I\u2019ve been a farmworker advocate since the days of the Campbell\u2019s Soup boycott<\/a> of the 1980s. Though the campaigns and political actions change, the issues remain much the same. For the past 28 years, my support of farmworker rights to a dignified workplace free from all forms of exploitation including exposure to hazardous pesticides, has been through collaborative work with partners around the country<\/a>. My PAN colleagues have supported this work through our Fair Harvest <\/a>\u00a0campaign and by calling for the support of the Protect America\u2019s Children from Toxic Pesticides Act (PACTPA<\/a>) that would ban pesticides including organophosphate insecticides and paraquat, that pose especially hazardous risks to farmworkers.<\/p>\n Recent work at the national level includes highlighting the efforts of farmworker and farmworker advocacy organizations to push for stronger worker protections in the US Farm Bill\u2014the bill that Congress passes every five or so years which sets the policies that govern the majority of federal farm, food, nutrition, and rural economic programs. At a cost of about $440 billion over five years, these programs influence: what is grown; who grows it; how it is grown or produced; what is done with those products and where they are sold; who can access and afford those goods; and how we invest in rural communities.<\/p>\n Historically, the farm bill has not included food and farmworker rights or protections, most pesticide laws, or the Clean Water and Clean Air Acts\u2014the principle pieces of legislation which govern water quality and pollution control, and air quality and emissions control respectively. About 77% of farm bill funding goes to the nutrition title, primarily the food assistance program (known as SNAP). Other sectors address conservation programs, and supports for crop production\u2014mostly the large commodity crops such as corn, soy, rice and wheat. The Farm Bill has historically ignored the needs of the nation\u2019s 2 million essential farmworkers.<\/p>\n This year, we are especially proud of the work being done to center farmworker justice as part of the Farm Bill negotiations. Partner organizations like Alianza Nacional<\/a>, HEAL Food Alliance<\/a>, and the Coming Clean Collaborative<\/a> have proposed significant marker bills and other policy measures that include farmworker protections. Marker bills\u2014denoted in the list below with asterisks\u2014are smaller bills that signal policy items and garner support for their inclusion in larger omnibus bills (like the Farm Bill). They are an important way to gather support for omnibus bills and allow bipartisan cooperation.<\/p>\n There are two bills before the Agriculture Committees designed to eliminate local and regional governments from providing greater protections to their constituencies than is provided under federal laws. County authorities<\/a> are opposed as are a large and growing number of community organizations. The two bills are: 1) Ending Agricultural Trade Suppression (EATS) Act of 2023<\/b> (H.R.4417<\/a>); and 2) Agricultural Labeling Uniformity Act of 2023 <\/b>(H.R. 4288<\/a>). <\/i>This bill would prohibit local and state governments from enacting pesticide laws that are more protective than federal regulations. It\u2019s no surprise that Bayer and the industry-funded CropLife America<\/a> have made passage of the measure a priority.<\/p>\n By supporting good legislation, opposing bad legislation, and building up a network of supporting organizations, it is our hope that we can collectively move the needle on farmworker rights in the right direction.<\/p>\n Please join us in honoring National Farmworker Awareness Week <\/b>by educating yourself and your community about the injustices faced by farmworkers every day. Our friends at HEAL Alliance have compiled a list of bills that would push the Farm Bill in the right direction, including bills that address farmworker rights. Read this partner list<\/a> and call Congress<\/a> to express your support for these measures. Every year, we partner with Student Action with Farmworkers<\/a> (SAF) to bring critical attention to farmworker struggles. Join us through using their social media toolkit<\/a>!<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":" By supporting good legislation, opposing bad legislation, and building up a network of supporting organizations, it is our hope that we can collectively move the needle on farmworker rights in the right direction.\u00a0<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":48,"featured_media":51413,"template":"","blog_tag":[138,134,135,154,126,130,131],"pan_blog_type":[122],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.panna.org\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/pan_blog\/51412"}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.panna.org\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/pan_blog"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.panna.org\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/pan_blog"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.panna.org\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/48"}],"version-history":[{"count":1,"href":"https:\/\/www.panna.org\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/pan_blog\/51412\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":51414,"href":"https:\/\/www.panna.org\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/pan_blog\/51412\/revisions\/51414"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.panna.org\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/51413"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.panna.org\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=51412"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"blog_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.panna.org\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/blog_tag?post=51412"},{"taxonomy":"pan_blog_type","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.panna.org\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/pan_blog_type?post=51412"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}Current National Policy Work: Bringing farmworkers into the Farm Bill<\/h3>\n
With respect to the current Farm Bill negotiations<\/a>, we collectively call for:<\/h3>\n
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Concurrently, we oppose two BAD bills:<\/h3>\n