Documentary Film Harvest of Dignity to be featured on PIC.tv

FOR IMMEDIATE RELEASE

CONTACT:  Bart Evans, Coordinator, Farmworker Advocacy Network
919-660-0704 (o) | 510-366-1604 (c) | bdevans@duke.edu

Documentary Film Harvest of Dignity to be featured on PIC.tv
http://pic.tv/harvest

August 9, 2011, Raleigh, NC — “Most people don’t realize that young kids are picking blueberries for our pies, sweet potatoes for our casseroles and tomatoes for our salads,” said Emily Drakage of the Association of Farmworker Opportunity Programs.  Drakage works with farm worker children and their families. “People should be able to feel confident when they buy North Carolina produce that they’re not enjoying it at the expense of a child’s health and safety.” 

The Farmworker Advocacy Network and One Economy are proud to announce Harvest of Dignity, a new original documentary that provides an in-depth portrait of the people who harvest our food. Harvest of Dignity is exclusively featured online on One Economy’s Public Internet Channel, PIC.tv.

“One Economy’s Public Internet Channel provides online programs that engage, inspire and facilitate action,” said Daniel Fellini, executive producer, One Economy Corporation, “Harvest of Dignity is a film that addresses a relevant issue facing communities and we hope it will be a catalyst for thought, discussion and engagement.” 

The Harvest of Dignity film comes on the 50-year anniversary of the acclaimed 1960 film Harvest of Shame, the last televised documentary by North Carolina-born journalist Edward R. Murrow that led to permanent changes in the laws protecting workers’ rights. The new film, Harvest of Dignity, combines interviews with North Carolina farmworkers, advocates, faith leaders and educators, documentary photos and interviews collected by Student Action with Farmworkers, and clips from the original Harvest of Shame documentary. Highlighting the struggles of farmworker families traveling the eastern migrant stream, the film compares conditions from 50 years ago and today and asks how much has changed.

“The good thing is that I haven’t gotten sick, right, because supposedly in this work many people get sick, from the tobacco and from the pesticides… They don’t tell us, but you can see that they are applying pesticides, or it smells like pesticides afterward. You can smell it when you enter the field, it smells of poison and you realize what is going on. And since the boss speaks English and you speak Spanish, you don’t understand much.”

–NC farmworker, 2010

This film was produced by Minnow Media in collaboration with the Farmworker Advocacy Network and Student Action with Farmworkers. The film is in Spanish and English with subtitles. FAN uses the documentary in its campaign to reform conditions for N.C. field and poultry workers. For more information about the Harvest of Dignity campaign, visit ncfan.org.

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PARA PUBLICACIÓN INMEDIATA

CONTACTO:  Bart Evans, Coordinador, Red de Defensa de Trabajadores Agrícolas

(Farmworker Advocacy Network-FAN)
919-660-0704 (oficina) | 510-366-1604 (celular) | bdevans@duke.edu

El documental Cosecha de dignidad será presentado en PIC.tv
http://pic.tv/harvest

9 de agosto de 2011, Raleigh, NC — “La mayoría de las personas no se dan cuenta que niños pequeños están cosechando arándanos para nuestros postres, camotes para nuestros guisos y tomates para nuestras ensaladas”, comentó Emily Drakage de la Asociación de Programas de Oportunidad para Trabajadores Agrícolas (AFOP). Drakage trabaja con hijos de campesinos y sus familias. “La gente debe sentirse segura de que cuando compra productos alimenticios de Carolina del Norte no es a expensa de la salud y seguridad de un niño”.

La Red de Defensa de Trabajadores Agrícolas (FAN) y One Economy tienen el orgullo de presentar Cosecha de dignidad (Harvest of Dignity), un nuevo documental original que ofrece un retrato detallado de las personas que cosechan nuestros alimentos. Cosecha de dignidad está siendo presentada exclusivamente por Internet en el Public Internet Channel (PIC.tv) de One Economy Corporation.

“El Public Internet Channel de One Economy ofrece programas por Internet que inspiran y fomentan participación y acción”, comentó Daniel Fellini, productor ejecutivo de One Economy Corporation. “Cosecha de dignidad” aborda un tema pertinente para miembros de la comunidad y esperamos que sea un catalizador para discusión, pensamiento y participación”.

