Farmworkers Forum
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Fresh, Local and Delicious: Pescadero Grown! Opening Day a Success
From PescaderoGrown.org, “Fresh, Local and Delicious: Pescadero Grown! Opening Day a Success” 4 May 2012. PESCADERO – Luscious strawberries. Enormous onions. Baskets of kale. Goat cheese and grass-fed beef. On May 3, these mouth-watering delights drew local shoppers to the seasonal debut of Pescadero Grown!, Puente’s popular local farmers’ market. Nearly 200 locals, young and … Continue reading
Featured Posts
From JoplinGlobe.com, “Growers struggle to cope with farmworker shortage” McClatchy Newspapers, 7 Jun 2012. SACRAMENTO, Calif. — Kevin Steward has spent more than a quarter-century in agriculture, much of that growing grapes for wineries. He’s always been able to rely on seasonal workers to tend the vines and bring in the year’s harvest. But this … Continue reading
From AgAlert.com, California Farm Bureau Federation, Steve Adler, 9 May 2012. As crops around the state are being planted, pruned, fertilized and watered in anticipation of a bountiful harvest, there’s a dark cloud forming overhead. The concern on farmers’ minds is whether there will be enough agricultural workers to get everything harvested. Reports of labor … Continue reading
From AACHC.org, 8 May 2012. Do you work at a Migrant Health Center or work in a profession that serves migrant or seasonal farmworkers? If so, plan on attending the Arizona Interagency Farmworkers Coalition annual educational conference in lovely Prescott, Arizona May 15-17, 2012. “Preserving Our Past, While Defining Our Future”, a conference where those that … Continue reading
From Forbes.com, Danielle Gould, 8 May 2012. While consumer demand for information about where our food comes from and how it’s grown is increasing, thus far there has been relatively little interest in the people that actually harvest it. Commonly used labels such as ”natural,” “free range,” “genetically engineered,” “heirloom,” “organic” and “local,” indicate nothing about … Continue reading
From McClatchyDC.com, Sean Cockerham, 7 May 2012. As the summer growing season approaches, farmers across the county are experiencing widespread frustration over the federal H-2A visa program for seasonal agriculture workers.< In Idaho, farmers such as Jim Little of Emmett say they need immigrant workers from Latin America but that the government is making it … Continue reading
From NaplesNews.com, Jake Nordbye, 6 May 2012. For four years, Ernscie Augustin missed holidays with her family. She missed 80-degree winter days in Southwest Florida. And she missed her hometown of Immokalee. But Augustin said what she couldn’t afford to miss was her “once-in-a-lifetime opportunity.” Every year, Immokalee High School students leave their homes and … Continue reading
From Tri-CityHerald.com, Tri-City Herald Editorial Staff, 6 May 2012. When a recent story ran about Mid-Columbia farmers who abandoned their asparagus fields because they couldn’t find enough workers to harvest the crop, several thoughts came to mind. It’s sad for the farmer who worked to bring the crop to fruition. It’s sad for the asparagus … Continue reading
From FightBackNews.org, B.J. Murphy, 6 May 2012. Winston-Salem, NC – On a hot morning, May 3, over 200 people gathered in front of the R.J. Reynolds (R.J.R) Headquarters in opposition to the very severe working conditions forced on North Carolina tobacco farmworkers. In response, the police surrounded the front of the headquarters, along with every … Continue reading
From WLBZ2.com, Ken Christian, 27 Apr 2012. AUBURN, Maine (AP) – A former employee at the former DeCoster Egg Farms in Turner, Maine, has filed a lawsuit claiming he wasn’t paid overtime wages while he worked there. In his complaint in Androscoggin County Superior Court, Leo Sierra Flores of Lewiston claims he regularly worked more … Continue reading
From SantaCruzSentinel.com, 27 April 2012. It’s a sad irony that for years growing a healthy strawberry conventionally has required methyl bromide, a chemical so harmful it has been banned by international treaty because it is destroying the Earth’s ozone layer. Another dose of irony: The soil fumigant at first favored to replace methyl bromide, methyl … Continue reading
