I Am Not a Tractor!: How Florida Farmworkers Took On the Fast Food Giants and Won

Susan L. Marquis

ISBN 10: 1501713086 / ISBN 13: 9781501713088

Published by ILR Press, 2017

About this Item

SIGNED and inscribed advance reading copy--visible in photos.

Seller Inventory # 157-SLM

Bibliographic Details

• Title: I Am Not a Tractor!: How Florida Farmworkers Took On the Fast Food Giants and Won
• Publisher: ILR Press
• Publication Date: 2017
• Language: English
• ISBN 10: 1501713086
• ISBN 13: 9781501713088
• Binding: Soft cover
• Edition: 1st Edition
• Condition: Fine
• Signed: Signed by Author(s)

About this title

Synopsis

I Am Not a Tractor! celebrates the courage, vision, and creativity of the farmworkers and community leaders who have transformed one of the worst agricultural situations in the United States into one of the best.

Susan L. Marquis highlights past abuses workers suffered in Florida's tomato fields: toxic pesticide exposure, beatings, sexual assault, rampant wage theft, and even, astonishingly, modern-day slavery. Marquis unveils how, even without new legislation, regulation, or government participation, these farmworkers have dramatically improved their work conditions.

Marquis credits this success to the immigrants from Mexico, Haiti, and Guatemala who formed the Coalition of Immokalee Workers, a neuroscience major who takes great pride in the watermelon crew he runs, a leading farmer/grower who was once homeless, and a retired New York State judge who volunteered to stuff envelopes and ended up building a groundbreaking institution. Through the Fair Food Program that they have developed, fought for, and implemented, these people have changed the lives of more than thirty thousand field workers. I Am Not a Tractor! offers a range of solutions to a problem that is rooted in our nation's slave history and that is worsened by ongoing conflict over immigration.

About the Author

Susan L. Marquis is Dean of the Pardee RAND Graduate School and Vice President of Innovation at the RAND Corporation. She is the author of Unconventional Warfare.