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Ideas

Your tomatoes have a backstory and it’s not always pretty

5/1/202654 min

In fact, author and journalist Marcello Di Cintio argues Canadians are complicit. After four years investigating the lives of migrant workers, he found that many temporary foreign workers are trapped working in precarious, exploitative conditions. These jobs are essential to our economy and society, yet invisible. Each migrant worker has a story to tell, says Di Cintio. He joined IDEAS host Nahlah Ayed on a visit through the tomato capital of Canada to hear their stories and talk about what his investigation reveals about Canada. *This episode originally aired on Dec. 11, 2025.

Marcello Di Cintio's book is called Precarious: The Lives of Migrant Workers.

Clips

Program Origins In Overt Racism
Why Bad Bosses Flourish
Confronting The "S Word"
Canada’s Self-Image Challenged
We’re All Complicit
Rejecting "Be Grateful" Logic
Does Racism Persist Today?
More Than Arms And Backs
System Enables Monsters
A Future National Apology?

Transcript preview

First 90 seconds

  1. Speaker 00:00

    Disfruta más formas de ahorrar en Fred Meyer, como precios bajos en todo pasillo. Descarga la app de Fred Meyer, elige tus cupones digitales semanales y ahorra aún más. Además, ganas puntos en combustible para ahorrar hasta un dólar por galón. En Fred Meyer encuentras más formas de ahorrar y más recompensas en cada compra. Ahorrar en grande a diario es fácil con ahorros y recompensas. Fred Meyer, fresh para todos. Los ahorros pueden variar por estado. Aplican restricciones de combustible. Ve los detalles en el sitio.

  2. Marcello Di Cintio· Guest0:29

    This is a CBC podcast.

  3. Nahlah Ayed· Host0:33

    [guitar music] Look at these greenhouses. Like, it's row upon row, upon row, upon row. I'm on the road with journalist, author, and all around curious guy Marcello Di Cintio. Look at that.

  4. Marcello Di Cintio· Guest0:49

    I've been inside some of these.

  5. Nahlah Ayed· Host0:51

    Have you?

  6. Marcello Di Cintio· Guest0:51

    Yeah. And, and, um, [laughs] they're more like NASA facilities than they are like greenhouse... My grandfather had a greenhouse. It was nothing like this.

  7. Nahlah Ayed· Host0:59

    Welcome to Ideas. I'm Nahlah Ayed. And welcome to Leamington, Ontario, the tomato capital of Canada.

  8. Marcello Di Cintio· Guest1:08

    I can smell tomatoes in the streets of Leamington. When the wind shifts, I c- I can smell the tomato-scented breeze coming in.

  9. Nahlah Ayed· Host1:14

    Seriously?

  10. Marcello Di Cintio· Guest1:15

    I think so. I'm Italian, I can smell a tomato from a, from a good distance. I'm like a bloodhound for that kind of thing.

  11. Nahlah Ayed· Host1:20

    [laughs] And if you happen to eat tomatoes, you'll want to know about a backstory that isn't always pretty.

  12. Marcello Di Cintio· Guest1:27

    There's, there's very few

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