Their names are Fanjul or DiMare. The family men but often the wives and children serve on community boards where respect and silence obscure the havoc their agricultural wealth does to Florida's landscape. A New York Times opinion piece today by Mark Bittman underscores the point of farm workers who are still left in the dust by their wealthy employers. It is not just the workers, it is the land. "The tomato fields of Immokalee are vast and surreal. An unplanted field looks like a lousy beach: the “soil,” which is white sand, contains little in the way of nutrients and won’t hold any water. To grow tomatoes there requires mind-boggling amounts of fertilizers, fungicides and pesticides (on roughly the same acreage of tomatoes, Florida uses about eight times as many chemicals as California). The tomatoes are, in effect, grown hydroponically, and the sand seems useful mostly as a medium for holding stakes in place."
Big Sugar's path of destruction inflicts billions of dollars of costs on taxpayers. The industry is responsible for massive pollution of the Everglades through its use of fertilizer in the Everglades Agricultural Area. Its main tactic is to use political campaign contributions as hush money with both Democrats and Republicans while using the courts to delay restoration, counting billions in private profit while the years wind down and the rich muck soil is depleted; straight down to the limestone. When Big Sugar is through with the Everglades Agricultural Area they will have turned it into a graveyard, fit for weeds, poisoned platted subdivisions, and memories for the rest.
Both sugar and tomato growers are heavily involved in lobbying for growth-at-any-cost and against the US EPA imposing more stringent pollution control laws. When opposition arises to state regulations and enforcement against suburban sprawl, you can count on Big Sugar and tomato growers to be funders. On local community boards, their hours of service and donations to "good causes" win their families, silence. There is virtually no complaint from the public or controversy. How polite it is, what the Big Sugar and tomato billionaires are doing to Florida.
3 comments:
The Fanjul's and their politics are pretty much an open book. Their pollution is not!
What I found even more interesting in your article was the DiMare's.
On any given Sunday, just look at the social pages in the Herald. The DiMare's are everywhere. However, I don't know much about their politics or their "lack of" environmental concern, they do stay out of the press other than the stated Charity work. I guess they're better at playing the MSM.
Interesting article, thank you.
Bribery, just in a different form.
I am revising your title:
Big Sugar and Tomato Billionaires Try to Buy Respect with Remarkable Results
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