BOARD THE BUS!
JOIN THE MARCH FOR IMMIGRATION REFORM!
MARCH 21 IN WASHINGTON, D.C.
The Farmworker Association of Florida is joining thousands of other supporters of comprehensive Immigration Reform in TAKING THE MESSAGE TO OUR NATION’S CAPITOL. Reform Immigration for America Now is organizing groups from around the country to send a message loud and clear to our lawmakers in Congress and to the President WE CANNOT WAIT FOR FAIR AND JUST IMMIGRATION POLICIES. There will be buses leaving from different parts of the state heading for D.C. Buses will be leaving Florida on Saturday, March 20th. If you are interested in joining in this effort, please call the Farmworker Association of Florida at 407-886-5151.
Join Us and GET ON THE BUS!
Children in farming communities are on the front lines everyday because they live, play and learn near agricultural fields. Pesticides applied to these fields don’t stay put -- they drift, vaporize, land in homes and on schoolyards. Current regulations don’t account for this reality. This issue is exacerbated by the fact that farmworker and rural children typically live in poverty and without access to health care.
Click here to make a difference...
http://saf-unite.org/action/faw.htm
Farmwoker Awarness Week is coming up. YOU can help by hosting an event in your campus, school, or community! Click here to find out more.
Farmworkers in Florida Going Hungry!
We cannot stand by when a fundamental injustice is impacting farmworkers in our state! Farmworkers feed the world, but now they cannot even feed themselves. We know. We talk to them every day! You can help!
A Trek from Florida to D.C. Highlights Need to Pass the Dream Act
and Comprehensive Immigration Reform
The “Trail of Dreams” was conceived by four undocumented youth who wish to raise awareness and share their stories about what it is like to be an undocumented immigrant in this country. Living in what they feel are the shadows at the fringe of society, these young people are advocating for comprehensive immigration reform that would create a way for immigrants to attain a legitimate path to residency.
We are all one family and our Haitian brothers and sisters are suffering and in great need! FWAF, with a history of responding to natural disasters affecting farmworkers in Florida, is now mobilizing support for those living in our island neighbor who have been devastated by the earthquake. There are many Haitian farmworkers in Florida and many of them have family in Haiti who they are are very concerned about.
ENDOSULFAN - What is it doing to the health of Florida Farmworkers?
The FWAF is part of a coalition of 42 environmental, health, labor, and farming groups urging EPA Administrator Lisa Jackson to ban the insecticide endosulfan. Florida is a major user of endosulfan. According to a recent EPA analysis, more endosulfan is applied to tomatoes than any other food crop, and the majority of this use is in Florida. 56% of fresh tomatoes grown in Florida are treated with endosulfan, totaling 73,900 lbs per year. While this represents the majority of endosulfan use in the state, it is also used extensively on other crops including cucumbers (44% of acres treated), eggplant (42%), and squash (33%). Endosulfan use by Florida tomato growers has steadily increased over the last decade, even as endosulfan use by California tomato growers has decreased in recent years.
Endosulfan is an organochlorine pesticide - in the same class of pesticides as DDT and other organochlorines that are linked to the wildlife problems on Lake Apopka. The areas where endosulfan is used in Florida are impacting south and southwest Florida's beautiful natural areas - including the Everglades. Like Lake Apopka, who is looking out for the health of the farmworkers exposed to this highly toxic and persistent pesticide?
Karl Tupper, a Staff Scientist with Pesticide Action Network North America, emphasized the EPA’s long delay on reviewing endosulfan. According to Tupper, the EPA has invited over 270 days of public commentary in the issue of endosulfan since 2006, but has not taken any action. Meanwhile, over 50 nations around the world have banned the chemical.
