Farm Workers

Growing Green Awards: Winners Produce Food that Nourishes People and the Planet

Frances Beinecke | Posted 05.16.2012

Read More: Fair-Food-Agreement, Farm Workers, Organic Farming, Pesticides, Organic Food, Sustainable Food, School Lunches, Farmers, Fungicide, Pink Slime, Listeria, Sustainable Farming, Tomatoes, Growing Green Awards, Video, Green News
Frances Beinecke

Today, NRDC announces the winners of the 2012 Growing Green Awards. These awards celebrate the farmers, business owners, and bold thinkers who are transforming America's food system.

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Going Undercover in the Belly of Our Beastly Food Chain

Kerry Trueman | Posted 04.30.2012

Read More: Healthy Eating, Walmart, Labor, Cooking, The American Way of Eating, Migrant Farmworkers, Tracie McMillan, Unions, Industrial Agriculture, Applebee's, Farm Workers, Food News
Kerry Trueman

From the fields of California's Central Valley to the produce aisle of a Michigan Walmart, and lastly, the kitchen of a Brooklyn Applebee's, Tracie McMillan gives a firsthand account of the long hours, lousy wages and difficult conditions that are par for the course in these places.

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Dave Jamieson

Pricey Restaurant Chain Pays 'Poverty Wages,' Worker Advocates Say

HuffingtonPost.com | Dave Jamieson | Posted 02.22.2012

Read More: Farm Workers, Trader Joe's, Dining Out, Chain Restaurants, Darden Group, Olive Garden, Labor Movement, Labor Unions, Red Lobster, Restaurant Opportunities Center United, La Palapa, Labor, Minimum Wage, Dining, Restaurants, McDonald's, Paid Sick Days, National Restaurant Association, Business News

WASHINGTON -- It's been a busy few months at Restaurant Opportunities Centers United, a scrappy non-profit that advocates for low-wage restaurant work...

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States Attempt to Instill 'Work Ethic' by Rolling Back Child Labor Protections

Michelle Chen | Posted 03.19.2012

Read More: Farm Workers, Child Labor, Labor Rights, Gingrich Labor Children, Agriculture Labor Laws, Newt Gingrich Children, New Deal Labor, Child Exploitation Work, Work Laws Children, Politics News
Michelle Chen

After decades of campaigns against youth exploitation, the right is rekindling vestiges of the sweatshop era with legislation aimed at rolling back child labor laws.

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Remembering Poverty Before the Safety Net

Dan Morgan | Posted 02.21.2012

Read More: Farm Workers, Child Poverty, Hunger, Social Security, Poverty, Earned Income Tax Credit, Malnutrition, Michael Harrington, Newt Gingrich, Tea Party, Poverty Rate, Edward R. Murrow, Politics News
Dan Morgan

In an ideal world, families, churches, and volunteer organizations -- exemplifying the idea that we Americans take care of our own without relying on government -- would be the safety net. But this isn't an ideal world.

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Dave Jamieson

GOP Candidate Runs On Pro-Child-Labor Platform

HuffingtonPost.com | Dave Jamieson | Posted 12.09.2011

Read More: Farm Workers, Video, Farms, 2012 Gop Candidates, 2012 Election, Child Labor, Mike Ross Arkansas, Tom Cotton, Migrant Workers, Factory Farms, Elections 2012, Gop, Child Labor Laws, Tom Cotton Arkansas, Politics News

WASHINGTON -- Tom Cotton, a GOP candidate for Congress, says he would like to see more children working long hours out in America's agricultural field...

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Simplicity, The Greatest Gift

Kim Michele Richardson | Posted 01.31.2012

Read More: Gratitude, Inspirational People, Simplicity, Holidays, Faith, American Farmers, Farming, Giving, Farm Workers, Food Justice, Religion News
Kim Michele Richardson

We have left the Earth sorely fractured, but we didn't break this family -- their goodness, raw honesty, perseverance, beauty and simplicity, which shine like a beacon of bright hope.

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A Just Harvest For Sukkot

Rabbi Rachel Kahn-Troster | Posted 12.12.2011

Read More: Coalition of Immokalee Workers, Sukkot, Jewish, Rabbis for Human Rights-North America, Judaism, Farm Workers, Green Faith, Activism, Food Politics, Campaign for Fair Food, Sukkot Social Justice, Jewish Food Movement, Jewish Social Justice, Just Harvest, Religion News
Rabbi Rachel Kahn-Troster

A just harvest cannot mean tomatoes picked by slave labor or for sub-poverty wages. We are calling on the Jewish community to support the Campaign for Fair Food.

