Calling the conditions in Immokalee's farm fields tragic, appalling and deplorable, three U.S. senators promised a federal review of tomato pickers' wages and greater oversight of their working conditions at a Senate Health, Education, Labor, and Pensions committee hearing Tuesday.

Bernie Sanders, I-Vt., Edward Kennedy, D-Mass., and Dick Durbin, D-Ill., expressed concern about the treatment of the Florida workers after the collapse of a plan to get the fast-food industry to boost its wages by paying a penny more per pound of tomatoes.

"It may not sound like much, but for the tomato pickers, it means the difference between poverty and decent wages," Kennedy said. He invoked Edward R. Murrow's landmark 1960 documentary "Harvest of Shame," which detailed the grim plight of migrant workers in Immokalee and elsewhere.

"Too little has changed over the years," he said. The fact that there's a need for hearings today shows "how far we have to go to provide genuine fairness and justice for this vulnerable workforce," he said.

"Do the math with me," Durbin said in his opening statement. Workers would have to fill and empty a 32-pound bucket of tomatoes, each worth some 45 cents, about every two minutes all day long to earn the $12.50, he said.

"Is that possible?" he asked. "I don't think it is."

Sanders also decried conditions in Immokalee, pointing out that when he visited in January, a 17-count indictment was handed down for enslavement of tomato workers.

"In America, in the year 2008, it is not acceptable that workers producing the food we eat should live in these conditions," he said.

Workers face seven-day work weeks, physical and psychological abuse, and debt bondage to their employers, said Lucas Benitez, co-founder of the Coalition of Immokalee Workers.

Collier County sheriff's Detective Charlie Frost, a human trafficking expert, confirmed those conditions.

"Today's form of slavery does not bear the overt nature of pre-Civil War slavery, but it is no less heinous and reprehensible than the slavery of our nation's past,'' he said.

Reggie Brown, executive vice president of the Florida Tomato Growers Exchange, insisted his colleagues "abhor and condemn slavery. We are on the same side on this issue."

Brown also said tomato harvesters can earn almost double the state's $6.79 per hour minimum wage.

The hearing came months after Burger King and Florida tomato growers joined to overturn the gains the workers won from fast-food giants McDonald's and Yum! Brands, both of whom agreed to pay a penny a pound more.

"We've always been interested in finding a way to assure decent wages and modern working conditions for the tomato harvesters in Immokalee," said Burger King spokesman Keva Silversmith.

Advocates had hailed the agreement with the coalition as a first step in boosting wages industrywide. It worked for two seasons before Florida Tomato Growers Exchange told members it would fine them $100,000 if they participated, citing legal concerns about antitrust, labor and racketeering issues.

In one testy exchange, Sanders questioned Brown about his group's threatened fines. Sanders told Brown that lawyers from Yum! Brands and McDonald's found the agreements sound and legal, as did 26 law professors from around the country.

Their opinion?

"The ostensible legal concerns are utterly without merit," Sanders said. "The only real antitrust concern would arise if several growers agree among themselves to not participate.

"Are you saying these 26 are wrong and you're right?"

Brown: "That's one group of legal opinions and our opinion is different."

Benitez suggested growers offer a surcharge on their tomatoes - as they have done to offset spikes in oil prices or ease the cost of phasing out the pesticide methyl bromide - but with the money going to farmworkers.

Pressed by Sanders, Brown agreed to open pay records of Florida Tomato Growers Exchange members to the General Accounting Office.

Writer Eric Schlosser suggested a tactic similar to one used in the war on drugs: Farmers who have repeated instances of enslaved workers in their fields could face the possible loss of their land - the same way property can be seized if it was involved in a drug crime.

In his conclusion, Sanders said there remains a great deal more work to do and promised further action, which pleased coalition co-founder Greg Asbed.

"After years of struggling in Immokalee, the U.S. Senate is taking a real interest in this," Asbed said. "We hope that the entire food industry and the Florida agricultural industry know a new day is coming."