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President Donald Trump has today endorsed legislation proposed by two republican senators (David Perdue of Georgia and Tom Cotton of Arkansas), which would introduce new limits on legal immigration. The new system would be based on merit over any other criteria, which means that highly skilled workers will receive priority over lower skilled workers or […]

Why are California farms struggling with a labor shortage?

Applications are now open! The Bay Area Farmer Training Program provides the education, training and tools for a new generation of farmers in California's Bay Area to create socially-just, ecologically sustainable and economically viable urban and peri-urban farm businesses. Exceedingly high recidivism rates, increasing immigrant populations, a scarcity of living-wages for vulnerable citizens, and the rapidly aging farmer […]

We don't often see mainstream media outlets report on the often invisible farm workers that hold up so much of American agriculture-- let alone do in depth and humanizing interviews with them. So, in case you missed it, we wanted to bring your attention to a series created by Dan Charles for NPR's The Salt in which […]

[vimeo 52870881 w=640 h=360] The Hand That Feeds trailer from Robin Blotnick, a film on reforming the food system by organizing from the ground up for fair wages, fair working conditions, and collective bargaining rights. This is a rare story in which workers, with tenacity beyond imagination, are actually able to defeat the giant. It is […]

[youtube https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=yJTVF_dya7E] On the one hand, it is great to see how far we've come. And on the other, it is pretty difficult to accept how far we haven't. Pay close attention at 19:00 minutes to what one farm employer has to say about working conditions, wages, and his workers dispositions.

[vimeo 129248739 w=500 h=281] Watch the trailer for The Line from Kent Bassett on Vimeo. You can rent the film for the very affordable cost of $1.00.

   Here's some good evidence about how NAFTA undermines farmers, not only  domestically, but also in the countries where we " free trade" This article from The Nation focuses on pigs, who eat corn.  For nearly two decades, Smithfield has used NAFTA and the forces it unleashed to become the world’s largest packer and processor of […]

Last month, the New York Times staff photographer Todd Heisler and a reporter, Damien Cave, set off on an ambitious journey to travel up Interstate 35, chronicling how the middle of America is being changed by immigration. Check out their journey HERE!