Sean Sellers
Sean Sellers, a founding member of the Alliance for Fair Food, is raising awareness on farmworkers' rights and promoting socially responsible purchasing by food corporations.
Florida farmworkers are among the most impoverished, least protected workers in the U.S. Conditions in the fields include sub-poverty wages, no right to organize, and no benefits whatsoever. In the most extreme cases, workers face situations of forced labor and modern-day slavery. The human rights crisis is as severe as it is well-documented.
Fortunately, the Coalition of Immokalee Workers (CIW) is leading an effort to bring about a new day in Florida agriculture. Since 2001, the CIW has partnered with consumers nationwide to pressure large buyers of Florida tomatoes—companies such as Yum Brands, McDonald's and Burger King—to pay a premium price for more fairly harvested tomatoes and to require higher labor standards from their Florida-based tomato suppliers. In time, this initiative will raise the wage floor for thousands of migrant farm laborers and end Florida's harvest of shame.
