The Slow Food USA Blog

Coalition of Immokalee Workers get Governor’s Support

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As reported on the CIW website, Florida Governor Charlie Crist met with the Coalition of Immokalee Workers yesterday, issuing a statement of support that CIW calls “groundbreaking.”

Many thanks to all of the Slow Food USA members and readers of this blog who wrote emails and letters to Crist’s office.

To read more about the meeting, click here.

Bonus blog highlight! A link to World Hunger Year’s site and Immokalee delegation member Siena Chrisman’s thorough account of the trip.

One piece from her post really gets at how CIW’s work is important not just because of what it is accomplishing for the tomato pickers of Immokalee but the implications for the larger food movement as well:

“Delegation member Jim Goodman, a Wisconsin family farmer, found many similarities between his dairy farming community and the Immokalee workers. His neighbors’ milk prices have remained virtually unchanged since 1978, and their livelihoods are beholden to the market price for milk-in much the same way as the workers are beholden to wages set by the tomato growers. Pointing to the Coalition’s successful grassroots organizing tactics and participatory governance, Goodman said, ‘As a small farmer, I have a lot to learn from this organization.’”