Food and Agriculture

The Evolving Movement For Agricultural Worker Rights

May 12, 2023 Lucia Athens, Next City. Organize! Farming, Food and Agriculture, History, Worker Rights and Jobs

Labor organizing has experienced a resurgence of late for many service workers, but not so for agricultural workers. Through the collective impact efforts of many individuals, from many walks of life, California’s Agricultural Labor Relations Act of 1975 was passed, the first of its kind in the US to protect farmworker rights. Adopted at the height of the United Farm Workers movement led by César Chávez, it served as a vehicle to galvanize their Union, empowering tens of thousands of workers who realized the potentiality of organizing for the first time. Unfortunately, the promise of that law was never realized and progress since then has been a mixed bag.

Former Dumping Ground Became A Flourishing Food Ecosystem

May 8, 2023 Emily Nonko, Next City. Create! Circular Economy, Food and Agriculture, Food Sovereignty, Ohio

Cleveland, Ohio - On a dead-end street in Cleveland’s Kinsman neighborhood, on 18 acres of land that previously served as an illegal dumping ground, an entire food ecosystem has emerged and thrived under the leadership of local residents. Rid-All Green Partnership started with a single hoop house erected in February of 2011; now acres of farmland support a community kitchen and farmer’s market. All food waste is turned into compost, which supports the farm and is sold across Cleveland. A training program and paid apprenticeships bring community members in, while an aquaponics and hydroponics system generates local jobs. Specialized programs emerged to serve veterans and youth.

As Food Prices Rise, Study Finds Market Power Drove Pandemic Inflation

May 4, 2023 Claire Kelloway, Food & Power. Educate! Capitalism, Class Struggle, Food and Agriculture, Inflation

On earnings calls last week, major food brands bragged about their ability to keep raising prices. Soda and snack giant PepsiCo told investors that it raised prices 16% last quarter, bringing in 18% more profit. Nestle announced a 10% price hike and Unilever said its food brands cost 13% more. In all these cases, higher prices helped food giants increase profits even as their sales decreased. Food giants keep raising prices even though well-publicized cost pressures, like fuel costs, rising wages, and supply chain disruptions, have largely subsided. On Tuesday, the Wall Street Journal landed on an explanation for persistent food inflation that many consumer groups and economists (including the Open Markets Institute) provided months ago: corporate greed.

As Arkansas Tyson Plant Closes, Workers Strike Over Treatment

April 28, 2023 Rachell Sanchez-Smith and Olivia Paschal Labor Notes. Resist! Arkansas, Food and Agriculture, Tysons Foods, Worker Rights and Jobs

Striking workers gathered in front of a Tyson Foods poultry processing plant in Van Buren, Arkansas, earlier this month, holding protest signs reading “Justice for Workers” and chanting in Spanish “si se puede” (“yes we can”) and “juntos venceremos” (“together we’ll win”). A few weeks earlier, they received notice from Tyson—the multinational poultry and meat processing giant headquartered about an hour away in Springdale, Arkansas—that their plant would be shuttered on May 12. The Van Buren plant employs almost 1,000 workers, many of them immigrants from El Salvador, Mexico, and Laos, some of whom have worked there for decades.

The Rise Of The ‘Climate Friendly’ Cow

April 28, 2023 Michaela Herrmann, Desmog. Educate! Big Meat, climate crisis, Environment, Food and Agriculture, green washing

In early March, global food giant Tyson unveiled a new beef product line at the 2023 annual industry meat conference. Named “BrazenTM Beef”, it was the first ever product of its kind to receive the “Climate-Friendly” stamp from the US Department of Agriculture. The brand, which grew out of Tyson’s “Climate-Smart Beef Program”, reportedly earned this badge through securing a 10 percent cut in greenhouse gas emissions compared to regular North American beef. The company is frank about the product’s marketing strategy. Tyson told the Progressive Grocer it is “trying to be upbeat and different”, with something that speaks definitively to younger Millennial and Gen Z consumers.

