The power of technology and ideas together
I can't stress enough how great the internet is at progressing academic study. The production costs of sharing and or publishing material is almost infinitely low. As such it makes the opportunity of publishing accessable to more people. Take me for example, a lowly graduate student and here I am publishing material to all who wish to find it. A similar heart warming example, is a recent find on Allen Dalton's syllabus for principles of macroeconomics, where he lists my Taco Bell article as one of the required readings.
dj,
Concerning your idea that boycotts of Taco Bell by the farm workers are counterproductive, please consider that Taco Bell is not the whole universe of demand for fresh tomatoes. The farmer employing the boycotting workers may, in fact, sell fewer tomatoes to Taco Bell, but it is far from a given that (s)he, the farmer, will sell fewer tomatoes, let alone suffer a revenue decrease.
Mark,
As it was reported by the IMWC Taco Bell was the largest purchaser of tomatoes from these Florida farms. I would assume, but don't know for sure, that the majority of the produce that you'd find in the average grocery store is imported from out of the country. If Taco Bell could get them any cheaper I'm sure they would. Which is to say so would anyone, which is to say that the farmers would hard pressed to sell their tomatoes at any higher prices. I'm fairly confident Taco Bell's market share as a purchaser of these particular farms is pretty high. If they weren't buying them then the farms would have to find a new buyer. Since we dont see any excess buyers bidding up prices now its fair to assume that finding a buyer would involve lowering price, thus lowering revenues. It's not a universal truth by any stretch, it's an emprical claim, but a reasonable one at that.
--Dan