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Dave Jamieson

Perry’s Political Rise Began With Opposition To Pesticide Regulations

HuffingtonPost.com | Dave Jamieson | Posted 12.10.2011

Read More: United Farm Workers, Farm Workers, Environmental Protection Agency, Farming, Pesticides, Video, Karl Rove, Workers, Jim Hightower, Agriculture, Elections 2012, Environment, Workplace Safety, Rick Perry, Rick Perry Pesticides, Politics News

Jason Cherkis contributed reporting to this story. WASHINGTON -- More than two decades ago, there was a bitter fight within Texas' agricultural com...

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New Alabama Law Targeting Undocumented Immigrants Brings Farmers, Lawmakers To The Table

Posted 11.19.2011

Read More: Farm Workers, Immigration Reform, Alabama, Immigration, Undocumented Workers, Alabama Law, Latino Voices News

Farmers and Alabama lawmakers are seeking common ground over an apparent labor shortage, one agriculture officials blame on a new law that targets u...

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The Farm Workers and Jerry Brown Make Up, For Now

William Bradley | Posted 11.07.2011

Read More: Darrell Steinberg, Cesar Chavez, California, Arturo Rodriguez, United Farm Workers, Jerry Brown, Farm Workers, Farm Workers Union, Ufw, California Politics, Unions, Workers Rights, Los Angeles News
William Bradley

The canny Brown negotiated new legislation that allows the UFW some progress without granting its card check goal, thus turning a rally that would otherwise have been a protest of his policies into a muted celebration.

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Despite High Unemployment, Colo. Farmer Can't Find U.S. Workers

Posted 11.02.2011

Read More: Farm Workers, Immigration Reform, Video, Unemployment, Denver News, Illegal Immigration, Farmer Can't Find Workers, John Harold, Illegal Workers, Selective Unemployment, Denver News

John Harold, an Olathe Sweet Corn farmer in Colorado's Montrose County, thought hiring workers to pick corn this season would be a cakewalk. Given hi...

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Migrant Ed/Head Start Provides Awareness of the Real World to Migrant Kids

Ramon Resa, MD | Posted 10.31.2011

Read More: Teachers, Public Education, Public Education Arizona, Head Start Arizona, Education, Head Start, Migrant Workers, Migrant Education, Farm Workers, Migrant Farmers, Education News
Ramon Resa, MD

While in Tucson I made it a point to arrive early and observe and engage with some of the Migrant Ed teachers and trainers. What I encountered only reinforced my opinion of Migrant Ed/Head Start programs. It is not the program but the people who made a difference.

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Dirty Tomatoes: A Spiritual And Dietary Proposal

Brian D. McLaren | Posted 10.25.2011

Read More: Coalition of Immokalee Workers, Eco-Theology, Food Justice, Green Faith, Religious Dietary Restrictions, Immokalee Florida, Food Politics, Sustainable Food Practices, Christian Social Justice, Farm Workers, Food Ethics, Religion News
Brian D. McLaren

I never really understood religious dietary restrictions, and to be honest, I've never even given up chocolate for Lent. But this kind of dietary scruple makes sense to me.

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Richard Chavez -- One Hero Among Many

Maurice Jourdane | Posted 10.11.2011

Read More: Richard Chavez, United Farm Workers of America, Farm Workers Union, Farm Workers, Cesar Chavez, Richard Chavez Dead, Cortito, Workers Rights, Los Angeles News
Maurice Jourdane

While Cesar Chavez was becoming a Latino icon, many have not heard of Cesar's younger brother Richard. Silently, Richard helped farm workers across the nation stand tall.

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Latino Farm Workers, No Pay And No Play

Posted 10.10.2011

Read More: California Farm Workers, United Farm Workers, Farm Workers, Farm Worker Wages, Low Wages, Central Valley, California's Central Valley, Latino-Politics, Latino Voices News

By Eduardo Stanley FRESNO - No one knows the exact number of farm workers who year after year raise and harvest the crops grown in the Central Vall...

