To follow up on my work in Spain (see the report ‘‘Europe’s Garden or the Third World’’) on the themes of intensive agriculture and immigration, I decided in March 2009 to travel to Florida to document various harvests. This is a State, I had read, that like California serves as a model for the development of this type of agriculture in Europe and throughout the world.

Its principal characteristics are the absolute necessity of access to cheaply paid labour which is docile and easily recruited and therefore largely illegal (what is, in fact, according to many observers, a form of modern-day slavery) and the use of large tracts of land, water, and other natural resources.

During the three months of my visit I documented, among other subjects, the financial and economic crisis that is hitting the country, various fruit and vegetable harvests and attempted to follow the workers as they moved from city to city, state to state, like others before them during the Great Depression.

Along the same lines, you may want to look again at the photo coverage from Spain (‘‘Europe’s Garden or the Third World’’) in order to judge for yourself the similarities and differences between these two situations. Please have a look also at the ‘‘Haitian Migrant Workers (Florida/ Georgia)’’ report.