COFOUNDER, COALITION FOR IMMOKALEE WORKERS
Photography by John D. & Catherine T. MacArthur Foundation
When Greg Asbed talks about farming conditions in America, he likes to start with a simple thought experiment: Imagine standing at a scenic organic farm stand, picking out beautiful heirloom tomatoes grown steps from where you shop. As you go to pay, you see a worker being assaulted in the fields behind the stand. Would you still buy those beautiful organic tomatoes? Of course not, says Greg, “but as a collective, that’s exactly what we do every day.”
The industrial food system is full of injustices, starting with an underpaid labor force that is exposed to a wide range of human rights’ abuses. “It’s endemic,” Greg says. “Eighty percent of the women who work in the fields have been sexually harassed.” Eighty percent! Yet of all the factors we consider when making food choices—proximity, seasonality, price, quality—human rights come very last, Greg says.
Looking to help turn the tide, he cofounded the Coalition for Immokalee Workers (CIW) in 1993 with Lucas Benitez and his wife, Laura Germino, who first introduced Greg to the injustices of industrial agriculture. Based in one of Florida’s top tomato-producing regions, they set out to improve the working conditions of local tomato pickers, but CIW has since grown into a powerful national advocacy group.
If you’ve heard of CIW before, it’s probably thanks to Taco Bell. In the early 2000s the coalition began a campaign to pressure the fast-food titan into improving the pay and working conditions of its tomato pickers. The result was a David-versus-Goliath victory that helped thousands of underpaid workers. But CIW’s work goes well beyond the tomatoes in your tacos. At the heart of its mission is the Fair Food Program (FFP), a partnership among farmers, farmworkers, and corporations that takes direct aim at the food system’s gravest injustices and holds major retailers accountable for the food they sell.
The results have been astounding: Major players from Walmart to McDonald’s have joined the FFP, agreeing to increase workers’ wages and establish a code of conduct that protects their human rights. These aren’t small changes—these are the biggest food companies in the world committing to improving the lives of tens of thousands of America’s most vulnerable people. That’s why the Washington Post called the FFP “one of the great human rights success stories of our day.” And that’s why the MacArthur Foundation awarded Greg one of its famous “genius grants,” $625,000—every penny of which went into CIW’s work.
According to Greg, the worst crimes in the food world—from sexual harassment in restaurants to exploitation in the fields—stem from abuses of power. But with the help of CIW and other allies in the fight for a fairer food system, workers are beginning to tip the scales. “People are realizing that there really is a new paradigm: getting the power to fight power.”
The food world needs more fighters like Greg—not just big thinkers but big doers, people willing to build alliances and take on companies like Taco Bell in the name of a more just system. If we want to change our food system, we need to get our own hands dirty.