Scientific experts at the UN’s Stockholm Convention Persistent Organic Pollutants Review Committee (POPRC) concluded that endosulfan “is likely, as a result of its long-range environmental transport, to lead to significant adverse human health and environmental effects, such that global action is warranted.” More information
The Stockholm Convention is a United Nations treaty that bans persistent organic pollutants (POPs). Scientists are considering adding endosulfan to the treaty because the chemical persists in the environment, is toxic, is transported long distances on wind and water currents, and builds up in the living tissue of animals, including humans.
The effects of endosulfan can be felt even in remote areas such as the Arctic. According to Pamela Miller, Executive Director of Alaska Community Action on Toxics, the insecticide has been found in fish, seals, and beluga whales. The EPA has also found that the California Red Legged Frog, California Tiger Salamander, San Joaquin Kit Fox and several other animal species and their habitats are adversely affected by all uses of endosulfan. More Information
Join the FWAF, the global community, the United Nations, and dozens of groups across the nation in urging the EPA to ban this dangerous chemical.
Farmworker Association Opposes Siddiqui Nomination
The Farmworker Association of Florida joined a coalition of groups around the country in opposing the nomination of Islam Siddiqui to the post of chief agriculture negotiator in the Office of the U.S. Trade Representative. If confirmed, Siddiqui would oversee farm negotiations at the Doha Round of the World Trade Organization. FWAF joined 84 other environmental, sustainable agriculture, family farm, and labor groups in sending a letter to the Senate Finance Committee in opposition to the nomination
Of concern to FWAF is Siddiqui's ties to the chemical and bio-technology industries. He currently is vice president for science and regulatory affairs at CropLife America, a trade group that represents some manufacturers (including Monsanto, Syngenta, DuPont and Dow), of pesticides and other agricultural chemicals and that was connected to lawsuits challenging the restriction of pesticides. In addition, CropLife America advoated for U.S. farmers to be exempt from the 2006 worldwide ban of methyl bromide, a toxic fumigant that has had harmful effects on the health of farmworkers in Florida and elsewhere.
In addition, in 1999, while Mr. Siddiqui served at the USDA, he is known to have criticized the EU's ban on hormone-treated beef and stated his opposition for stricter labeling of GMO crops by the international community.
To quote from a letter the organizations sent to the Senate Finance Committee: "Siddiqui’s record at the U.S. Department of Agriculture and his role as a former registered lobbyist for CropLife America reveals him to be consistently in favor of agribusinesses’ interests over the interests of consumers, the environment and public health. His appointment sends an unfortunate signal to the rest of the world that the United States plans to continue down the failed path of industrial agriculture by promoting toxic pesticides, inappropriate biotechnologies and unfair trade agreements on nations that do not want and can least afford them."
Tirso Moreno, general coordinator for Farmworker Association of Florida, said, “Siddiqui’s former employer has continually blocked international attempts to help us regulate pesticides that are causing acute and chronic health problems, birth defects and cancer in our community. Now Siddiqui will be pushing for the elimination of trade barriers to get developing countries to accept our toxic chemicals. For the health of farmworkers around the world, we urge that his nomination be rejected."
We need a new, sustainable model of agriculture that regenerates soil health, sequesters carbon, feeds communities, protects farmworkers and puts profits back in the hands of farmers and rural communities. The groups' opposition has received significant media attention around the country and sends a strong message of solidarity in favor of a new approach to agricultural development.
Farmworker Association of Florida Youth March in Support of the Dream Act
On Wednesday, October 23, youth from the Farmworker Association of Florida joined others from around the state in actions to support the right of immigrant students to an education and to the promise of a bright future. Known as the Dream Act, legislation that is being debated in Congress would give talented young immigrant students the opportunity for a higher education by allowing them to pay in-state tuition prices at colleges and universities in the state in which they reside. Currently, young men and women, who may have spent the majority of their lives living in the United States, but who lack the proper documentation, are often prohibited from achieving their dreams and utilizing their skills, intelligence and creativity because they cannot afford to pay the exhorbitant prices that are charged to out of state students. A valuable resource - the energy, enthusiasm, and potential of many of our nation's young people - is being lost and thwarted.
