For years, the Florida Tomato Growers Exchange has worked to"debunk the myth" of farmworker poverty, in their effort to fight back against workers demanding a raise in the picking piece rate.

The piece rate -- defined as the price paid to pickers for every 32-lb bucket of tomatoes they pick -- has remained effectively stagnant for nearly thirty years. In 1980, the going piece rate was 40 cents per bucket. Today, twenty eight years later, workers are paid an average of only 45 cents per bucket.

These pictures were taken in December of 2007. They capture work and life as a tomato picker in Immokalee as it is today: Looking for work before dawn, picking for 10 to 12 hours a day under Florida's relentless sun, and returning after a long day to the one-room cinderblock apartments and broken-down trailers that are home during Immokalee's 8-9 month-long season.

Florida's tomato growers say farmworker poverty is a "myth." The US Department of Labor says farmworkers are "a labor force in significant economic distress," suffering "low wages (and) sub-poverty annual earnings."

What's myth and what's reality? We hope these pictures can help you decide for yourself.

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