Gerardo Reyes Chavez
In A Nutshell
Greg Asbed and Gerardo Reyes have developed an innovative business model that partners corporations, farmers, and farmworkers to stop abuses and exploitation of the labor force in American fields.
About Gerardo
Gerardo Reyes Chavez is a key leader of the Coalition of Immokalee Workers’ (CIW), mobilizing communities across the world to advocate for the rights of exploited workers. Through CIW’s Fair Food Program, Gerardo has facilitated unique partnerships among farmers, farmworkers, and retail food companies to ensure humane wages and working conditions for the workers on the participating farms. Gerardo leads workers’ rights education programs, as well as managing the complexities of complaints of abuses in the fields, wage theft claims, and investigating cases of modern-day slavery. He has spoken publicly about the Fair Food Program at events such as Harvard Law School’s Labor and Worklife Program Convening on Farm Labor Challenges and the Interfaith Council on Corporate Responsibility’s Multi-stakeholder Roundtable on Ethical Recruitment. Gerardo is a 2018 Aspen Institute Ricardo Salinas Scholar.
Learn More
Greg and Gerardo on the TEDMED Blog
“Florida Farmworkers Push for Fairness in the Fields.” Inequality. 2018.
Gerardo Reyes Chavez on Worker Driven Reforms. Aspen Institute. 2018.
“Workers’ Rights Activists Tell Students, ‘Human rights are possible, but not a given’.” Yale Law School. 2017.
Making Corporations Pay. TEDxFruitvale. 2011.
Call to Action
The Fair Food Program needs you! Become a Fair Food Program Sustainer and join the growing Fair Food Nation today.
Video: https://www.youtube.com/watch?time_continue=60&v=Ny9YaJczqjY
Additional Resources:
Books:
Devil in the Grove — Establishes the historical context of today’s farm labor exploitation.
I Am Not a Tractor — Most comprehensive analysis available today of the CIW's history and the unique success of the Fair Food Program in fighting generational farm labor abuse.
Films/Videos:
Harvest of Shame — Classic 1960 Edward R Murrow/CBS documentary, establishes historical context of today’s farm labor exploitation.
CNN Freedom Project — CNN’s special report on Fair Food Program
Food Chains (Netflix) — A James Beard Award-winning documentary on the CIW's Campaign for Fair Food
Rape in the Fields (plus 5-minute web exclusive “A Voice for Workers" on the CIW and the Fair Food Program), PBS/Frontline — Excellent look at the epidemic of sexual violence in agriculture, and, in a short, additional, web exclusive, at the FFP’s unique success in ending sexual violence.
Websites:
ciw-online.org - the online home of our organization, the Coalition of Immokalee Workers.
fairfoodprogram.org - the place to learn all you can about the Fair Food Program.
Articles:
Lessons for Hollywood's women from tomato pickers in Florida (Public Radio International)
Audacious Philanthropy: Audacious Social-Change Initiatives of the Past Century (Harvard Business Review)
In Florida Tomato Fields, a Penny Buys Progress (New York Times)
