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Harvest of Justice 2023 Resources Now Available

Julie Taylor
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Farmworkers pick strawberries at Lewis Taylor Farms, which is co-owned by William L. Brim and Edward Walker who have large scale cotton, peanut, vegetable and greenhouse operations in Fort Valley, GA, on May 7, 2019. Mr. Brim talks about the immigration and disaster relief challenges following Hurricane Michael. USDA helped this farm with the Farm Service Agency (FSA) Emergency Conservation Program (ECP) for structural damage cleanup. He also mentions the importance of having Secretary Sonny Perdue, a person with agricultural background, come visit and listen to 75 producers six months ago, in southern Georgia. The farm’s operation includes bell peppers, cucumbers, eggplant, squash, strawberries, tomatoes, cantaloupe, watermelon and a variety of specialty peppers on 6,500 acres; and cotton and peanuts on 1,000 acres. Near the greenhouses is a circular crop of long-leaf pines seedlings under a pivot irrigation system equipped with micro sprinklers. Long-leaf pines are an indigenous tree in the Southeast. Growers are working to increase the number of this slower growing hearty hardwood tree in this region. USDA Photo by Lance Cheung. Original public domain image from Flickr

NFWM’s annual Harvest of Justice resources are now available for you to use and share with your communities. The 2023 theme is “Farm Workers & Racism: The Struggle for Justice, Respect, & Fair Pay.”

From slavery to sharecropping to exclusions in labor laws, our food system is rooted in racism. Today, our nation’s farm workers continue to face challenges and risks connected to this legacy. Weekly topics include a history of racism in agriculture, environmental racism, modern day slavery, and more. We encourage you to follow the complete 6-week program or choose what works best for your community.

Harvest of Justice is an annual educational program that provides resources including information sheets, videos, and social media content so that you can help your faith community learn about issues affecting farm workers. Harvest of Justice is an opportunity to raise consciousness, commitment, and contributions.

The Harvest of Justice Season falls between Labor Day and World Food Day (Sept. 5 – Oct. 16, 2022). Labor Day in America focuses on our country’s labor movement and the many ways that US workers have given their toil to make our country prosper. Farm workers are among them. It is a fitting beginning to the Harvest of Justice season. And we end with World Food Day, an annual recognition of the Food and Agriculture Organization of the United Nations’ founding in 1945. Primarily observed by organizations concerned with food security, we recognize that many farm workers are themselves in need of food even though they work to feed our nation.

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