"tomato fields" news and stories

A labor advocacy group has transformed a cargo truck, similar to the vehicle in which two Florida tomato growers kept their enslaved work crews captive, into a mobile museum.

"We're touring the state to educate people about the persistence of slavery in the agriculture industry here in Florida," explains Marc Rodrigues, a member of the Coalition of Immokalee Workers.

The 24-foot truck houses exhibits chronicling the history of slavery, from the government-sanctioned system that thrived after European colonization to 20th-century sharecropping. The chronology offers little respite for abolitionists: The timeline ends with the seven confirmed forced labor cases the Department of Justice has documented over the past decade.

"For a lot of people, it's been a really eye-opening experience," Rodrigues says. "I've seen people come out of the museum with tears in their eyes."