Meatpacking Workers Say Tyson Foods Makes Them Fight To See The Doctor

April 27, 2023 Luis Feliz Leon, In These Times. Organize! Food and Agriculture, Health Care, Meat Packers, Tysons Foods, Worker Rights and Jobs

The open gash on his right arm oozed blood in a crimson arc, like a neat lipstick smear. It dripped down fast, breaking out into rivulets, so he pushed his arm away from his body. The blood settled in a pool on the floor. Andre Ngute sustained this painful injury in March 2022 at a Tyson Foods meatpacking plant in the tiny rural town of Columbus Junction, Iowa (population 2,132). He had been working elbow-to-elbow on the kill floor wielding sharp knives when one slipped and sliced him. (Ngute requested to use a pseudonym because he fears retaliation.) Nurses in Tyson’s on-site infirmary wrapped his arm in brightly colored bandages.

EU’s Withdrawal Of Tariffs On Ukrainian Grain Backfires

April 23, 2023 People's Dispatch. Resist! European Union (EU), Food and Agriculture, IMF, NATO, Russia, Ukraine, Wars and Militarism

European Union (EU) authorities and five eastern European countries are in a stand-off over the import of tariff-free grain from Ukraine. The decision to remove the tariffs on grain imports from Ukraine was taken by the EU in June 2022. However, eastern European countries such as Poland, Hungary, and Romania have been increasingly unhappy with the withdrawal of tariffs, citing the impact on their local markets. The disagreement boiled over last week when five countries — Poland, Hungary, Bulgaria, Romania, and Slovenia — blocked the import of Ukrainian grain. A meeting on Wednesday, April 19, between EU authorities and representatives of the five countries did not lead to any breakthrough.

Inside The Government’s Failing Program To Protect Farmworkers

April 23, 2023 Johnathan Hettinger and Sky Chadde, In These Times. Educate! Farm Workers, Food and Agriculture, Regulation, Worker Rights and Jobs

In early 2019 in Illinois, a farmworker, his wife and his son lived in a moldy house. Attempting to keep the winter cold at bay, he’d spray-foamed the windows shut. The toilet often malfunctioned. Unlike most farmworker housing, it hadn’t been inspected — the employer hadn’t registered it with the state. But the man had another option. He complained to a state employee whose job is to advocate for farmworkers’ rights. A crucial component of the advocate’s job is visiting fields and housing and forwarding complaints to law enforcement. Several farmworkers a week were contacted through this outreach. Between 2018 and 2020, Illinois forwarded 10 complaints — ranging from being sprayed twice by pesticides to illegally garnishing wages for medical treatment — to authorities.

Colorado Passes First Tractor Right To Repair Law

April 21, 2023 Claire Kelloway, Food & Power. Create! Colorado, Food and Agriculture, Right to Repair, Worker Rights and Jobs

Colorado will be the first state to require farm equipment makers to share or sell all the tools, manuals, and software that farmers need to fix their tractors and combines. So far this legislative session, 16 other states have introduced similar agriculture right-to-repair bills as farmers criticize the ways manufacturers monopolize their product repair, increasing maintenance costs and risking debilitating delays. Repair advocates hope that success in Colorado will prompt more state-level laws or a national resolution, whether that’s a federal law, antitrust enforcement action, or an improved memorandum of understanding with manufacturers.

The Meat Industry Is Advertising Like Big Oil

April 20, 2023 Cartie Werthman, Desmog. Educate! Advertising, Big Meat, Food and Agriculture, Public Funds

Later this month, the National Cattlemen’s Beef Association (NCBA) will head to the 2023 National Agri-Marketing Association’s conference to see if its public relations campaign about beef’s sustainability can secure the national award for campaigns directed to consumers. Earlier this year, a campaign NCBA began in 2021 called “Beefing up Sustainability,” and a corresponding campaign targeted to kids, advanced to the final round. Both were part of NCBA’s multi-pronged PR campaign about how beef is actually a climate-conscious food. The group, which is the beef industry’s largest trade association, plastered the New York Times (including its popular podcast The Daily) and the Washington Post with climate-conscious food messaging.

