Northeast Food n Justice Summit + Mass March for Farm Workers

At the Northeast Food and Justice Summit, hundreds of young people, including teenagers, carried forward the Food Justice Movement at a two and a half day conference followed by a giant march through Boston for farm worker's rights.





Real Food Challenge has been challenging students for five years or so to campaign their schools to purchase 100% Real Food, which means local, sustainable and humane; food which truly nourishes eaters, communities, workers, animals and the environment. But this summit was a bit unique. RFC came out of The Food Project, a Food Justice organization in Dorchester Boston that hires teenagers from the inner city to the outskirts to work together on an urban farm and in a rural farm. It brings them closer to nature, beautifies the neighborhood, and of course brings about more fresh food grown right in the community and a greater understanding and appreciation of where Food comes from. At this summit, there were maybe 100 folks younger than 18. There were other such youth groups there too, among the many college students and older activists. At the end of the summit, at a "Young Leaders" breakout, which was for folks not in school anymore at all, the majority of the circle expressed that they appreciated seeing so many young youth and were inspired to see the next generation carrying forth Food Justice.



Aligned with the summit and RFC, but not endorsed by Northeastern University, was a march through Boston for Farm Worker's Rights. The Coalition of Immokalee Workers (CIW) have won campaigns with various food stores to pay one penny more per pound of tomatoes for the farm workers in Immokalee Florida. This march targeted Stop n Shop.

According to a CIW flyer: "Workers are paid virtually the same piece rate (an average of 50 cents per 32-lb. bucket) as they were 30 years ago. At this rate, a worker must pick over 2.25 TONS of tomatoes to earn Florida minimum wage in a typical 10-hour workday. Most workers earn less than $12,000 per year.

"Farm workers in Florida have no right to overtime pay, no health insurance, sick leave, paid vacation or pension, and no right to organize...

"In the most extreme situations, workers are forced to labor against their will through the use or threat of physical violence. Since 1997, there have been nine cases of forced labor prosecuted in Florida's fields, involving 1,200 workers."