CIW joins Eric Schlosser, Michael Pollan, Anna Lappé, and more leaders in sustainable food and agriculture in “advising” the new president on how to address the inequities of our food industry.

Don’t miss the exciting and inspiring series “Going Up!” on Grist.org for some of the best ideas on what might be next in our country’s efforts to humanize and modernize our food industry. Grist asked the CIW for a contribution to the series, which you can read here below:

“Dear President Obama:

We know you’re a busy man, so we’ll get right to the point: Come to Immokalee.

Your victory has allowed us to dream again. Our dream is for a US food industry founded on respect for human rights, not exploitation of human beings.

That’s why it’s so important for you to come to Immokalee, the town that, in many ways, has come to symbolize the struggle of millions of our nation’s farmworkers to survive in the face of grinding poverty, degrading working conditions, and constant human rights violations – the town that one federal prosecutor called “ground zero for modern-day slavery.” Indeed, the most recent Department of Justice prosecution for slavery helped free workers who were forced to pick tomatoes against their will, chained and locked inside u-haul trucks, and beaten by farm labor bosses – right here in Immokalee.

We know you’ve got a lot on your plate. The economic crisis, two wars, climate change… the brutal and unending exploitation of farmworkers, no matter how terrible, just doesn’t rise to the level of the innumerable crises you’ve inherited. We understand that.

But we ask you: Where else could so little of your time have such a great impact? With one brief visit you would bring more attention to the disgraceful treatment of our country’s farmworkers than all the Harvest of Shame exposés, slavery prosecutions, Congressional hearings, and US Presidents since Lincoln combined. With our Campaign for Fair Food, we could turn that attention into action and end generations of farm labor abuse once and for all.

All we need is the right champion, someone who truly cares about the working poor, someone who represents hope to Americans who have been marginalized for far too long, someone like you. And we can do it with just a couple hours of your time.” See all the contributions by clicking here

Now, do we think such a thing might ever come to pass? Probably not, but as we say, a community can dream…

And it’s not totally without precedent. Governor Jeb Bush came down to Immokalee and met with CIW leaders during his campaign, following the month-long hunger strike by six of our members in 1998, and one of his first acts as Governor-elect was to help expand on wage gains we had won earlier that year.

Much, much more remains to be done, of course — as evidenced by the six slavery operations brought to justice since Governor Bush took office (the latest of which came on Governor Crist’s watch, of course…) — but who better to help us do it than President Obama? Food for thought…