Universal Public Services: The Power Of Decommodifying Survival

April 18, 2023 Jason Hickel, Resilience. Create! Capitalism, Class Struggle, Energy, Food and Agriculture, Health Care, Public ownership, Water

One of the central insights emerging from research on degrowth and climate mitigation is that universal public services are crucial to a just and effective transition. Capitalism relies on maintaining an artificial scarcity of essential goods and services (like housing, healthcare, transport, etc), through processes of enclosure and commodification. We know that enclosure enables monopolists to raise prices and maximize their profits (consider the rental market, the US healthcare system, or the British rail system). But it also has another effect. When essential goods are privatized and expensive, people need more income than they would otherwise require to access them.

Indian Workers And Farmers Unite Against Modi Government

April 18, 2023 Tanupriya Singh, People's Dispatch. Resist! Farmers, Food and Agriculture, India, Protests, Worker Rights and Jobs

This was one out of the nearly 100,000 voices that rose in the Indian capital of Delhi on April 5 as workers, farmers, and daily wage agricultural workers from across the country came together for the landmark Mazdoor Kisan Sangharsh Rally (Workers-Farmers Rally). The demonstration was organized by the All India Kisan Sabha (AIKS), All India Agricultural Workers Union (AIAWU), and the Centre of Indian Trade Unions (CITU) in rejection of the neoliberal assault on the lives and livelihoods of the Indian working class, overseen by a ruling party which they accuse of fueling sectarian and caste-based violence, while stamping out all forms of dissent.

The US Pushes Kiev Into A Suicidal Military Counter Offensive

April 12, 2023 Dmitriy Kovalevich, Black Agenda Report. Educate! Food and Agriculture, Russia, Ukraine, US Imperialism, Wars and Militarism

March marks the end of the 13th month of the Russian military operation in Ukraine. Hostilities in Ukraine have slowed because March in Ukraine is a month when the roads are muddy and heavy equipment cannot pass over them. Military trenches are flooded with water, and travel or evacuation becomes problematic, especially in combat areas where roads are already wrecked. Both sides in the conflict are now gathering their forces, and both sides are warning about an impending large-scale counterattack by the enemy once the ground dries out sufficiently. Ukrainian forces are being pushed into a counterattack by their Western sponsors, primarily the United States.

Food Service Workers At The World Bank Announce Picket Line

April 12, 2023 Allyssa Pollard, Unite Here! Resist! Food and Agriculture, Service Industry, Strikes, Unions, Worker Rights and Jobs, World Bank

Washington, DC – UNITE HERE Local 23 on Thursday released the results of a survey of 76% of the Compass workers who staff food service at the World Bank that detail ways workers struggle to afford necessities like food and housing. Workers are in negotiations for new union contracts that keep up with the cost of living and additionally announced a picket line action on the Compass-operated cafeteria at the World Bank on Wednesday, April 12. UNITE HERE is in negotiations with Compass Group for workers in cafeterias at several high-profile DC locations in addition to the World Bank, including the Smithsonian, the Kennedy Center for the Performing Arts, the National Institute of Health, Freddie Mac, pharmaceutical company AstraZeneca, American University, Catholic University of America, and George Washington University, among others.

We Can Move Beyond Food Access To Food Sovereignty

April 2, 2023 Rae Gomes and Tim Duschenes, Next City. Create! Cities, COVID-19, Food and Agriculture, Food Sovereignty, Mutual Aid

Baker Yolfer Pabade arrived at the Hot Bread Kitchen Incubator each day at 4 p.m. He had already worked a nine-hour shift in another bakery, but would work on testing and improving his recipes for another six hours. He was dreaming of launching his own bakery business based on his Colombian-Venezuelan roots and worked this schedule—with no days off—to make it a reality. After three years, he was finally ready to leave his day job and focus on his own business. One month later, in March 2020, all of New York’s food businesses ground to a halt. Yolfer took a week to make a plan of action.

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