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Entries by Bart Evans (10)

Tuesday
Jun072011

MEDIA RELEASE: Time running out to protect NC kids from child labor

Today’s committee meeting was the last scheduled chance for a bill protecting child farmworkers from dangerous work to be heard. Why won’t the NC Farm Bureau and Department of Labor support an up-or-down vote?

RALEIGH (June 7, 2011) – Today’s House Agriculture Committee meeting may have marked North Carolina’s last chance this legislative session to protect kids by ending the practice of child labor on North Carolina farms. 
 
But pressure from the NC Farm Bureau and Department of Labor prevented this common-sense legislation from reaching the floor for an up-or-down vote. Advocates say this is unfair to young farmworkers, who are already exempted from most basic health and safety regulations present in other industries.
 
Meanwhile, as school lets out, thousands of North Carolina children are preparing for a long, hot summer tending crops in 90-plus degree conditions. 
 
“Child farmworkers deserve the same legal protections that child workers in every other industry have,” said Emily Drakage, executive director of the NC FIELD Coalition. “Young people want to work to help their families, and they deserve to do so with the same protections on farms that they would get working at McDonalds or at the mall.”
 
While children make up only a tiny fraction of the agricultural work force, they account for 20 percent of all deaths on the job in agriculture. 
 
As an industry, Agriculture is exempt from most child labor laws. Under current law, children are allowed to work as paid employees at agricultural operations beginning at age 10. 
 
The bill, HB 838, would remove the exemption for agriculture from child labor laws, in order to provide the same protections for children who work in agriculture as in all other industries. It would also preserve the exemption for children who work on their own family’s farm.

Despite extended negotiations with children’s advocates, farm interests and legislative leaders, entrenched powers seem intent on preventing the bill from coming to a vote before the legislative session’s crossover deadline. Negotiations broke down after the Farm Bureau took issue with protecting 13-year-olds.
 
Barring some special circumstance, today’s 1 p.m. meeting of the House Agriculture Committee was the last scheduled meeting where the bill to protect child farmworkers could be heard before the June 9 crossover deadline. 
 
“The Farm Bureau and Department of Labor need to let this bill move forward,” said Fawn Pattison, director of Toxic Free NC. “Kids in North Carolina should be able to stay in school without being subject to dangerous or exploitive working conditions – and we deserve an up-or-down vote on this bill so any lawmaker who supports dangerous child labor can be held accountable.”
 
Though the last scheduled committee meeting has passed, advocates for the bill hold out hope the bill will be heard, either during a special meeting or if the crossover deadline is extended. Harry Payne, Senior Counsel for Policy & Law with the NC Justice Center, said that there is still ample time for committee members to discuss this bill.
 
“In this session, we have seen 90-page bill with enormous consequences passed in less than five minutes. Surely we can find time to hear a bill that protects children from workplace dangers,” said Payne.
 
FOR MORE INFORMATION, CONTACT: Fawn Pattison, executive director, Toxic Free NC, 919.833.5333, fawn@toxicfreenc.org; Emily Drakage, executive director of the NC FIELD Coalition, 919.749.3629; Jeff Shaw, director of communications, NC Justice Center, 503.551.3615, jeff@ncjustice.org.
   
Wednesday
Mar302011

Tuesday 3/29 Galaxy Screening a Success!

Thanks to all who came out in support of the Harvest of Dignity last night at the galaxy theater! We had about 200 people in all and the event was a great success!

Contact us to host your own screening at harvestofdignity@gmail.com!

Wednesday
Mar232011

EPI: Farmworkers not seeing benefits of rising agricultural exports

An important new report on farmworkers’ wages and international competitiveness of U.S. fruit and vegetable harvests is available from the Economic Policy Institute.

The value of agricultural exports rose 2.5 times between 1989 and 2009, but the average hourly earnings of U.S. farmworkers increased only $1.52 over the same period. In other words, farmworkers have hardly benefited economically from the increase in agricultural exports.

A new Economic Policy Institute Briefing Paper, Farm Exports and Farm Labor: Would a raise for fruit and vegetable workers diminish the competitiveness of U.S. agriculture?, finds that a 40% increase in farmworker earnings would only raise U.S. household spending by about $16 a year. The report, by Philip Martin, a Professor of Agricultural and Resource Economics at the University of California, Davis, also provides an outline of fruit, vegetable and horticultural (FVH) production in the United States and a discussion of the earnings of the immigrant farmworkers who work on FVH farms.

