My Maddening Quest to Find Out if Blueberries Come From Farms Where Workers Were Harmed

https://projects.propublica.org/blueberries-farmworker-mistreatment/?utm_source=sailthru&utm_medium=email&utm_campaign=majorinvestigations&utm_content=secondary Do Your Blueberries Come From Farms Where Workers Were Harmed? Max Blau spent a year reporting on abuses of farmworkers. It left him wondering: Is the produce he buys at the grocery store part of the problem? Since federal regulators don’t require blueberry brands to disclose on their packaging any information about the individual farms they buy from, he had to spend time — a lot of time — to figure out if his berries came from farms where workers were harmed. After some digging, he found that the blueberries in his grocery store had, in fact, come from a farm with documented problems. Until something changes, consumers will know virtually nothing about the farms their blueberries come from — and won’t be able to make choices that could make a difference in the lives of the people who pick them. ProPublica reached out to more than 75 blueberry brands, grocery stores, fast-food chains, farmers, trade groups and labor contractors while reporting. Only one brand responded. Dole said it requires contract farmers to comply with labor laws to protect “worker welfare” and can trace its berries back to their farms — but that it hasn’t made that information available to consumers.