Toxic Free NC has the recipe for a successful nonprofit. Ingredients include: dedicated workers, creative enthusiasm, and a relevant cause. This North Carolina non-profit organization is the only NGO in the state that works for pesticide reform – in both policy and general practice. I worked specifically with their farmworker advocacy initiative over the summer of 2009. Although the maltreatment of farmworkers is prevalent all across the country, it is particularly harsh in the south. North Carolina has the fastest growing Latino population in the United States. Currently, there are over 150,000 farmworkers and over 1,200 registered labor camps. Pesticides surround migrant laborers during their long days of agricultural work and accompany them home afterward. Throughout a summer of working with Toxic Free NC, I was able to make deep and meaningful relationships with many men in the farmworker community of Central North Carolina through story collection and documentary work. I was supported by Student Action with Farmworkers and One Economy Corporation in my documentary work.
In an interview, a farmworkers subject told me the following statement:
“Aquí los patrones no quieren gente que platique. No queiren gente que sepa. Ellos quieren esclavos, que les hagan el trabajo, machinas. … nosotros no pensamos, no sentimos, no mas trabajamos.”
“Here the bosses don’t want workers who chitchat. They don’t want workers who are knowledgeable. They want slaves, who will get the job done, like machines…. We don’t think, we don’t feel, we just work.”
Farmworkers face many struggles, from poor wages to long hours to constant pesticide exposure. Toxic Free NC is fighting with them in solidarity to reform pesticide laws for a safer workplace for both them and the people who consume they food they pick.
