From CronkiteNewsOnline.com, Elvina Nawaguna-Clemente, Cronkite News, 22 Nov 2011. CHANDLER, AZ – On a late November afternoon, tractors with side chutes harvest sorghum from a small roadside farm, spitting it into a truck riding along. The grain is milled and sold as feed to a nearby dairy. About a year ago, this land was set … Continue reading
From ThePacker.com, Tom Karst, 7 Nov 2011. A majority of California and Arizona growers polled in late September reported labor shortages, according to a labor survey by Irvine, Calif.-based Western Growers. Seventy-three completed surveys were analyzed, and 62% of those responding (45 growers) indicated they had experienced challenges in finding workers this year, according to … Continue reading
From Bradenton.com, James A. Jones Jr., 4 Nov 2011. BRADENTON, FL — Farmworkers are the canaries in the coal mine of globalization. That was the thesis of keynote speaker Greg Schell, an attorney with the Migrant Farmworker Justice Project, at the Cesar Chavez Memorial Dinner on Thursday night. An increasingly global economy has worked vast … Continue reading
From LATimes.com, Alana Semuels, Los Angeles Times, 30 Oct 2011. Reporting from Dos Palos, Calif.— A Salvadoran flag wrapped around his neck to block out the sun, Geremias Romero hunches low to the ground alongside the other laborers, following the tractor along rows of cantaloupes. He reaches into the leafy green rows of fruit, touches a … Continue reading
From LatinaLista.net, Marisa Treviño, 24 Oct 2011. LatinaLista — With family grocery bills getting higher and higher with every run to the store, it’s hard to be thankful for our food. Yet, that’s exactly what we need to be and why today is being celebrated as Food Day. For the first time in 34 years, the … Continue reading
From NYTimes.com, “Hand vs. Machine” by Philip Martin, 9 Oct 2011. What Happened to the American Work Ethic? Millions of people are looking for jobs, but aren’t jumping to be seasonal farm laborers. Why is that? Sweet corn can be picked by hand or machine, and many growers use machines to pick the third of … Continue reading
From PressDemocrat.com, Cathy Bussewitz, 2 Oct 2011. In the dark of night, the Pellenc machine rolled like a giant Transformer-like insect through the vineyard, seemingly swallowing up vines as it gently shook the chardonnay grapes free. The canopies trembled almost imperceptibly as the mechanical harvester approached at a little more than 2 miles per hour, … Continue reading
From KCBD.com, Abby Reed, 23 Sept 2011. LUBBOCK, TX (KCBD) – The severe drought hammering the South Plains has taken away cotton and now, it’s taking away local agricultural jobs. Lubbock’s Agri-Life Extension Agent Mark Brown says times are tough for local cotton producers and their employees. “One in every 7 jobs are related to … Continue reading
From WDM.Org.UK, World Development Movement, Dan Iles, 22 Aug 2011. Dan Iles, WDM’s south-west mobiliser, interviews Christina Schiavoni of the US Food Sovereignty Alliance. On day four of the European forum on food sovereignty, I met Christina from the US. I was very interested to find out about what sort of actions are happening over in the … Continue reading
From AmericanProgress.org, Philip E. Wolgin, Angela Maria Kelley, 5 Jul 2011. The Fiscal Impact of States’ Anti-Immigrant Legislation Download this brief (pdf) Read the full brief in your web browser It has been just over a year since the passage of Arizona’s ill-fated anti-immigrant law, S.B. 1070. In its wake, many states put copycat bills on … Continue reading