From FirstCoastNews.com, Jessika Lewis, 27 April 2012. HASTINGS, Fla. — A First Coast potato grower is in hot water, accused of labor trafficking. Florida Legal Services and Farmworker Justice filed a federal lawsuit against Bulls-Hit Ranch and Farm on behalf of two farm workers who said they worked at the Hastings ranch from 2009-2010. The … Continue reading
From HispanicBusiness.com, Rachel Cook, 27 Apr 2012. For Dolores Huerta, receiving a medal from the U.S. President is more than a nod to a lifetime dedicated to a multitude of social movements. It’s a hearty recognition of community organizing’s role in a democracy. “Not only is (organizing) important, but it’s the only thing we can … Continue reading
From DOL.gov, 26 Apr 2012. News Release WHD News Release: [04/26/2012] Contact Name: Joshua R. Lamont or Elizabeth Alexander Phone Number: (202) 693-4661 or x4675 Release Number: 12-0826-NAT WASHINGTON — The U.S. Department of Labor today issued the following statement regarding the withdrawal of a proposed rule dealing with children who work in agricultural vocations: … Continue reading
From ThinkProgress.org, Amanda Peterson Beadle, 13 Apr 2012. As soon as Georgia Gov. Nathan Deal (R) signed a harmful immigration bill into law last year, farmers saw an immediate exodus of thousands of skilled immigrant farm workers. Without enough workers, millions of dollars in crops rotted in the fields because there was no one to harvest them. Officials suggested … Continue reading
From MinnPost.com, Lourdes Medrano, Christian Science Monitor, 9 Apr 2012. The steady stream of immigrant workers who used to line up at Tim Dunn’s Arizona farm, ready to pick vegetable seed crops like black-eyed peas and garbanzo beans, has mostly dried up. “We just don’t see people walking up, looking for jobs like they used to,” he says. … Continue reading
From MichiganRadio.org, Lindsey Smith, 10 Apr 2012. Michigan’s asparagus season has started early because of the warmer than usual weather this spring. But farmers are worried they don’t have enough workers to harvest the crop. “Being a former migrant worker I can tell you that in the past Michigan has had a wealth of workers … Continue reading
From UpNorthLive.com, Kate Fox, 9 Apr 2012. BENZIE COUNTY [MI] — A farmers plans to improve housing for his migrant workers in Benzie County has sparked a lawsuit and charges of racism. Loy Putney, a fruit grower in Benzie County wants to reuse a vacant motel in Village of Elberta and transform it into new … Continue reading
From NorthCountryPublicRadio.org, Sarah Harris, 9 Apr 2012. The dairy industry in Northern New York and Vermont relies heavily on migrant labor. A lot of the farm workers are undocumented. That causes problems when the workers have to do simple tasks that involve driving, like going to the grocery store or visiting the doctor. But Vermont … Continue reading
From MyDesert.com, Desert Sun Wire Services, 2 Apr 2012. RIVERSIDE — A commercial farming operation and four of its contractors face accusations of cheating Coachella Valley-area migrant workers of pay and failing to provide them with basic living amenities. Calandri SonRise Farms, headquartered in Lancaster, is being sued in federal court for alleged violations of … Continue reading
From MNDaily.com, Eric Best, 3 Apr 2012. Nearly half a million children farm workers harvest almost 25 percent of our crops. It may sound like something out of the Industrial Revolution, but child labor still exists throughout the U.S. today, in surprising numbers. Most of these children are in undocumented families working in agriculture — … Continue reading
From KSBY.com, Associated Press, 6 Apr 2012. SANTA BARBARA, Calif. (AP) – The Ventura County Agricultural Association is criticizing a California assemblyman [Das Williams], alleging he posed as a United Farm Workers union organizer in a dispute with a Ventura strawberry grower. Association lawyer Rob Roy said Friday that a complaint will be filed next … Continue reading
