Slave-free Tomato Tuesday

Slave-free tomato Tuesday is here. And while I'll be cooking with and eating happy tomatoes all day and sharing a few recipes with you, I want to first provide some information about the issues surrounding slavery in Florida's tomato fields and an amazingly easy, won't-take-more-than-a-minute way to act!

The Problem Slavery is not just happening overseas. Chief Assistant U.S. Attorney Douglas Molloy once called Florida’s tomato fields “ground zero” for modern-day slavery in the United States. In the past 15 years, 7 cases of forced-labor slavery have been successfully prosecuted, resulting in over 1,000 people freed from slavery in U.S. tomato fields.

The Solution Recipe for Change–a campaign led by International Justice Mission in partnership with the Fair Food Standards Council and the Coalition of Immokalee Workers–is targeting three major supermarket chains this summer (Ahold, Publix and Kroger’s), and asking its CEOs to support the Fair Food Program. Corporations that join agree to pay a small price increase for fairly harvested tomatoes (1.5 cents more per pound), and promise to shift purchases to the Florida tomato growers who abide by these higher standards–and away from those who won’t.

Major fast food companies, like McDonalds and Subway, have already endorsed the Fair Food Program as have Whole Foods and Trader Joe's, but many of the largest U.S. supermarket chains have yet to support this collaborative effort to eradicate modern-day slavery.

Call to Action Supermarkets can help eliminate slavery and other serious abuses from the tomato supply chain when they join the Fair Food Program. But in order to change its policies, CEOs need pressure from consumers. That's where you come in! Take 30 seconds right now to raise your voice: sign your name to help ensure that supermarket tomatoes are slave-free! Please also visit The Giving Table to learn more about food philanthropy.

Now, head out to a local farmers market, Whole Foods or Trader Joe's, buy yourself some beautiful perfectly-in-season tomatoes and make yourself a marvelous lunch. A basic tomato sandwich on good bread with mayo and salt is both easy and delicious.

My Lusty Sungold Love dish is amazing on crostini and/or ricotta, and if you want a simple dinner tart, try this marvelous Corn, Tomato, Basil and Bacon Pie. Both are truly scrumptious.

Lusty Sungold Love

Picnic in a pie

Tomato Tuesday is coming

You might recall a post I wrote a few weeks back regarding Food Bloggers For Slave-Free Tomatoes, a day -next Tuesday, 7/24- on which food bloggers nationwide will be donating their posts to increasing awareness of injustices in the U.S. tomato industry and creating a recipe utilizing and celebrating slave-free tomatoes. The Giving Table created this event to support the International Justice Mission's summer campaign which is focused on bringing attention to the plight of the tomato growers in Immokalee, FL, and their movement, The Coalition of Immokalee Workers. The goal of the IJM and Giving Table campaigns is to push supermarket CEOs to sign on to the Fair Food Program, guidelines that would ensure that tomato growers have rights, are treated according to human rights-based Code of Conduct (ex: no forced or child labor) and are paid a fair and living wage, none of which is happening now.

I'll post more information on Tuesday as well as my recipe using happy tomatoes and easy ways that you can act and make a difference!

In the meantime:

Where can you find slave-free tomatoes? Your local farmers markets and CSAs as well as Whole Foods and Trader Joe's, the two national chains who have already signed on in support of the Fair Food Program.

How can you learn more? Visit The Giving Table to learn more about Tomato Tuesday, the Fair Food Program and food philanthropy.

Bain Damage, politics, watermelon, fundamentalists

Did y'all happen to watch The Daily Show this past Monday night? There's a priceless segment entitled Bain Damage in which Jon juxtaposes Mittens' ardent support of his own blind trusts and how they enable him to avoid conflicts of interest WITH actual footage of Mitt from many years ago in which he slams blind trusts for being nothing more than ruses. Absolutely hysterical in a depressing political way. Click the link above to watch. Mitt is such a lousy, pathetic, weirdly tan guy who has sold his soul. He has no idea what regular people need, want, struggle with, work for. Truly, I have such disregard for him. He has so easily, swiftly disavowed -or at least completely suppressed- all he once stood for. When I lived in Boston (1993-95), I was an active volunteer for NARAL ProChoice America, and Romney was considered a "friend" of the organization despite his Republican affiliation. Now he is Mr. Pro Life. Obamacare is, for the most part, Romneycare. And so on, and so on. Politics is dirty and scummy, and I'm not suggesting that President Obama is without fault or foible, but the Republican party today is just obscene. Did you see Rush Limbaugh's diatribe about Obama? "I think it can now be said, without equivocation - without equivocation!- that this man hates this country. He is trying....to dismantle the American dream."

Despicable rubbish.

And John Sununu: "I wish this president would learn how to be an American."

Really? What planet are these guys inhabiting? Maybe the one on which the Muslim Brotherhood is infiltrating the US government, as crazy Michele B recently opined. These statements are gross and so supremely, criminally selfish. It's sickening.

Also sickening is the news out of Mali. Seriously, Islamic fundamentalists have got to be some of the most awful people on earth. Running around, beating, raping, killing, burning, torturing, starving and exiling while waving the banner of moralism and rightness is the height of psychotic hypocrisy. I'm not a big fan of any form of extremism, but these guys have the corner on the batshit market. They win the Evil Award. ~~ On a more positive note, I am surrounded by pretty, healthy food and am so excited to start cooking it all that I hardly know where to start. Tom is out of town through Friday so I'm looking ahead to two nights of dinners for one and do need to clear everything out as we're going to Connecticut for the weekend for the funeral service for T's paternal grandmother. It will be the first time in ages that I won't have access to a kitchen so there won't be much in the way of cooking news from me until Sunday evening when I imagine we'll be pooped and simply grill a pizza. Nothing wrong with that. Off to chop watermelon rind!