written for Reveal - November 2015 episode #111.

pieces to pick up

Strawberries used to be a delicacy. The fruit is fragile, prone to disease and requires a very particular climate to grow.

But these days, you can buy strawberries almost anywhere at any time – including in Barrow, Alaska, a polar community with an average annual temperature of -9 degrees Fahrenheit. 

So how did strawberries become so ubiquitous, and what are the consequences for farmworkers? The answer takes us on a meandering tour back to World War I, the Hawaiian pineapple fields of the 1930s and a savvy marketing campaign in the 1970s and ’80s. 

From The Battlefields To The Strawberry Fields

Reveal is a new investigative reporting program from The Center for Investigative Reporting and PRX. Available on public radio and online, the show examines what governments, businesses and communities are doing behind the scenes, hidden from public view. It's for anyone who is interested in stories that change our understanding of how the world works. 



From The Battlefields To The Strawberry Fields

Reveal

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