The issue of campus food reform is starting to gain some serious momentum. A few letters to the editor, some annoyed complaints to restaurants and raw discontent with the high prices of campus dining options was enough to convince Pollo Tropical that they were charging too much for their food.
As important as price reduction is, there's another part to food service reform, namely where the food we consume comes from and how the people who produce it are treated.
Aramark, the corporation in charge of all dining facilities on campus, currently gets a substantial amount of its tomatoes from Immokalee, Fla., during the winter season. Farm workers in Immokalee do back-breaking labor to harvest tomatoes and make only about 50 cents per 32-pound bucket, meaning that in order to make the minimum wage, the average worker would need to pick about two tons of tomatoes in a 10-hour work day.
Numerous controversies have surrounded the farms in Immokalee, not least of which are the several documented cases of slavery, including a case in January 2008 in which six people were indicted on slavery charges.
I want the students at UF to think about this problem and consider that this university is one of Aramark's largest clients. If we're serious about our commitments to sustainability and social equity, we ought to support organizations like the Student Farmworkers' Alliance and the Coalition of Immokalee Workers and push for Aramark to negotiate a solution that works for everyone.
