Food and fundamental fairness: Farmworker coalition visits Western Slope
Katharhynn Heidelberg – Aug 11, 2023
A Florida-based coalition that protects farmworkers from exploitation and abuse is drumming up interest on the Western Slope as its fight for fair food spreads.
The Coalition of Immokalee Workers grew out of the tomato fields of southwestern Florida and has steadily gained traction since its inception in the 1990s. The CIW educates and advocates for fieldworkers, so they can know their rights and also have someplace to turn for help.
Since the formation of its Campaign for Fair Food in 2001, the coalition has also taken workers’ rights to the top of the supply chain, by getting major buyers like McDonald’s and Whole Foods to only purchase from growers that have adopted the Fair Food Code of Conduct.
Rancho Durazno in Palisade was the first Colorado enterprise to adopt the Fair Food Program standards. Earlier this month, CIW representatives came to Tuxedo Corn Co. in Olathe to speak with workers and company growers about the program. The visits follow trips to the area last year to conduct key worker-to-worker education at farms and learn the lay of the land, said Lupe Gonzalo, a CIW staff member who formerly worked in Florida’s tomato fields.
“Something that we know immediately from all of the expansion that we’ve done is that no matter where you go, there are still issues that farmworkers face and problems that they face,” she said during an Aug. 1 interview with the Daily Press, through an interpreter, also from CIW. “We hope the Fair Food Program will be yet another resource for workers here to be able to protect their own rights and also to help be part of the enforcement mechanism.”
Gonzalo said state laws are important, but it is critical to make sure everyone on the ground has the information and that those laws can be enforced.
“We hope that the program can be a vehicle for workers to learn about those things and know who to refer to or call if they have questions or issues,” she said.
