Workers—organized, militant and backed by a contract—can reveal what the fair-trade label often hides.
Despite opposition from agribusiness, the UN Human Rights Council Declaration adopted a declaration of peasant rights. This can provide a legal basis for peasant organizations to challenge neo-liberal austerity measures.
Teresa Romero was just selected as the new president of the United Farm Workers -- the third person to hold that office following Cesar Chavez and Arturo Rodriguez. She is the first woman and first immigrant to serve in that position.
At the heart of the conflict is the sturdy little fungus Fusarium oxysporum f. sp. cubense; it infects and kills banana plants and, since the banana industry relies so heavily on one species, it is spreading steadily across banana-rich Southeast Asia and into Australia and the Middle East.
Tuesday, the USDA withdrew an Obama administration rule designed to protect farmers from certain predatory and retaliatory practices. The decision further immiserates family farmers who have no choice but to submit to the machinations of Big Ag processors.
An in-depth investigation reveals that multibillion-dollar Big Ag corporations—including DuPont Pioneer and Monsanto—as well as small-scale farmers routinely use labor recruiters who crowd migrant workers in housing riddled with health and safety violations, such as bed bug infestations and a lack of running water. When state inspectors visit migrant labor camps, they find violations as much as 60 percent of the time.
In many respects, Ross’s life is the story of a significant segment of the progressive movement in California
Many of 20th-century conservatism’s tricks were honed in 1930s agribusiness’s fight against farmworkers
Hiring migrant farm labor is very profitable for big agribusiness. Last year workers walked out of the fields at Sakuma Brothers Farms in Washington - one of the largest berry growers in the state. Berries are big business, with annual sales of $6.1 million, and big corporate customers like Häagen Dazs ice cream. Here is their story.
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