Bits and pieces from the Fair Food front as preparations ramp up for next month’s big action!

Posted on by CIW

[hupso title=”#FairFood news round-up ahead of March 21 Concert & Parade! #CFF15″ url=”https://ciw-online.org/blog/2015/02/huffpo-talkpov/”]

concert_poster
Parade/Concert flyers (shown front and back here above) are starting to circulate as word of mouth builds ahead of next month’s big action in St. Pete. Check in next week for the official announcement of the huge, Grammy-winning line up!

As we round the bend into the final month of preparations before the Parade and Concert for Fair Food, farmworkers in Immokalee and their allies around the county are keeping the pressure up in the fight for fundamental human rights in the fields!  Here below is a quick round-up of the latest news from the Fair Food front, just enough to hold you over until next week’s big reveal of the lineup of award-winning artists for the March 21 concert.

Food Chains still making waves…

Though the Academy of Motion Picture Arts and Sciences chose a different film to receive the Oscar for Best Documentary Feature this past Sunday, the farm labor documentary “Food Chains” continues to draw strong audiences at screenings around the country and win the hearts and minds of countless new activists in the battle for Fair Food.  Check out these sample tweets from this week from the Food Chains twitter feed:

Talking solutions on TalkingPoverty Radio…

TalkingPoverty Radio is a new show on the SiriusXM channel Insight, “an all-new, exclusive, groundbreaking news, information, and entertainment radio channel offering listeners inspiring ideas and intelligent conversation with an edge.”  The CIW’s Gerardo Reyes was invited to join the show for a ten-minute segment last week to discuss the Fair Food Program and its unique success in fighting farm labor poverty; click here to hear the whole interview.  

ILO gives the Fair Food Program some love in the pages of the Huffington Post…

Finally, we wrap up today’s news round-up with an excerpt from a very nice piece in the Huffington Post by Beate Andrees, Head of the Special Action Programme to Combat Forced Labour at the International Labour Organization.  Entitled, “Farmworkers walk fine line between exploitation and forced labor,” the story concludes:

… There are lessons to be learned from the success of the Coalition’s campaign for fair wages: ultimately, workers themselves will drive change and their collective voice is a powerful catalyst for change. Workers’ organizations need to be recognized as important players in preventing forced labor and in empowering workers at risk. Another lesson is that business is part of the solution. U.S. food chains are highly integrated with a handful of large firms being able to influence farm-level production, prices and working conditions. Dialoguing with key firms in these chains while raising public awareness can bring about positive changes in farm workers’ rights and working conditions. read more

That’s all for now.  Be sure to check back next week as we announce the star-studded line-up for next month’s big Parade & Concert for Fair Food!