The Economic Policy Institute (EPI) is an independent, nonprofit, nonpartisan research institute that researches the impact of economic trends and policies on working people in the United States and around the world. 

Click here to read more.

Wednesday
Mar092011

1st Screening of Harvest of Dignity @ Galaxy theater- Cary, NC

Come join us during National Farmworker Awareness Week, March 27th-April 2nd for…

The Harvest of Dignity

Opening Night Film Screening and Panel at the Galaxy Theatre!

Tues. March 29th, 2011 7-9 pm

Galaxy Theater Location: Village Square Shopping Center, 
770 Cary Towne Blvd.
Cary, NC 27511         

Spanish and English with subtitles. Show will begin at 7 pm, panel discussion to follow. $5.00 at the door. To secure your ticket ahead of time, go to: http://www.mygalaxycinema.com/

Monday
Feb142011

Tell us why you LOVE farm workers!

This Valentine's Day, let North Carolina's farm workers know just how much you appreciate the hard work they do to keep an abundance of food in our grocery stores and on our plates.  Make a virtual Valentine for farm workers!   We'll share your postcards with workers when we meet with them throughout the year, so they can see the faces of the folks who support them in their cause of fairness and dignity!

See the attached photo postcard for inspiration, and you can also check out folks' video postcards at our Vimeo page:  http://vimeo.com/channels/ncfan.

Making a virtual Valentine is a fun and powerful action you can do to show your support for farm workers and the hard work they do.  You can create your own individual postcard or make one together with your spouse, your children or your friends.  Your Valentine can be a photo or a short video.  Here are step-by-step instructions!

To make a photo postcard:


1) Make a Valentine's sign with your message about why you love North Carolina's farm workers.  Keep the message short and write it in large letters!
2) Write your name and the city where you live in bold letters at the bottom of your sign.
3) Have someone take a photo of you proudly holding your finished Valentine.
4) Email your photo to harvestofdignity@gmail.com, and we'll put it on the Harvest of Dignity website!

To make a video postcard:

1) Think about what you want to say.  Keep it short and simple!
2) Have someone take a short video of you.  State your name, the city you live in, and why you love North Carolina's farm workers.
3) Share your video!  Here's how:

- Save your video to your computer
- Go to www.vimeo.com
- Create a free account if you don't already have one (it's quick and easy, we promise)
- Visit the Farmworker Advocacy Network's "Group" at: http://vimeo.com/groups/harvestofdignity
- Click on "Join this Group" on the right side
- Click on "Upload Video" on the right side
- Your video will appear as soon as it is approved by moderators


You can always email us for tech support at harvestofdignity@gmail.com.  Also, if you attended a Harvest of Dignity event this winter and made a photo or video postcard, check out our Vimeo and Picasa pages to find it!

Wishing you a wonderful Valentine's Day,

Ana Duncan Pardo, Toxic Free North Carolina
On behalf of the Farmworker Advocacy Network
Visit us at: www.harvestofdignity.org

 

Thursday
Jan202011

AFOP Announces “Year of the Farmworker Child” 

Today the Association of Farmworker Opportunity Programs (AFOP) announced they have designated 2011 the “Year of the Farmworker Child.” Starting in January, AFOP will devote twelve months to raising awareness about the hardships faced by migrant farmworker youth... (more)



Today the Association of Farmworker Opportunity Programs (AFOP) announced they have designated 2011 the “Year of the Farmworker Child.” Starting in January, AFOP will devote twelve months to raising awareness about the hardships faced by migrant farmworker youth. In addition, AFOP and other supporters of the “Year of the Farmworker Child” will seek to increase public knowledge concerning the discriminatory agricultural exemption in the Fair Labor Standards Act of 1938, which regulates child labor in the U.S.

“Children in agriculture labor longer and under more hazardous conditions than they are permitted to do in almost any other American industry,” said AFOP Executive Director David Strauss. “In 2011, we will work with our members, other organizations, and communities to help promote a greater understanding of the impact this kind of life has on children’s safety, health and education, as part of our ongoing effort to help today’s farmworker youth create better futures for themselves.”

According to U.S. Department of Labor statistics, agriculture is currently the third-most dangerous industry in the United States, in terms of injuries and fatalities recorded on the job. For children, it is the most dangerous. Boys and girls as young as 12 years old are legally allowed to labor in agriculture for an unlimited amount of hours outside of school, using dangerous farm equipment and working in an environment that continually exposes them to pesticides—conditions deemed illegal in every other industry and that can lead to serious injury or even death. Farmworker youth are also excluded from the “hazardous work” protections imposed in all other industries, allowing children as young as 16 to operate heavy machinery and perform other dangerous functions that are strictly reserved for adults in every employment field except in agriculture.

