Women Who Inspire - Part 3

Photo Credit: CIW

Photo Credit: USDA & CIW

By Alex Klug, Assistant Director, HHI

For our last piece in the Women Who Inspire series, our Assistant Director, Alex Klug, will tell us about Lupe Gonzalo:

For this week's newsletter, I want to highlight the voice of one female leader, Lupe Gonzalo, and her work with the Coalition of Immokalee Workers (CIW). Lupe is a tireless and inspirational food system activist who travels the country speaking and training new farmworkers in the field. Early on in my advocacy career, CIW inspired me to advocate for a more just and sustainable food system. Although CIW’s work largely focuses on labor, it speaks to the complex intersectionality of social, environmental, and economic justice in our food system today.

Lupe Gonzalo came to the United States from Guatemala in 2000, seeking new opportunities, and found work as a vegetable picker in the fields of Immokalee, Florida. She quickly realized that things weren’t right. The workers faced inhumane labor practices. For instance, workers weren’t given access to clean drinking water, sometimes being told to wait for the rain to get a drink. Often workers fainted because there was no shade from the hot Florida sun. Additionally, after working over twelve-hour days, pay was sparse, if it came at all, and they returned home with their skin caked in mud and chemicals. Gender violence was also prevalent, with women being sexually assaulted by their employers. This led Lupe to organize the workers creating the CIW.

In its 10th year, the CIW’s Fair Food Program covers over 80,000 farm workers and has uncovered over 9,000 worker violations. In a decade, it has almost eradicated on-the-job sexual violence for female farmworkers. The group has also demanded that grocery store chains and fast food restaurants pay a penny more for a pound of tomatoes to raise worker wages.

What I’ve come to learn from women like Lupe and the CIW organizers is that justice in our food system starts in the field. It begins with how we care for our shared planet and how we care for one another. It begins with our farms, 43% of which are farmed by women worldwide. But demands for justice don’t end there. Lupe’s story prompted me to look deeper into all parts of our food system. From the experiences of female servers to women in supply chain logistics and agribusiness. What became clear is that barriers continue to exist for women, especially in many male-dominated sectors like ag and finance. And while U.S. fair pay movements have achieved more equitable pay for women, these acts have largely benefited white women, leaving women of color far behind. According to the Bureau of Labor Statistics, white women make 83.6% of the income their male counterparts make in the same position, with the same education at the same skill level. For Black women, the rate is 70%, and for Latina women, it’s 65% of what their white male counterparts make.

Inequities in our food and economic systems permeate our communities, creating disparities that can and do lead to hunger. Understanding these inequities as reality is the first step to achieving food justice. I urge all of us to listen to the stories of women like Lupe and consider their experiences at our next meal.