We dedicate this report to two of AJP’s founders:
who shared the conviction that farmworkers and farmers are inextricably connected: neither group will ever gain fair working conditions and economic stability without the other.
Nelson insisted a food system that honors human rights would require “a total change of direction,” and he always made sure we listened to and honored the voices of farmworkers themselves.
Michael brought us the slogan from RAFI—“for all who labor in agriculture”—and never tired of reminding the organic movement that we cannot “reach the shores of sustainability on environmental stewardship alone. We must have justice.”
Both of them kept the faith that it is not too late to get it right.
Acknowledgments#
The Agricultural Justice Project has been a collective project made possible by contributions from many people over almost thirty years. We are grateful to everyone who took part, from occasional collaborators to long-time partners. Special thanks to our partner organizations:
Comité de Apoyo a los Trabajadores Agrícolas/Farmworker Support Committee (CATA)
Northeast Organic Farming Association (NOFA)
Rural Advancement Foundation-International (RAFI-USA)
Thank you to the many other organizations, organizers, and supporters who advanced this work with us at different times and in different ways. We are truly grateful to all the many people whose shared effort made AJP happen, including
Alachua County Good Food Communities
Centro Campesino
Community to Community Development (C2C)
Clif Bar
Dr. Bronners
Familias Unidas por la Justicia (FUJ)
Farm Aid
Farmworker Association of Florida (FWAF)
Florida Organic Growers (FOG)
Food Chain Workers Alliance (FCWA)
Food Justice at UF campaign
Ford Foundation
Fundación RENACE
HEAL Food Alliance
Líderes Campesinas
Lundbergh Rice
MacArthur Foundation
National Cooperative Grocers Association (NCG)
New Visions
Ohio Ecological Food and Farm Association (OEFFA)
Organic Valley/CROPP Cooperative
Presbyterian Hunger Program
Quality Certification Services (QCS)
Real Organic Project (ROP)
Richard W. Rupp Family Foundation
United Farm Workers (UFW)
Wildseeds Fund
The Agricultural Justice Project also owes a special debt of gratitude to Leah Cohen, our long-time General Coordinator. Leah embraced AJP’s transformative vision and did everything in her power to help realize it. She carried our coalition through recurring periods of low resources, persevering because of her deep commitment to frontline workers and farmers. The work we document in this report benefited greatly from Leah’s careful leadership, moral compass, and rigorous commitment to honesty, transparency, and accountability.