Way back in my youth I worked in New York for a company that repackaged magazine material into cookbooks — our biggest client was Gourmet Magazine. So I’ve watched with great interest as Ruth Reichel has taken that hoary old magazine, run by women from the suburbs who at least in the late ’80 were still known to come to work in plaid skirts and knee socks (knee socks! I remember my shock that grown women would go out dressed like old girls — oh, and in blouses with those big floppy bows that women wore in the ’80s in lieu of men’s ties. Sigh), at any rate, I’ve been thrilled to see the magazine move into the modern world.

The past year or two they’ve even started added a regular feature on food politics. This month’s article is particularly worth reading: Politics of the Plate: Florida’s Slave Trade, Tomatoes, Migrant Workers: Food Politics : gourmet.com.

The article is truly appalling — but having grown up around migrant workers in the landscape and horse business, I know how easy it is for such a vulnerable population to be taken advantage of — go take a look. It’s a really interesting article.