Cesar Chavez was a Mexican American social justice leader for migrant farmworkers during the twentieth century. When Chavez was young, he and his family lost everything in the Great Depression of the 1930’s. They made a new living as migrant farmworkers, working hard in the fields and spending little time in one place. Working conditions were often harsh and unsafe, wages were extremely low, and Chavez and his family often lacked basic needs such as clean water. Chavez learned early from his life experiences and his mother’s teachings about justice, or the lack of it in their situation.
Mexican American farmworkers were often treated unfairly because of racism. The fact that there were many migrant workers available to work meant they were considered easily replaceable. Migrant workers continually journeyed across the Mexican border in search for better work, and growers continuously took advantage of this situation. Furthermore, growers did not feel responsible to offer sanitary housing, running water, and other necessities poor migrant farmworkers lacked. Chavez’s childhood experiences had a big impact on his moral character, and he grew up with a passion to fight the serious social injustices he and many others like him faced.
In Jesuit Thomas Massaro’s book, Living Justice: Catholic Social Teaching in Action, one of the nine key themes of Catholic social teaching is the dignity and rights of every human person. Every person is conceived with equal worth and dignity, and with that comes a number of fundamental rights. Still, our free choices allow inequality to continue in this world and for the human dignity and rights of particular groups of human beings, in this case migrant farmworkers, to be denied. Massaro also lists the dignity of work and the rights of workers as one of the nine themes of Catholic social teaching. The United States grants its citizens basic work rights including a minimum wage, a safe work environment, the right to healthcare, and the right to organize a union. These rights are for all workers, not just citizens of the United States. They should be protected for all noncitizens, including many illegal migrant farmworkers, and be enforced by local government in an unbiased way. Furthermore, migrant farmworkers do a great service to the American people by fulfilling a need. Not many well-to-do Americans choose to get involved in agriculture and harvest the food that they consume daily. We, as a society, should at least treat migrant farmworkers with the same respect and dignity we show our citizens.
Cesar Chavez’s moral vision for change envisioned the fair and honest treatment of migrant farmworkers by growers, especially the larger agricultural conglomerations. He gathered together other farmworkers in efforts that eventually developed into a farmworker’s union to represent those individuals at the bottom of the agrofood system who could not otherwise defend themselves. Other strategies to fight these powerful corporations include swaying the public’s conscience to boycott specific food products of particular growers. The grape boycott during the 1960’s was very successful in persuading over 17 million Americans to avoid buying products from growers who refused to give their field laborers fair and ethical treatment in the workplace. The consequences of this boycott temporarily won the United Farm Workers (UFW) union part of the battle to gain farmworkers valuable 2-year contracts with growers. Some of these contracts "banned the use of DDT, DDE, Dieldrin on crops, years before the federal government acted," according to Cesar Chavez in his Wrath of Grapes speech in 1986.
Today many of the injustices Cesar Chavez experienced when he was young and fought against as he grew older still exist. His efforts to fight social injustice and regain migrant farmworkers’ human dignities and rights continue today through the UFW, as well as a number of more recently developed organizations. For example, Chavez’s moral vision continues today in ALBA (Agriculture and Land-Based Training Association) in the Salinas Valley of California. ALBA is a nonprofit organization dedicated towards promoting and educating farmworkers to become small organic farmers. If Cesar Chavez was alive today, he would probably be working for social justice by means of promoting organic farming methods. Growing crops organically would mean many improvements for migrant farmworkers and consumers when it comes to the large concern about pesticide use. Field labor is harsh enough on the physical body, but farmworkers are consistently exposed to toxic pesticides that increase their job related health risks significantly. Pesticide residues found on foods in the store concern many consumers about potential long-term health implications they may cause. Growing certified organic also means a shift towards balancing the natural environmental ecosystems in the short and long-term.
ALBA specializes in el Programa Educativo para Pequeños Agricultores (PEPA), a free six-month course that educates primarily low-income Hispanics who want to start their own certified organic farms. It caters to an invisible part of the population, migrant farmworkers, who are subject to many injustices and who want to start their own farms with the little resources they have. In the U.S., the dangers of pesticide use are more commonly known among fieldworkers and thus more and more individuals are struggling to find jobs less harmful to themselves and to their families. Yet, with little money, little education, and lack of citizenship, it is hard for those individuals to leave their situations. Their status holds them back from improving their lifestyles further. This is why ALBA primarily reaches out to local migrant farmworkers who not only want to improve their status, but also have a moral vision similar to Cesar Chavez’s. ALBA is fulfilling his vision by providing opportunity to those most in need, and by helping to improve the conditions of farmworkers. ALBA is part of a new movement of organic farms versus conventional large-scale farms.
