A MacArthur ‘Genius’ on Overcoming Modern Farm Slavery
- 7 years ago
A MacArthur ‘Genius’ on Overcoming Modern Farm Slavery
We didn’t get our final paycheck at the last place we were working.”
So we said, “Sure, where were you working, and why didn’t you get that paycheck?”
“We had to take off a night because the police came” — because the crew leader had shot another worker who was telling workers in the camp
that they didn’t have to work against their will, that they were free to work wherever they wanted.
In 2014, Susan L. Marquis, dean of the Pardee RAND Graduate School in Santa Monica, Calif., said
that “when I first visited Immokalee, I heard appalling stories of abuse and modern slavery.” She added: “But now the tomato fields in Immokalee are probably the best working environment in American agriculture.
The companies pay a small premium for each unit of crop they purchase, sometimes referred to in shorthand as a “penny per pound,”
and the growers agree to abide by a code of conduct on issues like worker safety and pay, which the premium funds.
Mr. Asbed’s group, based in Immokalee, Fla., the state’s tomato capital, has reached agreements with Walmart, McDonald’s
and a dozen other major buyers of farm products to take part in its Fair Food Program.
Eventually, to its credit, Taco Bell was the first to step up
and say, “There are problems in agriculture, and we’re going to work with the coalition to fix them.” So they signed to pay the premium and to only buy from growers who comply with the code.
So we realized if we were actually ever going to have the ability to improve workers’ lives in a meaningful way, we were going to have to take the conditions
that we saw and confront those corporations with those conditions.
We didn’t get our final paycheck at the last place we were working.”
So we said, “Sure, where were you working, and why didn’t you get that paycheck?”
“We had to take off a night because the police came” — because the crew leader had shot another worker who was telling workers in the camp
that they didn’t have to work against their will, that they were free to work wherever they wanted.
In 2014, Susan L. Marquis, dean of the Pardee RAND Graduate School in Santa Monica, Calif., said
that “when I first visited Immokalee, I heard appalling stories of abuse and modern slavery.” She added: “But now the tomato fields in Immokalee are probably the best working environment in American agriculture.
The companies pay a small premium for each unit of crop they purchase, sometimes referred to in shorthand as a “penny per pound,”
and the growers agree to abide by a code of conduct on issues like worker safety and pay, which the premium funds.
Mr. Asbed’s group, based in Immokalee, Fla., the state’s tomato capital, has reached agreements with Walmart, McDonald’s
and a dozen other major buyers of farm products to take part in its Fair Food Program.
Eventually, to its credit, Taco Bell was the first to step up
and say, “There are problems in agriculture, and we’re going to work with the coalition to fix them.” So they signed to pay the premium and to only buy from growers who comply with the code.
So we realized if we were actually ever going to have the ability to improve workers’ lives in a meaningful way, we were going to have to take the conditions
that we saw and confront those corporations with those conditions.