That is why FWAF organized young high school students to join a march from Apopka High School through downtown Apopka to call attention to this critical issue that directly impacts their lives. Joining the Florida Immigrant Coalition and the Hope CommUnity Center, FWAF sent a message - loud and clear - to our leaders and decision makers that there is not time to waste in passing this important law. Each year, immigrant students graduate high school. Too often, students who could become the next scientists, musicians, journalists, dancers - and, yes, even astronaunts - end up in fast food restaurants or working in the fields because an eduation is just out of their reach.
FWAF has "no" to a continuation of this policy. And, on September 23, the FWAF youth let it be known.
If you would like to know more about the Dream Act, please contact us.
Farmworker Awareness Week is a Growing Nationwide Event.
Organize an Activity in Your Area
March 29 through April 4th has been designated as national Farmworker Awareness Week. Groups around the country are organizing events, actions, programs, and activities on campuses, in churches, in their communities, and in front of businesses to call for changes in the way our country and the agricultural industry treat farmworkers. The purpose of this week of action is to bring attention to the issues and injustices affecting our country's hard working agricultural laborers. Advocates, religious leaders, student organizations, labor activists, consumer groups and environmental health professionals will unite during this week to recognize the many contributions of agricultural workers to our economy and to our society.
For the fourth year in a row, the Farmworker Association of Florida is one of the sponsoring organizations of Farmworker Awareness Week. Along with sixteen other sponsoring organizations that are planning rallies, marches, petition drives, film screenings and other events throughout the week, FWAF is working with student groups in high schools and colleges in Florida in raising awareness about the realities of farmworkers. Many of these actions are scheduled to coincide with the March 31st birthday of the late Cesar Chavez, co-founder of the United Farm Workers of America and historic figure in the farmworker movement. People in 28 states are calling for the federal government to create a national holiday in honor of the iconic leader Chavez and of farmworkers. The purpose of the week is to inform the public and highlight ongoing campaigns for the improvement of farmworkers' living and working conditions.
From a blood drive in honor of Cesar Chavez at the University of South Florida; to film showings by students at Rollins, USF and area high schools; to drives for long-sleeve shirts to protect farmworkers from pesticide exposure, groups are getting interested, getting involved, and taking action in Florida. If you are interested in organizing something at your school, church, club, or in your community, contact Jeannie at FWAF at 407-886-5151 or email at
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.
Help to raise awareness that WE ARE ALL CONNECTED TO FARMWORKERS everyday. Anyone who eats (and, who doesn't?) has some connection to farmworkers, because WE ALL CONSUME FOOD. Most of that food was planted and harvested by farmworkers, yet they remain largely invisible to the public at large and continue to live and work in unacceptable conditions. Farm work is the third most dangerous job in the U.S., yet the people who plant and harvest our fruits and vegetables lack many of the basic worker protections that most of us take for granted. Things like overtime, unemployment insurance, even protection when joining a union are not guaranteed under federal law.
Each year, Farmworker Awareness Week is called by Student Action with Farmworkers (SAF) in collaboration with Student Labor Action Project’s Student Labor Week of Action. Please join us in raising awareness about the struggles of America's most hardworking people. For more information about events in your area, visit www.farmworkerawareness.org.
Yes, we can! Si se puede!
Migrants and Homeless.