From KBIA.org, Peggy Lowe, 6 Apr 2012. It’s a long way from Forget-Me-Not Farms to the Kansas State Capitol in Topeka. But T.J. Curtis, a dairy farmer from Cimarron, Kan., drove the 300 miles because he’s desperate for workers for his family’s operation in western Kansas, where they want to hire another 75 people. He … Continue reading
From FtLeavenworthLamp.com, 1 Mar 2012. Agriculture Secretary Tom Vilsack and American Legion National Commander Fang Wong signed a memorandum of understanding Feb. 28 to help veterans and transitioning military service members find positions that promote agriculture, animal and plant health, food safety, nutrition, conservation and rural communities. With this partnership, USDA and the American Legion … Continue reading
From HuffingtonPost.com, Kerry TruemanCo-founder, EatingLiberally.org, 29 Feb 2012. Tracie McMillan’s The American Way of Eating: Undercover at Walmart, Applebee’s, Farm Fields and the Dinner Table takes us on a vivid and poignant tour of a place we don’t really want to go: the mostly hidden, sometimes horrible world of the workers who form the backbone … Continue reading
From OregonLive.com, Dana Tims, The Oregonian , 27 Feb 2012. FOREST GROVE — A continued downturn in the region’s housing market is producing an unexpected upside in the form of 24 new apartments dedicated for farmworkers. Officials at Bienestar, a nonprofit organization based in Hillsboro, held a groundbreaking ceremony today for Juniper Gardens, a $5 million project … Continue reading
From PulitzerCenter.org, Kate Furgurson, 25 Feb 2012. After the Joint Select Committee on Deficit Reduction failed to agree upon a framework for the 2012 Farm Bill, farmers, corporations, laborers and consumers alike are anxiously waiting to see how the bill will impact their businesses and their lives. The Farm Bill allocates hundreds of billions of … Continue reading
From AgWeb.com, Jim Dickrell, Dairy Today Editor, 27 Feb 2012. After 2012 elections, reform might be possible The bad news, if it’s even news, is that national, comprehensive immigration reform isn’t going to happen this year. That was the consensus of a panel of experts at the Colorado Farm Show in Greeley last month. Participating … Continue reading
From SpinningSpoons.com, Michelle Venetucci Harvey, 16 Feb 2012. We hear a lot about immigration and agriculture, and how immigrants are taking Americans’ jobs, but it’s never that easy, is it? In an EcoFarm Conference session panel titled “The Farmworkers’ Journey,” Dr. Ann López spoke about her research, work with farmers and farmworkers, and introduced us to two California … Continue reading
From Latino.FoxNews.com, Lloyd Sowers, 22 Feb 2012. Despite high unemployment in the Tampa Bay area, strawberry farmers in Plant City say they’re having trouble finding workers. “These berries don’t turn on and off with a light switch. We have to harvest them the day they’re ready,” said Carl Grooms, owner of Fancy Farms. Grooms is … Continue reading
From CapitalPress.com, Associated Press, 22 Feb 2012. MONTPELIER, Vt. (AP) — A group of Mexican farm workers and several dairy farmers have testified in support of a guest worker program for the estimated 1,500 to 2,000 immigrants who work on Vermont’s dairy farms. The bill before the Senate Agriculture Committee would create state IDs for … Continue reading
From SFBG.com, Dick Meister, 20 Feb 2012. Dick Meister, former Labor Editor of SF Chronicle and KQED-TV Newsroom, has covered labor and politics for more than a half-century. He’s co-author of “A Long Time Coming: The Struggle To Unionize America’s Farm Workers.” Contact him through his website, www.dickmeister.com, which includes more than 350 of his columns. … Continue reading
From Yakima-Herald.com, David Lester, 18 Feb 2012. ELLENSBURG — More Washington farmers are expected to turn to a federal foreign guest worker program out of concern that last fall’s labor shortage will only get worse in 2012, employer advocates say. And Washington’s agriculture director said he believes solving agriculture’s labor needs through comprehensive immigration reform … Continue reading
