Welcome to Florida podcast: “The CIW was instrumental to enacting one of the most effective programs to improve working conditions for agriculture workers in U.S. history, the Fair Food Program.”

Nely Rodriguez, CIW: “During the fast, I found myself reflecting on the things I’ve seen, like the mothers here who have to get up extremely early to drop their kids off at daycare or school, but under the Fair Food Program, that is no longer the case. If we can make this Program expand, those things will change.”

Although the Fair Food Program now operates in 23 states domestically, covering dozens of crops from blueberries to fresh corn, and in fields and greenhouses overseas, the transformative human rights program was first launched in Florida’s tomato industry, in the fields in and around the farmworker community of Immokalee. 

Shane Mitchell, a renowned food journalist, visited Immokalee back in 2018, when the CIW was first beginning to scale the Fair Food Program’s groundbreaking protections beyond the state in which it was born and into tomato fields along the length of the east coast, from Georgia to New Jersey. And for her remarkable feature story in The Bitter Southerner — which went on to win a coveted James Beard Foundation Journalism Award — Mitchell spoke with farmworker staff members of the CIW on their firsthand experiences working in the fields and forging the unique new mix of monitoring and enforcement mechanisms that make up the first-ever Worker-driven Social Responsibility program. Her insightful piece, which remains relevant today, is now a key chapter of her newly released book, The Crop Cycle, which compiles several of her essays on crops in the south to form a comprehensive look into the people who put food on our tables.

We are excited to share an excerpt of her original feature on tomatoes and the CIW below. You can also grab a copy of the book here, 

And in case you missed it, CIW co-founder Greg Asbed appeared on the Welcome to Florida podcast hosted by acclaimed author of all things Florida, Craig Pittman. In the wide-ranging conversation, Asbed discusses the 30-year history of the CIW, from the early community organizing days in Immokalee, to the CIW’s pioneering anti-slavery work uncovering brutal forced labor operations in the fields, to the national Campaign for Fair Food that set the stage for the launch of the CIW’s Fair Food Program and made possible the “moving” partnership, in Asbed’s words, with the very growers who had for so very long been bitter adversaries but today are instrumental thought partners in the oversight and development of the new gold standard for human rights in the US agricultural industry.

Asbed and Pittman delve into that unique partnership between workers and growers within the FFP and its role in enabling the program to remain dynamic and responsive to the ever-evolving needs of farmworkers and the industry as a whole. When the number of heat stress-related complaints among farmworkers began to rise, Asbed explains, the FFP’s Working Group — an informal body comprised of workers and growers that meets monthly to discuss the latest developments in the daily operation of the program as well as issues forming on the more distant horizon — came together to address the growing challenges posed by accelerating climate change. Together they forged a set of new requirements to protect workers from the deadly heat, including the mandatory provision of shade, water, rest breaks and training. When research came out that electrolyte-infused water greatly reduce the risk of long-term organ damage when compared to water alone, that working group met again to amend the code to mandate the provision of electrolytes. Today, the Fair Food Program heat standards set the bar for protecting outdoor workers, and were recently called “America’s strongest workplace heat rules,” on the front page of the The Washington Post. 

The Crop Cycle excerpt and the Welcome to Florida episode complement each other well, as they each explore the tireless efforts of farmworkers and their allies to realize the once-distant dream of dignity and respect in the fields. First up is The Crop Cycle excerpt. Make sure to click "read more" to listen to the podcast episode. Enjoy! 

A Hunger for Tomatoes 

Southerners profess great love for homegrown tomatoes. Only a few of us will do the sweating and digging ourselves. So while tomatoes have been part of Southern culture from the beginning, our hunger for them means too many people in the fields don’t get treated fairly.

By Shane Mitchell

“Que es el trabajo?” asked Julia Perkins. “What’s the job?”

A group of women facing her at the bulletin board repeated the English lesson in unison. On a Sunday afternoon in late April at the Coalition of Immokalee Workers (CIW) headquarters, female members gathered for their weekly coffee klatch to learn a few handy phrases, trade daycare schedules, and discuss the cost of groceries. Boxes of Polvorones and Canelitas cookies laid scattered on the folding table. A banda tune by Los Jefes de la Sierra Grande leaked from the sound booth of Radio Conciencia La Tuya next door. Murals depicting tomato workers in the field covered butter yellow walls. Hand-painted slogans “No Mas Abusos,” “Comida Justa” and “Justice for Farmworkers” hung above a cluster of desks.

“What kind of work is it?” said Perkins. “What do I need to apply?”

Perkins, a CIW education coordinator born in North Carolina, ended her lesson, and the women rose to rearrange the folding chairs and put away the snacks. All dressed neatly in jeans, cotton tops, clean sneakers. Gold necklaces, pierced ears. Long hair pulled back in sensible ponytails or braids. Cell phones tucked back into purses. Many still worked in the fields; others were field agents for the Coalition. Nice ladies, all.  

Bet you’d never guess they’re expert hunger strikers...

Coalition of Immokalee Workers
110 S 2nd St
Immokalee, FL 34142
United States

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