Jobs with Justice
I just had the privilege of picketing with the Immokalee workers (CIW) who are trying to get Chipotle to join McDonald’s and Yum Brands working with them to improve farm labor conditions, especially for those who pick the tomatoes in Florida. These workers are paid at the same rate they were in 1980 (45 cents per 32 lb bucket which means they have to pick 2.5 TONs of tomatoes just to earn minimum wage in a typical 10 hour day.
Joining them led my thoughts to just how easily we are “Greenwashed” by corporations so that we can ignore the deep chasms of injustice in our food production and distribution. Chipotle touts its natural meats and that is good for the cows and chickens and pigs who come to their final rest in our burritos. But it resists addressing the human wage justice for those who harvest the other stuff. And so do we. Though most of us Greens would say we want it to be different. There are so many contradictions built into the systems in which we live. You want to support Chipotle for providing open range meats but then other injustice jumps out in front of you in another form. And then there is the question of the carbon footprint of shipping tomatoes from Florida instead of growing them here in Colorado. And of course meats no matter how raised have a huge carbon footprint over vegetarian foods. The Congress, populated by members who are dependent on campaign contributions from Corporations who don’t want to even be required to put the production locations on products, is unable to help consumers to make good choices regarding these issues. And the Republicans continue to say that no regulations constraining and regulating producers should be made if capitalism is to provide the best price for the consumer.
It felt good to stand with CIW in front of the Chipotle Main Office in LoDo to attempt to help them in their long term struggle for some justice. I wanted to say in Spanish, “Yo estoy aqui porque todos in Parti de Verde estan con sus por justicia, por suelos justos, porque somos todos una humanidad” but I can’t think that fast in Spanish and you who do are probably laughing at it right now. I hope you will join with CIW in its future efforts and in getting todos ciudadanos in Colorado registrar en Parti Verde .a Septiembre 2008. Register Green Now!