Receive Free Health Care at FWAF Apopka Office
Hard hit by the growing economic crisis, migrant farmworkers are struggling to survive. Even in better times, access to affordable health care was out of reach for many agricultural workers and their family members. That is why the Farmworker Association of Florida is especially excited to be able to offer free medical care once a month to migrants, the homeless and people in transitional housing at our office in Apopka. Through arrangements with the Health Care Center for the Homeless, based in Orlando, the FWAF Apopka office parking lot hosts a Mobile Medical Van on the first Friday of each month that delivers free medical exams, written referrals and low-cost prescriptions to folks who fall through the cracks in the nation's health care system. In just its first six months last year, the MMV saw 112 patients in Apopka. Already this year, the total is 35 patients in just two days - once in January and one time in February. The days and months ahead are projected to be very busy, as the "trickle down" - or "downpour" - economic collapse affects the nation's most vulnerable residents. Homelessness, already a problem in the area, is on the rise, as home foreclosures, job losses, shortened work weeks, teetering nursery operations, and increasing food prices make it harder for families to meet their weekly expenses. Though recognizing that this is just a band-aid to a wound that the nation, as a whole must come together to fix, FWAF is grateful to the HCCH and the staff of the Mobile Medical Van for their passion and compassion to help the community.
International Migrants Day -
December 18th - FWAF Thanks Rollins College Students
Interviewing FWAF's own Haitian staff members, Luckner Millien and Pascale Vincent, the students focused one of their projects on the status of Haitians in the U.S., who are not afforded Temporary Protective Status (TPS), as are persons from other troubled countries in our hemisphere. Speaking from their personal experiences, Luckner and Pascale discussed the troubling discrimination that Haitians experience and how they hope that this will change under a new administration. Haiti has undergone so many struggles and tragedies over the last few decades. Through greater awareness of the plight of Haitians, the students hope that the future will be brighter for the residents of this neighboring island nation.
FWAF's General Coordinator, Tirso Moreno, spoke to the students about the practice of racial profiling of immigrants that is happening in our area and around the state. Fear of raids and detentions, the pain of separation of families through deportations, and having to live "in the shadows" are realities for many hardworking immigrant men, women and children. This is especially harmful when the very people who community members should be able to trust to help them if they are threatened - the local law enforcement officers - are the very ones that they now have to be afraid of. The students learned the leadership role that FWAF is taking in working to protect the basic rights and dignity of immigrants in combating these destructive practices.
H2A or "guestworkers" was a new term for the students working on this segment. Speaking with FWAF organizer Yolanda Gomez and with attorney Greg Schell of the Migrant Farmworker Justice Project, the students created a piece that highlighted the hardships created for farmworkers when growers by-pass workers already in the U.S. by requesting workers from other countries to work in their fields. Besides depressing wages for all agricultural workers, the guestworker program has many flaws, one of which is that foreign workers are less likely to know their rights and protections and more vulnerable to abuse and exploitation. The Bush Administration has just signed an even more harmful guestworker policy that FWAF will be working to overturn under the incoming administration.
For their fourth piece, the students talked with other students. Working with the Youth Group of the Hope CommUnity Center of the Office for Farmworker Ministry, the college students had face to face and in-depth discussions with middle and high school immigrant students to hear first hand the hardships, difficulties, sorrows and joys of being a foreign-born student living, studying and growing up in the United States. Their closeness in age and their similar, yet, vastly different experiences made this one of the most personal encounters for the Rollins students and one that had deep resonance for them. Under Youth Group director, Nilka Melendez, the immigrant youth have learned to honor and respect their lives and experiences and to gain self-confidence and self-esteem. More than just interviews, the session between the students became a very personal and enhancing experience.
FWAF wants to thank Rollins College, Kristin Shamas, all the Rollins students, the Hope CommUnity Center and our staff and community members who participated in this excellent project. And, next year, International Migrants Day will not go by unnoticed by those who were touched by this experience.
Human Rights:
60th Anniversary of the Universal Declaration
December 10, 2008 is the 60th Anniversary of the United Nations Universal Declaration of Human Rights. In recognition of this important day, the Homestead office of the Farmworker Association of Florida participated with other organizations in South Florida in a press conference to call attention to the need for a commitment to upholding the inalienable human rights of people in our own communities. With members of the American Civil Liberties Union, the Miami Workers Center, Haitian Women of Miami and other organizations, the groups called upon the Miami-Dade County Mayor and Commissioners to commit to abide by the principles and ideals of the UDHR and to promote human rights for all who live, work, and play in Miami-Dade County as central to their mission, purpose and values. Elvira Carvajal, FWAF coordinator of the Homestead area office, represented FWAF in presenting a Proclamation to the Mayor and Commissioners.