ALBA supports more than just organic farming techniques. It supports the original idea of what it means to grow organic foods in a community. It supports the interaction between smaller family farms and the consumers. Growing truly organically means building a sense of community and trust between producers and consumers. Large corporations are not as trustworthy as small farms for a variety of reasons. Mainly, small farmers are more connected to the land and have an important sense of consciousness for the land, the people who work the land, and the consumers who feed off the land. Community trust increases awareness of not only the potential hazards of farming techniques, but of the migrant farmworkers who are often invisible in American society. Community trust builds a relationship that can be very beneficial to all sides and can help the public to get involved in solving the common issues associated with agriculture, including the lack of dignity and rights of fieldworkers. ALBA and the movement supporting organic agriculture support a sense of stewardship among all individuals in the community. Everybody in the community has a duty ultimately towards healthy support of growers, farmworkers, and the land.
Consumers are a key figure in this movement towards organic farming. The choices consumers make when purchasing food products at the store greatly affect the actions of large agricultural corporations. Consumers ultimately decide what products they want to buy and thus support. A minority of the consumer population consistently supports organically grown products. This minority often consists of upper-class individuals that can "afford" to buy more expensive organic products. This is true because of the way our economy is currently set up. Today, the government subsidizes agricultural conglomerations to produce large amounts "cheap" food. The problem with this is that corporations search for and use the easiest methods to produce their goal without researching the environmental and health costs involved in those processes. The result is large amounts of cheap, unhealthy food products produced for the American public and huge health risks for both farmworkers and consumers. Cheap products involve the use of numerous, potent pesticides, the unethical treatment of farmworkers and the environment, and fattening agents when it comes to the production of meat products. The U.S. economy and government are not properly taking into account the harmful effects of the seemingly simple solution to our need for food.
Consumers can do their part in supporting the shift towards small organic farms by buying products from their local certified organic farms. Consumers who support simply organic products are not necessarily supporting the original meaning of organic farming. Organically grown products found in upper-class stores such as Whole Foods are often imported from undeveloped countries or places thousands of miles away. Supporting true organic products fosters a sense of local community and trust. Also, many "natural" and "organic" products are not necessarily what they seem. The growers may have used some organic techniques or done something minute to make the product appear organic, but are really not abiding by the true meaning of organic. Some growers and retailing stores falsely label their products to help sell them and make them "look" more appealing at the store. It is important that organic consumers are aware of the products they buy and read labels carefully to see if the original growers are local and government certified.
The general education of the public about true organic farming is critical to fueling the organic movement. ALBA does limited outreach to local consumers through its online website. It specialize more in helping trainees to make connections within the community to help support their efforts for growing organically. Still, ALBA has limited resources for outreach. There are many myths about organic farming that need to be overcome through popular education. This is where the government and larger corporations come into play.
They have the power to educate society through general education and advertising. They can also respond to major concerns within society and make major political or product changes that can benefit us as a whole. Ultimately, it is up to the consumers to fuel the process by listening to our moral conscious and questioning what we buy. We cannot rely on government and large corporations to be ethical and make moral judgments on our actions. If Cesar Chavez were alive today, he would argue, as he did in his Wrath of Grapes boycott speech, that consumers hold great power when it comes to lobbying for positive change. He would support community efforts to promote true organic farming as a partial means to solving some of the major issues associated with conventional largescale farming. Supporting true organic farming is a good step in the right direction of promoting good community values while fighting for the rights and dignities of all individuals our communities.
Works Cited
Jensen, Richard J., John C. Hammerback, eds. The Words of Cesar Chavez. Chicago: Texas A&M University Press, 2002.
Massaro, Thomas, S.J. Living Justice: Catholic Social Teaching in Action. Chicago: Sheed & Ward, 2000.
Sayre, Laura. "From the Ground Up." The New Farm. 12 May 2005.
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