Student/Farmworker Alliance

This participatory session will explore the history and future of student/youth leadership and organizing in the national "Campaign for Fair Food," which is led by the farmworker members of the Coalition of Immokalee Workers (CIW). The Student/Farmworker Alliance has been at the forefront of winning some of our generation's biggest victories against corporate greed, including successful campaigns against Taco Bell, McDonald's, and Aramark to improve farmworker wages and working conditions. Through theater, video, and small group discussions, we will delve into our organizing philosophy, how we have applied concepts such as "ally" and "solidarity," what connections the CIW's struggle has with our own objectification, exploitation, and liberation as students and youth, the broader implications of this dynamic, national farmworker solidarity movement for "the movement" as a whole, and what the future holds as we continue our efforts to hold the trillion-dollar corporate food industry responsible for the human rights abuses faced by farmworkers here in the U.S. The Campaign for Fair Food -- in which SFA is a central driving force -- has resulted in 8 major food corporations signing agreements with the CIW to improve farmworkers' wages and working conditions, and is the greatest hope today to transforming the agricultural industry.

In this workshop, participants will delve into a number of issues within our current food system. Environmental degradation, corporate consolidation, oppression, and homogenization have become the hallmarks of our food system. The momentum for change is growing; consumers are demanding more real food, activists from across the globe are linking up, and the buzz is growing all around. On hundreds of college campuses all around the country, the momentum has become a budding movement. This movement, however, lacks common goals, a common framework, and a collective voice. Nor is this movement as diverse and widespread as it should be. If we move strategically and effectively, we can capitalize on the growing energy and bring the many elements of the campus food movement into local, national, and international collaboration, working towards a unified goal of more socially and environmentally conscious food. Our workshop will explore these issues and our role as students in the movement to change our food system. We will share our experiences with successful campaigns and coalition-building, and participants will gain the skills necessary to take matters in their own hands. By addressing how to leverage our individual power through large-scale organizing within the existing framework of higher education, we can begin to move towards a revolution in the way we interact with our food. This workshop will be highly hands-on and participants will leave with not just knowledge but with the tangible skills we need to act on a global scale.

This participatory session will explore the history and future of student/youth leadership and organizing in the national "Campaign for Fair Food," which is led by the farmworker members of the Coalition of Immokalee Workers (CIW). The Student/Farmworker Alliance has been at the forefront of winning some of our generation's biggest victories against corporate greed, including successful campaigns against Taco Bell, McDonald's, and Aramark to improve farmworker wages and working conditions. Through theater, video, and small group discussions, we will delve into our organizing philosophy, how we have applied concepts such as "ally" and "solidarity," what connections the CIW's struggle has with our own objectification, exploitation, and liberation as students and youth, the broader implications of this dynamic, national farmworker solidarity movement for "the movement" as a whole, and what the future holds as we continue our efforts to hold the trillion-dollar corporate food industry responsible for the human rights abuses faced by farmworkers here in the U.S. The Campaign for Fair Food -- in which SFA is a central driving force -- has resulted in 8 major food corporations signing agreements with the CIW to improve farmworkers' wages and working conditions, and is the greatest hope today to transforming the agricultural industry.

In this workshop, participants will delve into a number of issues within our current food system. Environmental degradation, corporate consolidation, oppression, and homogenization have become the hallmarks of our food system. The momentum for change is growing; consumers are demanding more real food, activists from across the globe are linking up, and the buzz is growing all around. On hundreds of college campuses all around the country, the momentum has become a budding movement. This movement, however, lacks common goals, a common framework, and a collective voice. Nor is this movement as diverse and widespread as it should be. If we move strategically and effectively, we can capitalize on the growing energy and bring the many elements of the campus food movement into local, national, and international collaboration, working towards a unified goal of more socially and environmentally conscious food. Our workshop will explore these issues and our role as students in the movement to change our food system. We will share our experiences with successful campaigns and coalition-building, and participants will gain the skills necessary to take matters in their own hands. By addressing how to leverage our individual power through large-scale organizing within the existing framework of higher education, we can begin to move towards a revolution in the way we interact with our food. This workshop will be highly hands-on and participants will leave with not just knowledge but with the tangible skills we need to act on a global scale.