"Our farmworkers in Homestead harvest the food that feeds our community and our nation. Yet, they are often denied their basic human rights. On this, the 60th anniversary of the Universal Declaration of Human Rights, farmworkers should no longer be the "invisible one," said Elvira Carvajal. "We assert and recognize the basic human dignity of these hardworking families that are an integral part of our society."
In the preamble to the Declaration, the U.N. General Assembly proclaimed "this Universal Declaration of Human Rights as a common standard of achievement for all peoples and all nations, to the end that every individual and every organ of society, keeping this Declaration constantly in mind, shall strive by teaching and education to promote respect for these rights and freedoms and by progressive measures, national and international, to secure their universal and effective recognition and observance, both among the peoples of Member States themselves and among the peoples of territories under their jurisdiction."
"Our great nation is the best in the world because of the contributions and sacrifices of immigrants around the world, yet every day, our government commits gross human rights violations again them," said Marleine Bastien of Haitian Women of Miami, Inc. "Immigrants' rights are human rights; upholding and preserving these rights makes us better as a nation and gives us the moral compass to be the example for countries around the world to follow."
The United States played a pivotal role, 60 years ago, in the creation of the UDHR. It is time for communities around the country to ensure that they are honored and upheld at every level of government and that we all live up to the ideals and principles in the UDHR.
FWAF Becomes Member of La Via Campesina
Delegates Represent the Organization at International Meeting in Africa
Elvira Carvajal, Homestead Area Coordinator of FWAF, and Cristina Gomez, Youth Leader from the area of Fellsmere, flew to Africa as delegates to represent the Farmworker Association of Florida at the international conference of La Via Campesina. The Association is one of only two farmworker organizations in the United States that have currently applied to be and have been accepted as members of La Via Campesina. It was an honor and a privelege, not to mention an unforgettable experience of a lifetime, for both Elvira and Cristina.
Held in Maputo, Mozamibique from October 16 - 23, 2008, the 5th International Conference of this international farmers movement was a gathering of some 800 men, women and youth farmer leaders from more than 70 countries, at a time when the food crisis is at the top of the global agenda. The event started with the Rural Youth Assembly on October 16, while the world celebrated World Food Day. This was followed by the international Women's Assembly, after which was the official start of the conference. The president of Mozambique, Mr.Armando Emilio Guebuza, welcomed everyone to the gathering at the inauguration of the Conference.
La Via Campesina offers a real vision and proven solutions to address the current food crisis. More than ever, small farmers around the world are struggling for their very survival. The crisis in the agricultural sector, along with the current financial crisis, the unprecedented climate and environmental crises, the energy crisis and a profound and global social crisis are all the symptoms of the failure of the same model, the neoliberal model under which the whole society is organized around profitmaking. Since its creation 15 years ago, La Via Campesina has become the primary global network of small farmers, peasants, landless and small-scale food producers whose voice is now being heard in the international press, as well as in the Food and Agriculture Organisation in Rome and the Human Rights Council in Geneva.
La Via Campesina is also recognized and respected within anti-globalization networks and among other social movements that are being invited to join the Conference in Maputo. The International Conference is the major meeting of the organization, which takes place every four years, and at which most organizational and political decisions are collectively made. Delegates presented their analyses of the current situation and debated lines of action for the future.
