Publix Creepily Videotapes Demonstrators' Kids

Barry Estabrook, who wrote the "Politics of the Plate" column before genius magazine consultants persuaded Condé Nast to pull the plug on Gourmet last month, has launched a blog called … Politics of the Plate.

At Gourmet, Estabrook "gently but tenaciously informed pleasure-seeking readers about issues like the brutal economics of dairy farming and the ecological consequences of mindless fish-eating," writes Tom Philpott at Grist.org.

It looks like Estabrook will be doing the same thing on his blog.

For instance, his latest post is a chilling account of Publix Super Markets in Florida videotaping the children of members of the Coalition of Immokalee Workers who were demonstrating in front of Publix stores. The coaltion is fighting horrible conditions for tomato pickers in Florida, including, in some cases, de facto slavery.

Publix operates more than 1,000 supermarkets in the Southeast. The coalition has managed to get many large food retailers and restaurant chains to join its Campaign for Fair Food, including McDonald's (MCD), Burger King (BKC), and Whole Foods Market (WFMI).

But not Publix. The campaign's members agree to buy tomatoes only from growers that have given pickers 1 cent more per pound than they had been earning and that don't engage in human trafficking (slavery).