Free Republic

Two Florida farms have decided to participate in a deal to increase the wages of the state's tomato pickers in an agreement with a farmworker advocacy group and upscale Whole Foods Market, the grocery chain announced Thursday. The Coalition of Immokalee Workers and Whole Foods said the farms will pay pickers 1 cent more per pound of tomatoes sold to the Austin, Texas, based company. Whole Foods will foot the bill. Florida provides most of the nation's domestic winter tomato crop. Florida workers earn about 47 cents per 32-pound bucket. That can mean an average of about $12 an hour...

Attorneys representing Carlitos Candelario, the Immokalee boy born 14 months ago without arms and legs, announced Wednesday they had filed suit against his parents' agricultural employer claiming the firm's negligence with pesticides caused the catastrophic birth defects. The suit claims that the employer, Ag-Mart Produce Inc., based in Plant City, failed "to provide reasonably safe conditions for the fetuses of its pregnant female workers and to warn of hazardous conditions" caused by pesticide use. The suit filed for the child's parents, Francisca Herrera, 19, and Abraham Candelario, 21, holds the company liable for medical and hospital costs, liftetime care costs,...