Episode 114: Greg Asbed of the Coalition of Immokalee Workers

Greg Asbed is a Co-Founder of the Coalition of Immokalee Workers (CIW), a worker-based human rights organization. He works with farmworkers and their student, labor, and religious allies to organize the national Campaign for Fair Food, a breakthrough worker-based approach to corporate accountability in the agricultural industry known for its creativity and effectiveness. He writes and designs the CIW’s main communication tool — the website (www.ciw-online.org) and also coordinates the CIW’s negotiating team in talks with food industry leaders, negotiating “Fair Food” agreements with nine multi-billion dollar retail food corporations to date, including McDonald’s, Subway, Sodexo, and Whole Foods. He is currently leading the effort to develop and implement innovative new farm labor standards in collaboration with two of Florida’s largest tomato growers, paving the way for the implementation of the CIW’s Fair Food Code of Conduct across the entire Florida tomato industry in November, 2011. Greg is one of the authors featured in the textbook Bringing Human Rights Home: Portraits of the Movement (2008). He has an M.A. in International Economics and Social Change and Development from Johns Hopkins SAIS and is fluent in English, Spanish, and Haitian Creole. He has also spent the past 15 seasons harvesting watermelons in the states of Florida, Georgia, Missouri, and Maryland. This program has been brought to you by Hearst Ranch. “Most farm workers were farmers back home, and I’m sure they’d love the opportunity to use more than just their arms and legs to work.”– Greg Asbed on Greenhorn Radio See Privacy Policy at https://art19.com/privacy and California Privacy Notice at https://art19.com/privacy#do-not-sell-my-info.