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Projects in Mexico |
There are several simple actions that you can take to improve the dismal circumstances of the binational farmworker community. Below are some suggestions:
• Become informed. Educate yourself about Green Revolution Technology and NAFTA. The corporate media is remarkably silent about the impact that Green Revolution technologies and the North American Free Trade Agreement have had on the binational farmworker community. The connection between increased immigration flows from Mexico and NAFTA are almost never made. Purchase The Farmworkers’ Journey and become informed about the issues. Then consider some of the books on our Recommended Reading list. • Educate yourself about the agro and industrial chemicals that farmworkers and, to a lesser degree, produce consumers are regularly exposed to. Stay updated on the issue at the Pesticide Action Network, Beyond Pesticides and Greenpeace Mexico. • Educate yourself about how U.S.-based transnational corporations are compromising the health of the rural poor by promoting addictive health-compromising products while making huge profits, all over the planet. Visit Stop Killer Coke and Beyond Pesticides. • Include Social Justice and Human Rights in Organic Certification. Many U.S. consumers of organic produce assume that social justice and human rights standards are included in the sustainable agriculture/organic production process. In fact, fair treatment of workers is not a prerequisite for organic certification. Visit the USDA National Organic Program. Locate your local organic certifier and request that social justice and human rights standards be included in the organic certification process. • Contact your local congressional and state representatives and express your interest in the following: a just immigration reform, renegotiating NAFTA to include the replacement of “free trade” with fair trade standards, developing an enforcement mechanism to hold U.S.-originating transnational corporations accountable for health and environmental damage, curtailing U.S. farm subsidies that put Mexican subsistence and small producer farmers out of business. Purchase fair trade products such as fair trade Mexican and Costa Rican coffee. Fair trade shade-grown coffee can be purchased online from the Community Agroecology Network. All profit goes directly to the Mexican and Costa Rican coffee growers, thereby providing a sustainable livelihood for these farmers in their home countries while protecting the forest habitat of migrating birds. See also Recommended Reading |
