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Hold the Tomatoes on that Burger

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Eric Schlosser, author of Fast Food Nation, has a fantastic op-ed in the NY Times describing how one of America's biggest corporations and wealthiest investment banks are pinching pennies in compensating the labor of this country's most poorly treated workers.  Migrant farm workers in Florida, who harvest tomatoes for our country's hamburgers, tacos and salads, work "10 to 12 hours a day, [picking] tomatoes by hand, earning a piece-rate of about 45 cents for every 32-pound bucket."  Last spring, McDonald's agreed to pay these farmers an extra cent (US $0.01) for each pound of tomatoes they harvested.  Burger King (of which Goldman Sachs owns a large portion) was asked to do the same; read how they responded.


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That's a shame, because the Whopper is usually fresher and tastier than lots of other places. Way better than McDonald's, for sure. But screw 'em. What's the healthy portion of a Whopper anyway, 3 bites?

Interesting to read Eric Schlosser on this. I read his book after seeing him on c-span's BookTV and about how angry he was about the slaughterhouses and that he doesn't eat hamburger at all anymore.

Good thing I stopped eating them, but if I still ate them I wouldn't eat Burger King anymore.

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