I Am Not a Tractor! : How Florida Farmworkers Took On the Fast Food Giants and Won / Susan L. Marquis.

Format:

Book

Author/Creator:

Marquis, Susan L., author.

Language:

English

Subjects (All):

Coalition of Immokalee Workers.

Food industry and trade--Florida--Immokalee--Employees.

Food industry and trade.

Agricultural laborers--Labor unions--Florida--Immokalee.

Agricultural laborers.

Agricultural laborers--Florida--Immokalee.

Physical Description:

1 online resource

Edition:

1st ed.

Place of Publication:

Ithaca, NY : Cornell University Press, [2017]

Language Note:

In English.

Summary:

I Am Not a Tractor! celebrates the courage, vision, and creativity of the farm workers and community leaders who have transformed one of the worst agricultural situations in the United States into one of the best. Susan L. Marquis highlights past abuses workers suffered in Florida's tomato fields: toxic pesticide exposure, beatings, sexual assault, rampant wage theft, and even, astonishingly, modern-day slavery. Marquis unveils how, even without new legislation, regulation, or government participation, these farm workers have dramatically improved their work conditions.Marquis credits this success to the immigrants from Mexico, Haiti, and Guatemala who formed the Coalition of Immokalee Workers, a neuroscience major who takes great pride in the watermelon crew he runs, a leading farmer/grower who was once experiencing homelessness, and a retired New York State judge who volunteered to stuff envelopes and ended up building a groundbreaking institution. Through the Fair Food Program that they have developed, fought for, and implemented, these people have changed the lives of more than thirty thousand field workers. I Am Not a Tractor! offers a range of solutions to a problem that is rooted in our nation's slave history and that is worsened by ongoing conflict over immigration.

Contents:

Frontmatter

Contents

Characters

Acronyms and Organizations

Acknowledgments

Prologue. Getting to Immokalee

1. To beat one of us is to beat us all!

2. "Bang your head against the wall long enough . . ."

3. Campaigning for fair food

4. Has anyone talked with these guys?

5. Eyes wide open

6. Forging the path by walking it

7. "Value" can have a different meaning

8. What difference?

9. Designed for the future

A note on sources

Notes

Bibliography

Index

Notes:

Includes bibliographical references and index.

Description based on online resource; title from PDF title page (publisher's Web site, viewed 08. Jul 2019)

ISBN:

9781501714313

1501714317

OCLC:

995355690