Greg Asbed
Born
Baltimore, Maryland
Education
Known forCoalition of Immokalee Workers
AwardsMacArthur Fellow

Greg Asbed is an American activist, labor organizer, and human rights strategist. He is the co-founder of the Coalition of Immokalee Workers, a worker-based human rights organization based in Immokalee, Florida working to eradicate modern slavery in the Floridian agriculture industry. In 2017 Asbed was named a MacArthur Fellow for "transforming conditions for low-wage workers with a visionary model of worker-driven social responsibility."[1][2]

Early life and education

Asbed is a first-generation Armenian American; his grandmother, Hripsimee, is survivor of the Armenian genocide who was forced into Syria. In a 2017 interview, Asbed connected this fact to his human rights work, stating "I have always felt a certain responsibility, as a bearer of DNA that was forged in the crucible of genocide, to the idea of universal human rights."[2]

Asbed was born in Baltimore and raised in the suburbs of Washington, D.C. His father immigrated to the United States from Kobane to study nuclear physics; his mother is a pediatrician at Johns Hopkins Hospital.[3]

Asbed attended the Landon School and enrolled at Brown University. At Brown he studied neuroscience, graduating with a Bachelor of Science in 1985.[3] After college he spent three years in Haiti where he learned Haitian Creole and became involved with a peasant movement.[2] Upon returning to the U.S., Asbed pursued graduate study at Johns Hopkins University, where he received a Master of Arts degree in 1990.[4]

Coalition of Immokalee Workers

Main article: Coalition of Immokalee Workers

After working with laborers in Pennsylvania and Maryland, Asbed and his wife moved to Immokalee, Florida in 1991.[2] Working with farmworkers, they established the Coalition of Immokalee Workers; at the time of its establishment, the group was one of the nation's first centers dedicated to aiding migrant workers.[5][6] At CIW, Asbed led the development of the Fair Food Program through which companies could pay a small premium for crop purchases in exchange for a commitment from growers to abide by a code of conduct relating to wages and working conditions; participating companies must agree to drop suppliers who violate the standards.[2][6] As of 2017, 90% of tomato growers in Florida participate in the program.[7] The Fair Food Program has been hailed for its success in combating modern slavery in Southwest Florida and hailed as an exemplary paradigm for improving the rights of farmworkers.[6][8][7]

References

  1. ^ "Greg Asbed". www.macfound.org. Retrieved 2022-01-10.
  2. ^ a b c d e Scheiber, Noam (2017-10-18). "A MacArthur 'Genius' on Overcoming Modern Farm Slavery". The New York Times. ISSN 0362-4331. Retrieved 2022-01-10.
  3. ^ a b "From Immokalee Organizer to MacArthur Fellow: Meet Greg Asbed". Cornell University Press. 2017-10-12. Retrieved 2022-01-10.
  4. ^ McDaniels, Andrea K. "Baltimore native and labor activist named MacArthur Fellow". baltimoresun.com. Retrieved 2022-01-10.
  5. ^ Vann, Karine (2018-01-15). "MacArthur Fellow Greg Asbed on the Power of Organizing in Immigrant Communities". The Armenian Weekly. Retrieved 2022-01-10.
  6. ^ a b c Greenhouse, Steven (2014-04-25). "In Florida Tomato Fields, a Penny Buys Progress". The New York Times. ISSN 0362-4331. Retrieved 2022-01-10.
  7. ^ a b Cohen, Lisa (2017-05-30). "How America's 'ground-zero' for modern slavery was cleaned up by workers' group". CNN. Retrieved 2022-01-10.
  8. ^ Burkhalter, Holly (2012-09-02). "Fair Food Program helps end the use of slavery in the tomato fields". Washington Post. ISSN 0190-8286. Retrieved 2022-01-10.
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