For Immediate Release
Bob St.Peter
Food for Maine’s Future
207-244-0908
[email protected]
Joel Greeno
Family Farm Defenders
608-344-0564
John E. Peck
Family Farm Defenders
608-260-0900 or 608-345-3918
[email protected]
Marley Moynahan
Coalition of Immokalee Workers
239-357-0393
[email protected]
The Farm Labor Reality Tour, a two-week caravan across 15 states to unite family farmers and farm laborers across the country in their common quest for fairness, justice and dignity, left Brewer, Maine on Sat. Feb. 15th Led by three grassroots organizations representing small farmers, farmworkers, and food justice activists, Family Farm Defenders, the Coalition of Immokalee Workers (CIW) and Food for Maine’s Future, the tour aims to draw attention to the shared struggles of all people who work in America’s fields.
Thurs. Feb. 28th 5:30 pm Vanderbilt Univ. – exact location TBA (2201 West End Ave. in Nashville, TN) Tour will host a community discussion. Info? #901-270-9814
“The people who grow food for this country – be they independent family farmers or farmworkers – are not getting paid a fair wage for their work. That has to change,” said Wisconsin dairy farmer Joel Greeno of Wisconsin-based Family Farm Defenders. The organization was inspired by the success of the Coalition of Immokalee Workers’ consumer-oriented “penny more per pound” Fair Food Campaign, which has won agreements for higher wages and improved working conditions from some of the biggest fast food companies in the world.
Family Farm Defenders has launched a similar effort — the Land O’Fakes campaign —which calls on consumers to demand that Land O’Lakes pay its member farmers a living wage for their milk. Land O’ Lakes is a dairy cooperative, but as one of the biggest dairy processors in the nation, it has dramatically driven down the price farmers are paid. Consumers are asked to demand that Land O’ Lakes stop manipulating dairy prices through speculative trading and stop pushing costly genetically modified hormones and seeds on their member farmers.
The Farm Labor Reality Tour will conclude in Immokalee, Florida, on March 2 to begin a two-week, 175-mile March for Rights, Respect, and Fair Food led by the CIW. The march is expected to draw together thousands of people to call on grocery giant Publix to help end farmworker exploitation and support the innovative Fair Food Program – a unique collaboration between Florida’s tomato growers, major retailers, and farmworkers, setting the standard for social accountability in the domestic produce industry by ensuring respect for farmworkers’ rights and dignity.
The Farm Labor Reality Tour is coordinated by a coalition of grassroots farm labor organizations with support from WhyHunger. To get involved or join the tour, contact Bob St. Peter (contact info below). Supportive organizations are also invited to send letters of support for the tour, the Land O’Fakes campaign, and/or the CIW March for Rights, Respect, and Fair Food.
Financial contributions to help with video documentation, travel scholarships for people or groups who want to join the Farm Labor Reality Tour, and the Land O Fakes campaign are also most welcome.
You can make a tax exempt donation to Family Farm Defenders in support of the caravan through Razoo!
Press coverage of the tour so far:
Maine farmers, labor leaders to draw attention to plight of dairy farmers
http://www.wcsh6.com/news/article/231615/2/Dairy-farmers-travel-out-of-state-to-fix-pricing-issues