El estreno de Cosecha de dignidad coincide con el 50º aniversario de Cosecha de vergüenza (Harvest of Shame), el cual fue transmitido por televisión en 1960 y fue el último programa del periodista de Carolina del Norte Edward R. Murrow. El documental ayudó a que se hicieran cambios permanentes a las leyes para proteger los derechos de trabajadores. El nuevo documental, Cosecha de dignidad, combina entrevistas con trabajadores agrícolas, defensores, líderes religiosos y educadores de Carolina del Norte con fotografías documentales y entrevistas recopiladas por Estudiantes en Acción con Campesinos (Student Action with Farmworkers - SAF) y fragmentos del documental original Cosecha de vergüenza. La película compara las dificultades de los trabajadores agrícolas que viajaban por la ruta de la costa este hace 50 años con la situación actual de los trabajadores y pregunta cuánto ha cambiado.    

“Lo bueno es que no me he enfermado, la verdad, porque supuestamente mucha gente se enferma por este trabajo, por el tabaco y los pesticidas… No nos dicen, pero puedes ver que están rociando pesticidas o hueles los pesticidas después. Puedes olerlo cuando entras al campo, huele a veneno y te das cuenta de lo que está pasando. Y como el jefe habla inglés y tú hablas español, no entiendes mucho”.

–Trabajador agrícola en Carolina del Norte, 2010

El documental fue producido en español e inglés con subtítulos por Minnow Media, en colaboración con FAN (Red de Defensa de Trabajadores Agrícolas) y Estudiantes en Acción con Campesinos (Student Action with Farmworkers). FAN utiliza el trabajo documental en su campaña para reformar las condiciones de los trabajadores de campo y de la industria avícola en Carolina del Norte. Para mayor información sobre la campaña Cosecha de dignidad, visite ncfan.org.

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OSHA Investigating Deadly Farm Accident

Hannah Kendall (left) and Jade Garza (Photo from Facebook)A couple weeks ago we heard another sad reminder of how dangerous – even deadly – farm work can be for young people:

Representatives of the Occupational Safety and Health Administration are in northwestern Illinois today, continuing an investigation into the electrocution deaths Monday of two 14-year-old girls working in a cornfield.

According to spokesperson Rhonda Burke in the agency’s Chicago office, OSHA representatives were in Tampico yesterday as well after Jade Garza and Hannah Kendall, both of Sterling, died after coming in contact with a field irrigator while working at removing tassels from corn. A Facebook page has been created to remember the two girls.

The two were among 72 contract workers for Monsanto Corp. who were working the field at that time, according to a release from the St. Louis-based corporation. The release said the two were "electrically shocked by a center pivot irrigation system" and that other workers in the area also reported feeling the shock.

Click here to read more from the Chicago Tribune.

Child working on farms are more likely to die from work-related accidents, and face higher injury and illness rates than adult workers.  Each year, over 100 youth die from farm-related injuries in the U.S., and many more are injured. Children who work in fields treated with pesticides are at greater risk of developing neurological and reproductive health problems, as well as cancer. 

North Carolina child labor law permits children as young as 12 years old and in some cases as young as 10 to labor in the fields, while in every other industry the minimum age is 14 or above. Agriculture is one of the three most dangerous industries in the nation, and yet every year across the country close to 500,000 farmworker children and youth risk their childhood, health, and well-being in order to bring food to our tables. Children in North Carolina are no exception. 

Field investigations in North Carolina have uncovered children as young as six working in the fields. Most Americans still envision farms as safe, nurturing places. Unfortunately, the safe, happy and healthy farm life that many of us imagine is just a myth for farmworker children in North Carolina.

Click here to help end child labor in North Carolina’s fields.  Take action today.

Summer Homework: Plow the Field

The American Prospect recently featured an article about how a legal loophole allows young children to work in agriculture:

Farmworkers are frequently exposed to dangerous pesticides, heavy machinery, and sharp tools, and children are much more vulnerable to the bad effects of these than their older colleagues, according to Levy Schroeder, director of health and safety programs at the AFOP. Deaths from heat exposure and tractor rollovers, and lifelong repetitive strain injuries from stooping for hours on end are just some of the risks that young children face in farm work. “They are not little adults; their bodies have not yet developed,” Schroeder says. Children’s young immune systems are also particularly susceptible to pesticide exposure, which has been associated with cancer and respiratory and reproductive problems over the long term.

Maria Mandujano, now 20, started working on farms in her home state of Idaho at age 11. “It was just something you had to do to put food on the table,” she says, but now she laments the experience. “I wish my parents would have said no, or somebody would have been there to say no,” she adds. Mandujano is now studying in college and is trying to lure her younger brother away from the fields. “I always try to explain to him how he can benefit from not working the fields right now, what he could do in exchange,” she says. “For example, learning from my own mistakes and not growing up as quickly as I did.”