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Heavy Lifting: Hotel Housekeepers Reprise Farm Workers' Struggle for Safer Working Conditions

Donald Cohen | Posted 10.02.2011

Read More: Farm Workers, Hotels, Tourism, Hotel Workers, Business News
Donald Cohen

Today, hotel housekeepers are asking their employers to let them use long-handled mops to prevent back injury. Forty years ago, farm workers in California's fields made the same request.

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Writer, Filmmakers Expose Plight Of Migrant Workers

Posted 09.25.2011

Read More: Farm Workers, La Cosecha, The Harvest, Migrant Farm Workers, Tomatoland, Barry Estabrook, Food News

The plight of the migrant farm worker is a sad reality of American agriculture. There are two new recent efforts (one book, one movie) that spotlight ...

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Dave Jamieson

Florida Stiffed Its Workers On Minimum Wage: Judge

HuffingtonPost.com | Dave Jamieson | Posted 07.04.2011

Read More: Working Poor, National Employment Law Project, Farm Workers, Minimum Wage, Labor, Low-Wage Workers, Low Wages, Florida, Politics News

WASHINGTON -- A Florida judge has ruled the state violated its own constitution when it failed to raise the minimum wage for 2011. As a result, the ra...

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Heart of Stone

Javier Sierra | Posted 06.08.2011

Read More: Premature Deaths, Lymphomas, Leukemia, Pesticides, Brain Defects, Latino Community, Breast Cancer, HR 872, Asthma, Mercury Emissions, Cancer, Waterways Pollution, Coal-Fired Plants, Brain Tumors, Farm Workers, Green News
Javier Sierra

The bill, or rather this legislative outrage, would keep the Environmental Protection Agency (EPA) from adopting guidelines to keep pesticide discharges out of our waterways. And to make matters worse, they called it "The Reducing Regulatory Burdens Act."

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Weekly Diaspora: Why Sexual Violence Against Latina Farmworkers is a Hate Crime

The Media Consortium | Posted 05.25.2011

Read More: Shenandoah, Immigration Reform, Luis, Colorlines, Minutemen, Shawna Forde, New America Media, change.org, Southern Poverty Law Center, Merced Farm Labor, Brisenia Flores, Fair, Hate Crimes, Maria Jimenez, Alternet, Farm Workers, Politics News
The Media Consortium

by Catherine A. Traywick, Media Consortium blogger This week, two high-profile trials involving the racially motivated murders of Latinos in Pennsylva...

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Monastery Mustard (video)

Rebecca Gerendasy | Posted 05.25.2011

Read More: Homelessness, Homemade, Mustard, Farmers Markets, Homeless, Food Insecurity, Benedictine Sisters, Food, Community, Community Support, Food Artisan, Hand-Crafted Food, Farm Workers, Food News
Rebecca Gerendasy

From a very old family recipe, that remains a closely guarded secret, this mustard is hand-made by the Benedictine Sisters at Queen of Angels Monaste...

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You Say Tomato, I Say Raw Deal!

Frances Moore Lappe | Posted 05.25.2011

Read More: Farm Workers, Immokalee-Florida, Whole Foods, Burger King, Labor, Migrant-Agricultural-Workers, Tomatoes, McDonalds Food, Immigration Reform, Immigrant Rights, Migrant Workers, Immigration, Immigrant, Workers Rights, Video, Food News
Frances Moore Lappe

2010-10-12-tomatoes.jpgTo get the minimum wage, a tomato worker has to pick more than 2.25 tons of tomatoes during a day that begins before dawn and lasts 10-12 hours.

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Colbert Annoys Press Corps . . . Again

Jeff Cohen | Posted 05.25.2011

Read More: Migrant Workers, Farm Workers, Stephen Colbert, Chuck Todd, Jonathan Karl, Media News
Jeff Cohen

If immigration such a "serious issue" that should not be "trivialized", then why has the mainstream media offered such spotty coverage on it?

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Colbert, Immigrant Farm Workers Challenge Pundits And Unemployed To 'Take Our Jobs'

AP | JULIANA BARBASSA | Posted 05.25.2011

Read More: Farm Workers, Fruit Pickers, Illegal Immigration, Agriculture, Labor Department, Pensions, Mexico, Immigration, Stephen Colbert, Immigration Reform, Unemployment, Farms, Border, Colbert Report, Migrants, Overtime, Takeourjobs, Comedy News

SAN FRANCISCO — In a tongue-in-cheek call for immigration reform, farm workers are teaming up with comedian Stephen Colbert to challenge unemployed ...

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