The US produced 29 million hundredweight (1.5 million tons) of tomatoes in 2010 and imported 1.5 million tons, mostly from Mexico, that is, almost half of the fresh tomatoes consumed in the US were produced in Mexico. Mexican exports of fresh fruits and vegetables to the US topped $7.6 billion in 2013.

Many of Mexico's tomatoes destined for the US are produced in Sinaloa, where 150,000 workers, many migrants from elsewhere in Mexico, are employed from December through April. Many tomato pickers are employed by labor contractors and housed in camps near the farms where they work. Some workers allege that they are not paid or are paid only sporadically because growers pay FLCs, some of whom retain worker wages until the end of the season. Some pickers arrive with no money and incur debts at in-camp stores that extend credit.

The Los Angeles Times on December 7-14, 2014 published a four-part series on poor conditions faced by internal Mexican migrants employed on farms that grow produce for US consumers http://graphics.latimes.com/product-of-mexico-camps/). The first story focused on San Emilio, which exported over 80 million pounds of tomatoes in 2014 through shippers Andrew and Williamson of San Diego and Triple H of Culiacan, Sinaloa.

The article alleged that many of the internal migrant farm workers at San Emilio's Agricola operation west of Culiacan earned $8 to $12 a day. Many are indigenous Mexicans who sign three-month contracts to pick tomatoes and other crops. Mexican labor laws require that they be paid weekly, but many are not paid in full until the end of the season.

Half of San Emilio's 1,000 internal migrant workers live in a camp near the company's packinghouse. Workers who were interviewed said they signed three-month contracts offering $7 a day, but had not been paid for several weeks by the contractor who recruited them.

There are reportedly 150 farm labor camps in Sinaloa. Some farms say that they do not provide beds for migrant workers from regions such as Huasteca where people typically sleep on the floor. When beds were provided, farmers say that workers dismantle the beds for fire wood.

Recruiters promise workers 100 pesos or $7 a day and room and board. The reputations of recruiters vary, and some say that they do not pay migrants until the end of their three-month contracts to ensure that the migrants have some savings and to help workers avoid losing their pay to theft or alcohol.

Some companies pay workers by ATM to ensure that wages are paid. However, some migrants give their ATM cards to their recruiters until the end of the season, which can leave them with no cash while they work.

Bioparques. Bioparques de Occidente, owned by Eduardo De La Vega, has over 500 acres of greenhouses and a packing plant in San Gabriel, about 100 miles south of Guadalajara. De La Vega, who also owns Agricola La Primavera in Sinaloa, ships six million boxes of tomatoes a year to the US under the Kaliroy brand name.

Bioparques, honored as a model employer and exporter, relies on indigenous workers from Huasteca, a mountainous region covering parts of three central Mexican states about 550 miles away in Hidalgo, San Luis Potosi and Veracruz. Contractors recruit workers for Bioparques, offering 100 pesos or $7 a day, and supervise their work and housing.

Placido Garcia, a contractor who recruited workers and managed a labor camp with almost 300 residents for Bioparques, was charged with human trafficking after Jalisco authorities raided a camp he operated in June 2013. Bioparques was assessed $700,000 in fines, which the company said were rescinded after it made improvements in the camp and stopped using Garcia to recruit workers.

Wal-Mart stopped buying tomatoes from Bioparques, but the World Bank did not withdraw a loan made to Bioparques, saying the labor camp issue was an aberration for an otherwise good firm.

Camp Stores. The December 12, 2014 story focused on Campo Isabeles, part of Rene Produce near Culiacan that shipped 200 million pounds of tomatoes to the US in 2014. Company stores or tiendas de raya in the camps sell to a captive clientele of farm workers, post no prices, and track purchases and debts in dog-eared ledgers.

Most workers are in debt to the stores, and indebted workers are allegedly discouraged from leaving farm camps by security guards until they pay their bills. The company store inside Campo Isabeles is an independent business that pays rent to Rene and extends credit to workers who arrive without money.

Before the Mexican revolution, company stores on haciendas sometimes kept peasants in perpetual debt, so the federal government operates discount stores in some farm labor camps; others have farm-subsidized stores that sell staples to workers at low prices. Private tiendas distinguished by unmarked and often high prices are most common in the camps.

The workers' piece-rate earnings drop toward the end of the December-April tomato picking season, from $14 a day to $4, forcing them to eat less in order to repay tienda debts before they return home. Rene said it was surprised by the allegations about debt bondage in labor camps, since it hoped to be certified by Fair Trade US. Rene may sell staple goods to workers in labor camps at cost.

Child Labor. The Los Angeles Times on December 14, 2014 alleged that 100,000 Mexican children under 14 pick crops at small- and mid-size farms across Mexico. The large farms that produce tomatoes for foreign buyers have largely eliminated child labor in the fields, but smaller growers who produce crops such as chili peppers in states such as Guanajuato often hire migrant families who encourage or allow their children to work with them.

The story profiled a Mixtec girl from Guerrero whose father moved to the US and eventually stopped sending remittances, so that the mother and children joined the internal Mexican migrant farm work force. A labor contractor from their village organized jobs for a crew of 50, and took them in a circuit between Sinaloa and north central Mexico.

The piece-rate wage for picking chili peppers was reportedly $2 for a 60-pound sack, and the girl earned $20 a day. Farmers blame contractors for children in the fields, saying that the contractors tell families their children can work and increase the family's earnings.

Reactions. The Los Angeles Times series was the subject of commentary among those in the US supply chain who import and sell Mexican produce. Many US buyers noted that Mexican producers sign social responsibility statements and take visitors to showcase labor camps near their packing sheds.

The International Fresh Produce Social Responsibility Alliance, created by the Confederation of Agribusiness Associations in Sinaloa and the Fresh Produce Association of the Americas in December 2014, promised to ensure that Mexican labor laws are obeyed on its member farms, which account for over 80 percent of Mexican produce exports to the US. The alliance does not include US grocery chains, restaurants or other food retailers, and its enforcement mechanisms are vague.

Some buyers suggested that third-party auditors already hired to do food safety checks on Mexican farms that export produce should investigate labor conditions as well. Many buyers of Mexican produce expect growers to self-monitor their compliance with labor standards.

The Los Angeles Times solicited suggestions for change. http://touch.latimes.com/#section/-1/article/p2p-82505327/) Farmers stressed that the abuses detailed in the series are the exception, not the rule, and that increased regulatory vigilance, worker education, and peer pressure among employers can reduce abuses. Worker advocates stressed the abuses they encounter, and suggested that farm worker abuses are more systemic than occasional, and that only top-down pressure from US produce buyers can effectuate systemic change.

The film, Paying the Price: Migrant Workers in the Toxic Fields of Sinaloa, follows a group of migrant workers who live in Ayotzinapa Guerrero to jobs in Sinaloa.