The conference was hosted by UNAC, the National Peasants Union of Mozambique. Small producers from the South and from the North have been struggling for years to defend a model of agricultural production based on family farms and sustainable agriculture, and to oppose the industrial, export-oriented model of agriculture, which has led to the destruction of livelihoods, rural communities and the environment. The current crisis has revealed that a food system based on imported food and the so called « greenrevolution » is not reliable and in fact generates hunger and poverty. The time has now come for localized food production, sustainable and low-fossil-oil intensive agriculture and the empowerment of small farmers. For more information on La Via Campesian, to to www.viacampesina.org
ENDOSULFAN - What is it doing to the health of Florida Farmworkers?
The FWAF is part of a coalition of 42 environmental, health, labor, and farming groups urging EPA Administrator Lisa Jackson to ban the insecticide endosulfan. Florida is a major user of endosulfan. According to a recent EPA analysis, more endosulfan is applied to tomatoes than any other food crop, and the majority of this use is in Florida. 56% of fresh tomatoes grown in Florida are treated with endosulfan, totaling 73,900 lbs per year. While this represents the majority of endosulfan use in the state, it is also used extensively on other crops including cucumbers (44% of acres treated), eggplant (42%), and squash (33%). Endosulfan use by Florida tomato growers has steadily increased over the last decade, even as endosulfan use by California tomato growers has decreased in recent years.
Endosulfan is an organochlorine pesticide - in the same class of pesticides as DDT and other organochlorines that are linked to the wildlife problems on Lake Apopka. The areas where endosulfan is used in Florida are impacting south and southwest Florida's beautiful natural areas - including the Everglades. Like Lake Apopka, who is looking out for the health of the farmworkers exposed to this highly toxic and persistent pesticide?
Karl Tupper, a Staff Scientist with Pesticide Action Network North America, emphasized the EPA’s long delay on reviewing endosulfan. According to Tupper, the EPA has invited over 270 days of public commentary in the issue of endosulfan since 2006, but has not taken any action. Meanwhile, over 50 nations around the world have banned the chemical.
Scientific experts at the UN’s Stockholm Convention Persistent Organic Pollutants Review Committee (POPRC) concluded that endosulfan “is likely, as a result of its long-range environmental transport, to lead to significant adverse human health and environmental effects, such that global action is warranted.” More information
The Stockholm Convention is a United Nations treaty that bans persistent organic pollutants (POPs). Scientists are considering adding endosulfan to the treaty because the chemical persists in the environment, is toxic, is transported long distances on wind and water currents, and builds up in the living tissue of animals, including humans.
The effects of endosulfan can be felt even in remote areas such as the Arctic. According to Pamela Miller, Executive Director of Alaska Community Action on Toxics, the insecticide has been found in fish, seals, and beluga whales. The EPA has also found that the California Red Legged Frog, California Tiger Salamander, San Joaquin Kit Fox and several other animal species and their habitats are adversely affected by all uses of endosulfan. More Information
Join the FWAF, the global community, the United Nations, and dozens of groups across the nation in urging the EPA to ban this dangerous chemical.
Four Courageous Students Embark on "The Trail of Dreams"
A Trek from Florida to D.C. Highlights Need to Pass the Dream Act
and Comprehensive Immigration Reform
The “Trail of Dreams” was conceived by four undocumented youth who wish to raise awareness and share their stories about what it is like to be an undocumented immigrant in this country. Living in what they feel are the shadows at the fringe of society, these young people are advocating for comprehensive immigration reform that would create a way for immigrants to attain a legitimate path to residency.
The four have embarked on a 1,500 mile walk from Miami, FL to Washington, D.C., stopping along the way to rally support for their cause and share their stories with the American public. Currently, undocumented immigrants have no way to join the military, pursue higher education in most institutions, find legitimate employment, get a driver’s license, or apply for citizenship or residency in any way.
In a recent visit to the Hope Community Center in Apopka, FL, the walkers expressed that their main goal is to feel like whole people, to be given the opportunity to be full participants in American society. They arrived here when they were very young, and love and embrace the United States as their home. Show your support for these courageous and inspiring young students. Find out what you can do to help and get involved.
To learn more about the Trail of Dreams, visit http://www.trail2010.org/.