From LakeCoNews.com, Lake County News, 17 Feb 2012. WASHINGTON, D.C. – Congressman Mike Thompson (CA-1) is leading a group of representatives in calling on President Obama to protect the U.S. agricultural workforce from a harmful “enforcement-only” approach to immigration reform. In a letter to the president, Thompson and his colleagues in the House wrote that … Continue reading
From HSLOrgs.com, Harvard Immigration Project, 16 Feb 2012. The Farmworker Rights Division of Georgia Legal Services seeks law students to join our advocacy on behalf of migrant farmworkers. The Farmworker Rights Division provides free legal representation and community outreach and education to the workers who hand-harvest Georgia crops. Typical cases involve growers failing to pay … Continue reading
From FresnoBee.com, Heather Somerville, The Fresno Bee, 16 Feb 2012. Mexican Ambassador Arturo Sarukhan’s visit to Fresno on Thursday — a first by Mexico’s top representative in the U.S. — underscored the robust relationship between Mexico and the Valley and highlighted concerns about protecting the region’s agriculture industry from anti-immigrant legislation. Sarukhan spent the day … Continue reading
From MontereyCountyWeekly.com, Sara Rubin, 16 Feb 2012. With more than a quarter of Monterey County’s children living in poverty, accessing food takes priority. Children ride around on tricycles in the King City Fairgrounds parking lot. They look like they’ve gathered to play on a sunny morning, under the watch of grown-ups who stand around talking, … Continue reading
From AZCentral.com, Dustin Gardiner, The Republic, 15 Feb 2012. When Margaret Leon Espinoza’s family first moved to Surprise in the 1950s, the community was an agricultural blip on the map compared with other Phoenix suburbs that were beginning to bustle. The primary occupation was cotton farming. There were no traffic lights until you hit Glendale. … Continue reading
From CoachellaUnincorporated.org, Joaquín Magón, 13 Feb 2012. “It’s ironic that those who till the soil, cultivate and harvest the fruits, vegetables, and other foods that fill your tables with abundance have nothing left for themselves.” – César Chávez I would assume that the world would see it cruel to desert an old man because he is … Continue reading
From Cals.NCSU.edu, Julia Storm, 13 Feb 2012. Media Contact: Julia Storm, 919.515.7961 or julia_storm@ncsu.edu N.C. Cooperative Extension and the N.C. Farm Bureau Safety Team are partnering to help growers train Spanish-speaking farm workers on pesticide safety. Six upcoming workshops offered across North Carolina will prepare growers to use the Pesticides and Farmworker Health Toolkit, a resource based … Continue reading
From BVMCong. org, Sisters of Charity of the Blessed Virgin Mary, Feb 2012. “Did you eat today? Thank a farmworker!” has greater meaning for me following the National Farm Worker Ministry Board meeting Jan. 27–28 in Yuma, Ariz., winter lettuce capital of the United States. Around 5 a.m. our group drove some 45 minutes to the … Continue reading
From McClatchyDC.com, Michael Doyle, 10 Feb 2012. WASHINGTON — California and Southern farmers renewed their case Thursday for some kind of an agricultural guest-worker program, but they’re sailing against the wind. Make that a hurricane. Buffeted by campaign-season currents and the inherent complications around immigration, the farmers this year face excruciatingly long odds as they … Continue reading
From LibWeb.UOregon.edu, John Bauguess, 11 Jan 2012. View the photo gallery. Farmworkers who travel hundreds of miles to Oregon to find work in the Willamette Valley often endure the hardships of labor camps. During summer 1988, I joined members of Pineros y Campesinos Unidos del Noroeste (PCUN, or Northwest Treeplanters and Farmworker’s United) on visits … Continue reading
From Judiciary.House.gov, Bruce Goldstein, 9 Feb 2012. Written Testimony of Bruce Goldstein, President, Farmworker Justice, before the Judiciary Subcommittee on Immigration Policy and Enforcement. Mr. Chairman and Members: Thank you for the opportunity to testify about proposals to address our nation’s broken immigration system and solutions to ensure a productive, fairly-treated farm labor force. For thirty … Continue reading