Migrant farmworker youth working long days in the fields frequently see their educational opportunities curtailed as a result. The migratory nature of farm work means that parts of the school curriculum often have to be repeated or skipped. We have evidence that more than half of these children will not finish high school and fewer still will go on to college, forcing them to continue the cycle of poverty.

AFOP will begin the “Year of the Farmworker Child” by seeking assistance from supporters to help illuminate the issues raised by the campaign. Among the activities slated to increase awareness is AFOP’s Migrant and Seasonal Farmworker Children's Essay & Art Contest, which will begin accepting entries next month. AFOP’s Children in the Fields Campaign will conduct a variety of regional activities in support of the initiative, starting in February at the “From Harvest to Harvard” migrant student conference in Texas. AFOP’s Health and Safety Programs will also be releasing their annual publication focused on the effects of pesticides on children. For additional information on how you can become a supporter of the “Year of the Farmworker Child,” please contact Ayrianne Parks at parks[at]afop.org.

Today the Association of Farmworker Opportunity Programs (AFOP) announced they have designated 2011 the “Year of the Farmworker Child.” Starting in January, AFOP will devote twelve months to raising awareness about the hardships faced by migrant farmworker youth. In addition, AFOP and other supporters of the “Year of the Farmworker Child” will seek to increase public knowledge concerning the discriminatory agricultural exemption in the Fair Labor Standards Act of 1938, which regulates child labor in the U.S.

“Children in agriculture labor longer and under more hazardous conditions than they are permitted to do in almost any other American industry,” said AFOP Executive Director David Strauss. “In 2011, we will work with our members, other organizations, and communities to help promote a greater understanding of the impact this kind of life has on children’s safety, health and education, as part of our ongoing effort to help today’s farmworker youth create better futures for themselves.”

According to U.S. Department of Labor statistics, agriculture is currently the third-most dangerous industry in the United States, in terms of injuries and fatalities recorded on the job. For children, it is the most dangerous. Boys and girls as young as 12 years old are legally allowed to labor in agriculture for an unlimited amount of hours outside of school, using dangerous farm equipment and working in an environment that continually exposes them to pesticides—conditions deemed illegal in every other industry and that can lead to serious injury or even death. Farmworker youth are also excluded from the “hazardous work” protections imposed in all other industries, allowing children as young as 16 to operate heavy machinery and perform other dangerous functions that are strictly reserved for adults in every employment field except in agriculture.

Migrant farmworker youth working long days in the fields frequently see their educational opportunities curtailed as a result. The migratory nature of farm work means that parts of the school curriculum often have to be repeated or skipped. We have evidence that more than half of these children will not finish high school and fewer still will go on to college, forcing them to continue the cycle of poverty.

AFOP will begin the “Year of the Farmworker Child” by seeking assistance from supporters to help illuminate the issues raised by the campaign. Among the activities slated to increase awareness is AFOP’s Migrant and Seasonal Farmworker Children's Essay & Art Contest, which will begin accepting entries next month. AFOP’s Children in the Fields Campaign will conduct a variety of regional activities in support of the initiative, starting in February at the “From Harvest to Harvard” migrant student conference in Texas. AFOP’s Health and Safety Programs will also be releasing their annual publication focused on the effects of pesticides on children. For additional information on how you can become a supporter of the “Year of the Farmworker Child,” please contact Ayrianne Parks at parks[at]afop.org.

Thursday
Dec162010

CBS Evening News: "Harvest of Shame" Revisited--CIW

 

The original "Harvest of Shame" was broadcast on the day after Thanksgiving, 1960. Fifty years later, CBS Evening News returned to Immokalee to revisit Florida's fields and, thanks to the recent advances in the Campaign for Fair Food, found reason for hope...(more from CIW website)

 

Meanwhile FAN and Minnow Media are working hard to finish up our own documentary Harvest of Shame... Stay tuned for the final screening/release in early 2011!

Friday
Dec102010

Durham's SEEDS sign's on to HOD

SEEDS staff and DIG have signed on as allies with the Farmworker Advocacy Network (FAN), a statewide organization that works to improve the living and working conditions... (Read more on the SEEDS e-newsletter)