One thing that frequently gets sacrificed is education—Mandujano is a rarity for making it to college. In fact, young farmworkers are four times more likely to drop out of school than their peers, according to government estimates. López moved around the country for work during her summers and often found herself months behind in school when she returned to her home in Texas in late October. Despite the odds, she graduated with a bachelor’s in communications and now works at AFOP to advocate for those less fortunate. “More than half of these kids don’t complete high school,” she says, “and we continue to allow that to happen.”

Click here to read more.

Here in North Carolina, the Farmworker Advocacy Network is committed to ending exploitative child labor – but we need your help.  You can start by:

• Signing up for email updates (2-3/month)
• Liking us on Facebook
• Following us on Twitter

Hope in the Fight

In a recent blog post, U.S. Secretary of Labor Hilda Solis states:

Combating child labor is a daunting challenge. As we mark World Day Against Child Labor on June 12, more than 200 million children are working around the globe—and more than half are working in dangerous jobs. 

Every young person deserves the chance to be in school and learning—not sacrificing their childhoods working in life-threatening jobs. Children across the world who are forced into labor are risking their health, their future and their lives.

And this poster by the U.S. Department of Labor reminds us that “We cannot succeed on the backs of children.”

Most people perceive child labor as an issue that only affects developing countries.  However, it’s also a problem here in North Carolina.

In the U.S., children account for roughly 1 out of every 5 work-related deaths on farms, and face higher injury and illness rates than adult workers.  At least 9 children have died working on farms in NC in the past decade, and many more have been injured.  (Right now we don't know the exact numbers because North Carolina does not keep track of how many child workers have died in agriculture.)  

Children who work in fields treated with pesticides are at greater risk of developing neurological and reproductive health problems, as well as cancer.

Here in North Carolina, one simple way to help wipe out exploitative child labor is to close the legal loopholes that allow young children to work in agriculture.  House Bill 838 would have done just that, but big agribusinesses are apparently more interested in corporate profits than the health and future of North Carolina's youngest workers.  These special interests shut down debate on the bill this spring and prevented it from coming to an up-or-down vote.

Secretary Solis says that “Our mission is difficult, there is no doubt.  But it is not impossible. The job of eradicating hazardous and exploitive child labor must get done.”

There is a long road ahead of us, but we can get there together.  Will you stand with us? 
Endorse the Harvest of Dignity Campaign today.

Protecting farm kids: a tough row to hoe

By Harry Payne, published in the Raleigh News & Observer

RALEIGH - One in every five farm deaths in this country ends the life of a child. We must face North Carolina's role in that bloody truth.

North Carolina law doesn't allow children aged 13 years and under to be exposed to the dangers of the modern adult workplace: no construction sites, chemical plants, poultry processors or pickle factories. Sharp blades, heavy weights, power equipment, toxic chemicals, conveyer belts and the rough edges of adult behavior make these workplaces no place for kids - except if they work in agriculture.

Yet farm work has these dangers and more. Add green tobacco sickness, snakes, pesticides and rural isolation into the mix, steam it in sweltering heat and you have the real life story of "How I spent my Summer Vacation" guaranteed to a few thousand North Carolina kids not yet old enough to shave.

The continuation of this misery and danger is made possible by the efforts of the N.C. Farm Bureau and the state labor commissioner, and it may well be the story of that pint of blueberries you just picked up at the store.

Agriculture is exempt from most of the child protection laws and OSHA provisions that are intended to keep children from the worst danger and to protect folks in every other workplace. In the General Assembly this year, House Bill 838, offered by child advocates and sponsored by Ashe County Republican state Rep. Jonathan Jordan, would have taken the 10-to-13-year-olds out of the fields and restricted the older youth from specific hazards determined by the U.S. Department of Labor, such as applying pesticides and operating heavy machinery, that are the purview of those 18 and up in all other industries.

An exemption for farm family members was included - and then expanded - at the behest of the N.C. Farm Bureau. It allowed basically any work by family kids at family-owned or operated farms.

So far so good, right? But lest reason and common sense prevail at the General Assembly, the Farm Bureau and the labor commissioner intervened.

The commissioner's office reported her preference to wait on some consensus between the Farm Bureau and the bill's proponents. After much delay, the Farm Bureau revealed its position as being OK with the protections for the 10-to-12-year-olds, but not the 13-year-olds.

Negotiations broke down at this point, with child advocates again offering a slimmed-down version of the bill, without sacrificing the safety of 13-year-olds, but to no avail.

Jordan, the bill's sponsor, then explained that he would not bring the bill forward for a hearing because of his preference for consensus, the labor commissioner's opposition and the Farm Bureau's discomfort.

So the opportunity to discuss the issue or provide relief has now disappeared for the next two years - relieving the Farm Bureau and the labor commissioner of an awkward moment when they might be forced to explain their positions on child labor to the public.