From NewsTimes.Augusta.com, Eleanor Paschal, Guest Columnist, 12 Feb 2012. As a senior Spanish education major at Valdosta State University, I had the opportunity this past semester to work with adult English language learners at the Plaza Comunitaria in Statenville, Ga. I became acquainted with many Mexican immigrants who live and work in south Georgia. One … Continue reading
From News-Press.com, 9 Feb 2012. On the eve of the debut of its first Naples store – and a major protest of the event by area farmworkers, Trader Joe’s and the Coalition of Immokalee Workers have made peace. For months, the two had been odds, but Thursday afternoon, the California-based boutique grocery chain joined the … Continue reading
From PorkNetwork.com, Marlys Miller, Editor, Pork Magazine, 9 Feb 2012. It’s no secret that agricultural illiteracy is rampant in the United States, well even globally. Most people lack more than the most basic understanding of agriculture, and they fail to comprehend its deep interconnectedness to their daily lives. Yet life’s most essential elements — food, … Continue reading
From AgJournalOnline.com, Candace Krebs, 7 Feb 2012. Greeley, Colo. —Tougher anti-immigration laws have slashed the available pool of farm labor, leading to worker shortages nationwide, millions of dollars in lost crops and increased urgency to reform the temporary worker visa program to make it more effective for agricultural employers, according to one official who represents … Continue reading
From WashingtonExaminer.com, Lisa Rathke, Associated Press, 2 Feb 2012. As some states crack down on illegal immigrants, Vermont lawmakers are discussing creating a guest worker program that would include state IDs for the estimated 1,500 to 2,000 immigrants who work on Vermont dairy farms and who officials say have become critical to the struggling industry. … Continue reading
From Bakersfield.com, Jill Cowan, Californian staff writer, jcowan@bakersfield.com, 30 Jan 2012. In a move experts said is part of an ongoing trend, local fruit and vegetable grower Sun Pacific Farming Cooperative, Inc. will permanently lay off more than 2,100 employees based at its Bakersfield facility in favor of a seasonal workforce provided entirely by farm labor … Continue reading
From DelmarvaNow.com, Ted Shockley, 4 Feb 2012. State faith group seeks funding to reopen TASLEY — A number of Eastern Shore children found themselves without a pre-school readiness program Friday when a Virginia Council of Churches initiative closed its doors. “They were incredibly disappointed,” said Ed Rossmoore, executive director of the Rural Family Development Division … Continue reading
After I Pick the Fruit
All proceeds from the film will go to the support of farmworker women.
After I PIck the Fruit is a feature documentary produced and directed by Nancy Ghertner.
The film follows the lives of five immigrant farmworker women over a ten-year period as they labor in the apple orchards of rural western New York, migrate seasonally to Florida, raise their families, and try to hide from the Bush-era immigration raids that were conducted in response to 9/11. Filmed in New York, Florida, and Mexico, this intimate, bittersweet, feature-length film illuminates a community that is nearly invisible to most Americans, and will change the way you look at our national “immigration problem.” The film's running time is 93 minutes.
At this time a distribution DVD is in production, and when available will be for sale on the film's website. All proceeds from the presentation of the film, or DVD sales are donated to: Migrant Support Services of Wayne County, a not-for-profit organization which supports the lives of migrant families in Wayne County, New York.
For more information about the production, to read a synopsis of the film, to view the trailer, and more, visit the After I Pick the Fruit website at: http://www.afteripickthefruit.com/.
If you would like to screen the film contact the director through the film's web-site's contact page: http://www.afteripickthefruit.com/contact/ or by direct email: nancyghertner@gmail.com
