Migrant Farmworker

‘There is slavery in the fields of North Carolina’
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‘There is slavery in the fields of North Carolina’

I’ll never forget something that advocate and former farmworker Leticia Zavala said to me during an interview. “There is slavery in the fields of North Carolina.” She said it almost in passing, as part of a larger laundry list of abusive and deadly conditions experienced by farmworkers in the state as part of the H-2A…

LISTEN: Lisbeth Iglesias-Ríos on advocating for migrant farmworkers’ rights
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LISTEN: Lisbeth Iglesias-Ríos on advocating for migrant farmworkers’ rights

Dr. Lisbeth Iglesias-Ríos joins the Agents of Change in Environmental Justice podcast to discuss why we must advocate for better workplace conditions for the people who grow our food.  Iglesias-Ríos, researcher at the University of Michigan and a co-investigator of the Michigan Farmworker Project, also talks about being raised by two strong women, her winding…

Debunking myths key to understanding and preventing human trafficking
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Debunking myths key to understanding and preventing human trafficking

By Paula Peterson SOUTH LAKE TAHOE, Calif. – The topic of human trafficking becomes a common headline during Super Bowl week and a recent social media post in South Lake Tahoe has unveiled the need for a better understanding of the topic. The Polaris Project is a non-profit dedicated to the support of human trafficking…

Georgia senator used farm labor contractors linked to trafficking case – USA Today
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Georgia senator used farm labor contractors linked to trafficking case – USA Today

Operation Blooming Onion is among the largest criminal prosecutions of labor trafficking of foreign farmworkers. Cogdell Berry Farm hired labor contractors whose Georgia homes were searched, money seized in the investigation. Sen. Russ Goodman, who owns the farm with his father-in-law, said he would investigate the situation. A Georgia state senator running for reelection as a farmer…

Ryan Sims: Immigrants can solve the growing labor shortage facing North Carolina farms
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Ryan Sims: Immigrants can solve the growing labor shortage facing North Carolina farms

N.C. Farm Bureau President Shawn Harding recently observed that many of our state’s and country’s economic challenges stem from labor shortages that have largely gone unaddressed, calling on policymakers to “fix our labor issues or at least talk about how we can fix our labor issues.” As a pastor in High Point who has witnessed…

Farm labor traffickers bribed Georgia government employees, federal agent testifies
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Farm labor traffickers bribed Georgia government employees, federal agent testifies

The agent testified that bribery was linked to approval of farmworker housing, a key step in bringing seasonal workers in the U.S. Prosecutors say the organization targeted by Blooming Onion subjected workers to degrading living conditions, including housing them in cramped trailers The investigation has led to criminal prosecutions against 28 defendants charged with forced…

‘Beyond troubling’: Current, former government officials tied to human trafficking probe in Georgia
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‘Beyond troubling’: Current, former government officials tied to human trafficking probe in Georgia

Farmworker advocates linked to human trafficking and forced labor in Georgia Two Georgia labor officials whose jobs involved protecting or advocating for farmworkers have links to one of the largest U.S. human trafficking cases ever prosecuted involving foreign agricultural laborers brought here on seasonal visas. One individual indicted in the case, Brett Donovan Bussey, left…