Fair Food Austin: Report from Texas Regional Encuentro!

March 11, 2010

Report from Texas Regional Encuentro!

Student/Farmworker Alliance activists from across the Lone Star State -- including members of Fair Food Austin -- converged in Houston last weekend for the first-ever Texas Encuentro. From all accounts, the two-day gathering provided an excellent forum for strategy, reflection, and relationship-building, and included two separate actions calling on Aramark and Kroger to sign Fair Food agreements with the CIW. Click here for a full photo report!

Who We Are

Since 2001, Fair Food Austin has organized with the Coalition of Immokalee Workers (CIW) for fair wages and dignified working conditions in the U.S. agricultural industry. The CIW is a farmworker organization headquartered in Immokalee, Florida with over 4,000 members. The CIW has aided in the prosecution by the Department of Justice of six slavery operations and the liberation of well over 1,000 workers.

We use creative methods to educate consumers about the human rights crisis farmworkers face and to promote the Campaign for Fair Food. The campaign requires large food corporations -- from Taco Bell to Whole Foods -- to demand more humane labor standards from their Florida tomato suppliers, to pay a premium price for more fairly produced tomatoes, and to buy only from growers who meet those higher standards.

Brutal conditions in Florida's fields may seem distant to consumers deep in the heart of Texas, but many of the restaurant and supermarket chains that have helped create this crisis are present in our community and buy Florida tomatoes at some point during the year. Human rights are universal, and by working together, farmworkers and consumers can create a better world.