Attack of the Tomato Killers
Hayes, Stephen
Attack of the Tomato Killers The Clinton administration seeks diversity in an unlikely place. by STEPHEN HAYES THE WEATHER was good, the setting was beautiful, but all was not well in the land of...
...Current committee members will continue to Stephen Hayes is a writer in Washington, D.C...
...Merrigan says she is not necessarily opposed to taking another look at the Florida data...
...Meanwhile, Merrigan has demanded a detailed outreach plan from the Florida Tomato Committee before she will approve the new nominees...
...I am concerned about the committee's lack of significant effort and commitment to increase participation of women, minorities, and persons with disabilities in the nomination process," wrote Kathleen Merrigan, a USDA diversity enforcer...
...This is government harassment...
...On September 8, the 24th annual Joint Tomato Conference opened at the Naples, Fla., Ritz-Carlton Hotel...
...This is the last opportunity in this administration to make appointments...
...The committee isn't "diverse" because the tomato-growing industry isn't diverse...
...If Florida can document that there is absolutely no way to achieve diversity . . . we'll scrutinize it very carefully to see if it matches our data...
...Let's just say it's an across-the-board effort," says Merrigan...
...We did everything we possibly could to meet [the USDA's] requirements," argues Hawkins...
...Wonderful...
...Several USDA committees have already received rejection letters from Merrigan and, she declares, many more letters are going out...
...The government was not happy...
...Several newspapers even wrote articles about our search...
...We're ratcheting it up everywhere...
...Even California, the state with the most racially and ethnically diverse population in the United States, has a small minority tomato-growing contingent...
...If there is a minority tomato grower in Florida, I don't know of any...
...serve until I appoint the new committee," her letter decreed...
...About 12 percent of fresh tomato growers in California are Hispanic, and about 4 percent are Asian," according to Don Dressler of the Western Growers Association, a trade association representing the fresh produce industry in California and Arizona...
...If it is harassment, Hawkins can take some solace in the fact that the Florida Tomato Committee hasn't been singled out by the USDA or the Clinton administration...
...We're just following through on this administration's pledge on diversity...
...The winter pear control commission in Yakima, Washington, is going to get one...
...The committee advises the Department of Agriculture on tomato policy and federal regulations in Florida, and makes recommendations on tomato marketing and packing...
...Your government at work...
...Nevertheless, the committee launched a comprehensive campaign to publicize the nominations...
...I just don't know of any women or minorities in the business," says Wayne Hawkins, manager of the committee and executive vice president of the Florida Tomato Growers Exchange...
...If this is our last opportunity to make appointments, when do you stop saying 'please' and start saying, 'you must...
...Hawkins was shocked by Merrigan's charge that they didn't put forth a "significant effort" to attract minorities, women, and persons with disabilities...
...We have a very small black grower population in California agriculture and the tomato industry...
...I will ask the committee to conduct new nominations for my consideration...
...They don't exist and she won't accept that...
...by STEPHEN HAYES THE WEATHER was good, the setting was beautiful, but all was not well in the land of the tomato growers...
...From soybeans to beef, to onions in south Texas...
...According to industry representatives, the problem—if there is one—is akin to getting blood from a turnip (or a tomato...
...Peter Harllee Jr., chairman of the Florida Tomato Committee, had just received a letter from an administrator with the USDA's Agricultural Marketing Service scolding the committee for its lack of diversity...
...He says that the Florida Tomato Committee conducted extensive outreach in order to diversify the nominees...
...We contacted every known tomato grower, every packing house, every county extension director, and many newspapers...
Vol. 5 • October 1999 • No. 5
