On Wednesday, the middle day of our
experience, we gathered for yet another speaker. Honestly, we were tired, we
were hungry, and we did not want to listen to another perspective. Even though
we had been soaking in all the wonderful fair food program information we
could, I know I would have preferred skipping this talk, and I doubt I would
have been alone in that action. But when Victor and Lindsay began describing
their work, I was immediately intrigued. They, with ten others, run the Fair
Food Standards Council, an independent auditing organization that assures
farmworkers on Fair Food-participating farms are treated according to
standards. They interview over half the employees at every farm, which I guestimate to be around 15,000 people, every
growing season (once a year). They make sure workers are treated justly and as
the human they undoubtedly are. They personally visit every farm and talk to
workers, make sure each worker has a booklet describing their rights, and give
them a number to the 24 hour, 7 day a week hotline, which will take any
complaint, anytime and solve it within two weeks. They work separately from but
in conjunction with the Coalition of Immokalee Workers, Alliance for Fair Food,
United States Department of Agriculture. They work together with only 12 of
them to audit the entire Fair Food farms. They work with a mission for justice.
Though this may sound a bit cliché,
it really opened my eyes. I think I have been skeptical all this time of
migrant farmworkers because everything I had heard about them was negative.
Later it became apparent that even if they were not technically supposed to be
here, they were still human and doing work no other Americans would. This
presentation really showed me how expansive the migrant farmworkers community is
and how many groups have come together to try and end the injustice. I never
realized the work the farmerworkers do touch the lives of everyone in our
community. Furthermore, other industries are copying the Fair Foods Standards
Council’s procedures, including diary farmers in Vermont and construction
workers in Texas. This made me realize the scope of workers that I have never
thought about being treating unfairly. Additionally, the work of the Fair Foods
Standards Council also showed me how people can truly care about other people,
no matter their race, residency status, or anything else. Seeing people care
for other people without judgment makes me want to do something more with my
life and makes me realize that each person has their own journey, own struggle,
own needs, and own feelings.
-Margo DeGenova, Junior
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