“ All my life I have driven by one dream, one goal one vision: To overthrow a farm labor system in this nation which treats farm workers as if they were not important human beings"-Cesar Chavez.
As I reread the words of Cesar Chavez and his fight like those before him to improve wages and their livelihood, it is heart wrenching to me that these abuses are still occurring today. However, today such groups like The Coalition of Immokalee Workers(CIW) and La Via Campesina have emerged in order to fight for food sovereignty and social Justice. The CIW is a grass root organization in the United States and La Via Campesina is an International Peasant Movement and alliance fighting for environmental and social change. In this section, I would like to discuss these groups efforts, conflicts, and obstacles in order to achieve social justice.
The Coalition of Immokalee merged at a time when workers “ sought to organize, and centered on popular education and on the mobilization of the general public” (Giagnoni 99). Their main objective is to make “ the right to just and favorable remueration ensuring for himself and his family an existence worthy of human dignity(UDHR, Article 23, Section 3) (CIW). In other words, this grass roots organization rooted by farmworkers of Latinos, Mayan Indian and Haitians from Immokalee, one of the poorest communities in Florida came to existence to fight against changes that needed to be done. Thus, the farmworkers experienced first hand physical violence and being enslaved by minimum wages that did not reach the equivalent of the minimum wage. In which, they received $0.40 cents for 2. 5 Tons of tomatoes. Moreover, the workers are also paid $.45 to $.77 per bucket of tomatoes in which this is not enough for a livelihood (Giagioni 82). Similarly, these rates correspond to those set in 1978. Besides receiving low wages, other abuses often were endured such as exploitation of workers that are undocumented, sexual abuses, and limited rights and benefit.
As these abuses perpetuated overtime, the workers aimed for change. This group begins their journey by organizing and pressuring the growers for fair treatment and just wages. In the late 90’s they begin to have strikes which include hunger strike in order to make progress and end the farmers hold over unfair treatment. In 2000, the agriculture industry demanded cheaper prices in pesticides and as a result to control cost the farmers cut its production by reaping the pay of their workers. Ever since then, the CIW has established a Fair Food Campaign that purposes three main objectives: 1) pay a penny more for a pound; 2) establish a code of conduct to eliminate any abuses and 3) create different ways to produce food. In order for this group to further place pressure on the farmers and the industry, they joined their efforts with 300 universities to spread the word through protest and advocacy. Since the farmers are only one part of the problem, there was a need to place pressure on the fast food chain industry. By protesting against Taco Bell, McDonald’s, Burger King and Subway, this caused further disruptions. In 2001, this group started a fast-food boycott on Taco Bell.
This first campaign against Taco Bell made headlines but most importantly this opted for change in how the food chains bought their products. As a result, these corporations began to established fair food agreements at with the CIW and have backed their agreements.
However, although progress has been made, there is still more to be done for the CIW. They now are advocating against supermarkets like Trader Joe’s and others to demand a fair food agreement. This is needed in order for the farmers to not use the supermarkets demands as a scapegoat to further abuse their workers and to back down from agreements made with the fast food industry.
Another group of equal importance is La via Campesina. This group aims to fight for food sovereignty in which this as noted by Patel must “broaden the imagination of possible politics by putting the idea of equality right back into the heard of food politics. It is to this that we, in conclusion, turn” (291). La Via Campesina is viewed as an International Peasant Movement that consist of small farmers and producers from all over the world getting together in efforts to organize to further “ develop radical social, economic and political transformation to reverse the current trend” (Small Scale Sustainable Farmers are Cooling Down the Earth). This trend refers to how production, mass consumption and trade has further caused environmental destruction in which has contribute to more global warming and lasting affects toward the environment. The root of these issues goes back to the denial of many countries own neglect toward this problem since many allow many corporations to continue to reap the environment. As a result, many small scale farmers are forced to further pay higher cost in materials making them this difficult for them to continue farming due the devastation of land.
This group’s main focus is to change the industrial way of farming. In other words, they purpose to transform massive agricultural farming to at a local small scale farming to reduce harmful effects toward the environment. In addition, they advocate for granted access to small scale farmers to not be denied local and national markets. Another item that they aim to reduce is the Co2 emissions by the countries due to the travel of these products to other places of the world. In reality, this groups aims for an agarian form that “ regards food as a basic human right that should not be treated as a commodity” (Small Scale Farmers are Cooling Down the Earth). As part of their efforts they have organized meeting that pursue Free Trade Agreements and they have further expressed their efforts in the Internet. They have launched protests and most importantly they continue to advocate to pursue changes to be made through complete solidarity across the globe. One fight of each region does only concern one group of the world but all to all.
In sum, both groups aim to place pressure on the government and the agriculture and food chain industries to have change occurs. The consumer is an asset to these organizations concerns since we are those who buy these products. As a consumer, we should demand changes in how people are treated and the ways in which small scale farmers and producer are treated in their local and national markets. As Cesar Chavez noted, once social change begins, it cannot be reversed”(Patel 301).
Consciousness + Commitment =Change(About CIW)
Work Cited
“About CIW.” Coalition of Immokalee Workers . 9 Dec 2011. 12 Dec 2011 < http://ciw-online.org/about.html
Giagnoni, Siliva. Fields of Resistance The Struggle of Florida’s Farmworkers for Justice. Chicago: Haymarket Books, 2011.
Patel, Raj. Stuffed and Starved. London :Portobello Books, 2007.
“Peasant Agriculture: A Real Solution to Climate Change.” La Via Campesina. 9 Dec 2011. 13 Dec 2011 < http://viacampesina.org/en/index.php?
option=com_content&view=frontpage&Itemid=1>.
“Small Scale Sustainable Farmers are Cooling Down the Earth.” La Via Campesina. 31 Nove 2007. 11 Dec 2011 < http://viacampesina.net/downloads/PAPER5/EN/paper5-EN.pdf>.
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