[oldembed src="https://www.youtube.com/embed/MZBTjY_PR5I" width="425" height="215" resize="1" fid="21"]
In honor of World Food Day Monday, the United Farm Workers launched an action alert to help spread the word about the issues related to world hunger and to thank the farmers who feed the world. UFW and other groups are also lobbying Congress on a set of issues related to food and farming.
Dozens of organizations are partners in supporting World Food Day. They are asking supporters to e-mail Congress to support a set of goals that would help lessen world hunger, improve health and farm working conditions and increase food security:
The United Farm Workers action alert:
An unprecedented number of consumers across America are questioning the system that puts food on their tables. From examining high fructose corn syrup to buying local to tracking food miles to supporting organic production, consumers are demanding more sustainable sources of food. Yet all too often, farm workers are left out of this discussion.
In California, farm workers have literally been paying with their lives when their employers fail to provide shade and drinking water during extreme temperatures. Nationally, farm workers die in workplace incidents five times more often than non-agricultural workers. Agriculture for most farm workers is hardly a sustainable profession.
Yet it should be, as we depend upon farm workers to put the wine, milk, fruits, vegetables and other products on our tables every day.
Today, consumers around the country are celebrating Food Day. Please add our voice to this movement for a healthier, more nutritious, just, humane and sustainable food supply. We ask that you take a moment not only to remember but to thank the workers who are in the fields rain or shine, hot or cold, to make sure our families enjoy the rich bounty of food we have come to expect.
We’ve drafted a message below you can send to farm workers. We encourage you to personalize that message. We’ll take your responses, print them and distribute them to the thousands of UFW members across the U.S. so they know how important you think they are in creating a more just food system.