If there is good reason for kids to work in these places, these people are well-positioned to make the case, and they should have to.

Forget the bucolic images of kids milking cows or raising a prized pumpkin. Farm life has changed radically since child labor laws were written at the dawn of the 20th century, and what we know about children and danger has changed.

Rather than make the case that the farm economy somehow turns on the toil of kids or reveal that somehow they see children forced by circumstance to do farm work as less deserving of protection than all other kids, they hide behind a bill sponsor they have pressured to hold the bill. They want him to take the heat for their turning their backs on children in danger.

Raise your hand if you support child labor

Photograph shows half-length portrait of two girls wearing banners with slogan "ABOLISH CH[ILD] SLAVERY!!" in English and Yiddish ("(ני)דער מיט (קינד)ער שקלאפער(ײ)", "Nider mit Kinder Schklawerii"), one carrying American flag; spectators stand nearby. Probably taken during May 1, 1909 labor parade in New York City. Source: http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/File:Abolish_child_slavery.jpg

As a society, we decided 75 years ago that child labor needed very strict guidelines to make sure that education comes first and to prevent abusive conditions.  The only problem?  Children in agriculture were exempted from these protections, in part because most farms were small family operations that needed everyone’s help.  Today, mass-scale agribusiness has replaced family farms.  But the exemption allowing child labor on farms has remained, meaning that there’s a good chance that pint of blueberries you’re enjoying was hand-picked by 12- and 13-year olds – legally.  These same children are too young to work in any other industry.

If you listen closely, you’ll hear two main arguments in favor of the status quo – in favor of child labor.

The most common one goes like this: “I worked on a farm when I was young, and it was hard work but I learned a lot.  There’s nothing wrong with hard work.”  Working on family farms is indeed our agricultural heritage, and so the proposed legislation to reduce child labor in North Carolina has a very clear exemption for the children of the farm owners.  However:

1. Today’s farms are dangerous places for children.  Large-scale agribusinesses use a lot of heavy machinery and pesticides – things that don’t mix well with kids.  Today, 20% of all farm deaths are children, even though children make up only about 8% of the agricultural work force.  From 1992-2000, 42% of work-related deaths of minors occurred in agriculture.  Half of the victims were 14 years old and under.
2. No one says that children shouldn’t be able to work at all.  But it doesn’t make any sense to exempt children working in one of America’s most dangerous industries, when those same children would be turned away from working at movie theaters or shopping malls.  Children in the fields should be protected in the same way as children in any other industry. 

Another common argument in favor of child labor goes something like this: “Farmworker families are so poor that their children have to work to support them.  It’s really an opportunity for them to save money and build their resumes.”

Most farmworker families are very poor – average annual incomes for farmworkers are around $11,000 – but the solution is not to allow child labor.  The solution is to support living wages and other safe, proven mechanisms that raise workers out of poverty.  Ending exploitative child labor is only one piece of a much larger puzzle, but it is a crucial piece.  Too often, we see that allowing child labor doesn’t break the cycle of poverty, it reinforces it.  Children who work in the fields often experience health problems and difficulty performing well in school because of the severe toll farm labor exacts on young bodies and developing minds.  

From the garment factories of New York to the coal mines of West Virginia, America decided a long time ago that child labor was not going to be the solution to bringing people out of poverty.  It’s been 75 years, and we’ve never looked back.  It’s long past time to close the loopholes and level the playing field for children working in our fields. 

Growing up working on the family farm is an important tradition that should be preserved, but employing young children in hazardous work should not be a tradition any longer.  Child labor laws should be the same for every industry.  All children in North Carolina deserve a safe, healthy and bright future.  It’s as simple as that.

Watch a short video on child labor in NC | Support legislation to end child labor | Endorse the Harvest of Dignity Campaign

New Short Film: Uprooted Innocence

The Farmworker Advocacy Network worked with Professor Bruce Orenstein's video and social change class at Duke University to produce this brand new documentary about the Harvest of Dignity Campaign. Stay tuned for more...

This powerful student-made short film highlights an issue that most of us think disappeared a century ago - child labor.  Here in North Carolina, children as young as 12 years old and in some cases as young as 10 are allowed to labor in the fields, while in every other industry the minimum age is 14 or above. Agriculture is one of the three most dangerous industries in the nation, and yet every year across the country close to 500,000 farmworker children and youth risk their childhood, health, and well-being in order to bring food to our tables. Children in North Carolina are no exception.

Want more facts about children in North Carolina's fields?  Download the fact sheet now. 

Want to help end exploitative child labor?  Take action now.