of the farm workers also went a long way to pressure Burger King to agree to the increase.

For their part, the growers that participate will also get a half penny more per pound from the fast food chains to cover payroll tax increases and other costs associated with paying the tomato pickers an increased wage. Currently, this will not include members of the Florida Tomato Grower’s Exchange. The organization will not participate in the increase, claiming that the third party wage setting violates anti-trust laws. According to CIW, they are threatening any of their members that participate with a $100,000 fine. Let’s see, buyers offer to pay you more on the condition that you pay your workers more at no cost and potentially some profit to your company and this is a problem?

We are addicted to cheap food in this country. The recent food price increases have been a wake up call to how easy U.S. consumers have had it for a long time. But those low food prices always came at a cost to someone, usually the farm laborers and often our own health. It also kept us from looking more deeply into the source of our food, the ways in which it was grown and the conditions of the people growing it. Like items on the quick sale rack, when something is that cheap, it is usually best not to ask why. The penny a pound increase to Florida’s tomato pickers is a start toward social justice and greater consumer awareness, but it is only a start.