Tomatoes and Mountaintops

by Maribeth Meaux

What do the keywords ‘tomatoes’ and ‘mountaintops’ have in common? They both represent current issues of concern for social justice in our country. As a volunteer with the Peace and Social Justice Ministry Office, my email inbox is filled with messages and legislative action alerts on many different topics from immigrant rights to global warming, but the two common themes dominating my inbox and my energies right now are the plight of tomato farm workers in Immokalee, Florida and the struggle to end mountaintop removal in Appalachia. After praying and reflecting on these two issues, it is apparent that there are common threads that link these two seemingly diverse causes, and in fact the deeper issues and our faith-based responses are identical.

In the case of the Immokalee, Florida farm workers issue, tomato pickers are paid low wages and forced to work and live in terrible conditions by the tomato supply companies. In some cases, the workers become indebted to the suppliers for items like illicit drugs, cigarettes, or beer and subsequently are forced into a form of servitude. Because of the low labor costs, these supply companies can sell the produce at low prices so that the large food chains like McDonalds can then make big profits and sell their products cheaply. Large corporations frequently ignore the practices of their suppliers, disregard the workers, and make decisions based on profit and monetary gain. The end result is that consumers across the country can buy burgers and salads with tomatoes at low prices and the corporations can still make large profits. Would we as consumers be willing to pay more for our fast food to ensure that the tomato pickers receive fair wages and are treated with dignity?

The mountaintop removal issue in Appalachia is another case of the big corporation disregarding the rights of the individual. The people who live in the Appalachian Mountains are witnessing the destruction of their homeland by the coal mining practice known as mountaintop removal. This method of mining is less expensive and requires less human labor than more traditional mining practices. Entire mountaintops are clear cut and blasted to expose seams of coal to be harvested. The “waste” or “overburden”, which is actually tree and plant matter and rich topsoil and blasted rock fragments, is dumped into valleys, sometimes obliterating the streams that are present. The air and the streams that remain are polluted with harmful chemicals. The coal companies disregard the effect all of this has on the men, women, and children who have lived in the mountains for generations; decisions to engage in mountaintop removal practices are based on profit margins. The end result is that consumers across the country can have cheaper electricity to satisfy their ever-increasing appetite for energy to run their electronic devices and the coal companies continue to make a fortune. Would we as consumers be willing to pay more for our electricity or cut down on our usage in creative ways in order to ensure that the ancient mountains of Appalachia are preserved and that the people living there are protected from harmful pollution and compensated for their lost jobs and way of life?

Why are we, in Joliet, Illinois, actively engaged in these issues that are not occurring in our own backyards? Perhaps we are not as removed from these issues as we might initially think. All American consumers contribute to the actions of the corporations that provide our goods and services by the choices we make and the demand we place on specific items. If we choose to buy only from companies that exhibit social responsibility toward the laborers who pick our produce, we can have a powerful impact on the actions of fast food corporations. If we limit our use of electricity, support research for alternative energy sources, and engage in legislative advocacy to end destructive coal mining practices, we can affect the powerful coal companies and have a positive impact on the environment. We must place more importance on the well-being of the least powerful among us, namely, people like the migrant farm workers of Immokalee, Florida and the mountain people of Appalachia, than we do on our own wealth or the financial gain of powerful corporations. Short term gain for a few should not result in the exploitation of farm laborers and mountain dwellers, or in the permanent loss of some of the most beautiful and biologically rich areas of our country

Our growing human population will continue to have growing needs for affordable fresh produce and for affordable electricity. The challenge we face is to balance these needs with our responsibilities as Christians. If we adhere to the core values of Catholic Social Teaching, our responsibilities include preserving the Earth for future generations, protecting the dignity of life for all people including those living in areas rich in deposits of energy resources, ensuring that all workers receive fair wages and humane treatment, and placing greater importance on the needs of the poor and vulnerable than on the needs of ourselves or the big corporations.

Catholic Social Teaching requires that we stand with our brothers and sisters and all of creation in loving concern for their well being wherever they are. In his encyclical, Sollicitudo Rei Socialis, Pope John Paul II said, “solidarity…is not a feeling of vague compassion or shallow distress at the misfortunes of so many people, both near and far. On the contrary, it is a firm and persevering determination to commit oneself to the common good; that is to say to the good of all and of each individual, because we are all really responsible for all.” “Solidarity helps us to see the ‘other’-whether a person, people or nation-not just as some kind of instrument, with a work capacity and physical strength to be exploited at low cost and then discarded when no longer useful, but as our ‘neighbor,’ a ‘helper’ (cf. Gen 2:18-20), to be made a sharer, on a par with ourselves, in the banquet of life to which all are equally invited by God.”

If you feel called to go beyond a vague feeling of compassion and distress for underpaid farm workers, exploited residents of the mountains of Appalachia, or God’s sacred Earth, you can learn more about these issues by visiting the following websites:

www.ciw-online.org, www.appvoices.org, www.ohvec.org.

The Committee on the Environment for the Joliet Diocese is planning a pilgrimage to the Appalachian Mountains in November. An invitation and more information is available on the diocese website at www.dioceseofjoliet.org. Representatives of the Coalition of Immokalee Workers will be in the Chicago area this October. For more information about the CIW tour call the Peace and Social Justice Ministry Office at (815) 834-4028.