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There is a wide variety of resources available to aid you and your congregation in exploring how your faith relates to your relationship with farmworkers.
Farmworker Factsheets
These two-page factsheets provide up-to-date statistics, graphs, and dates about current farmworker demographics, economic contributions, immigration-related issues, and health concerns. Free hard copies are available in English and Spanish.
- Facts about North Carolina Farmworkers
- Farmworkers’ Vital Contribution to North Carolina’s Economy
- Farmworkers and Immigration
- North Carolina Farmworker Health Facts
- United States Farmworker Factsheet
Curricula for Group Study
- Hands of Harvest, Hearts of Justice: North Carolina farmworker issues in a biblical context (a curriculum for faith communities)
- Becoming the Church Together: Immigration, the Bible, and our New Neighbors
- For You Were Once a Stranger: Immigration in the U.S. through the Lens of Faith
Speakers
If you would be interested in having someone come to speak to your congregation, please fill out the speaker request form on Student Action with Farmworkers’ website.
Short Films and Documentary Work
Harvest of Dignity (2011)
By Minnow Media in collaboration with the Farmworker Advocacy Network. Revisiting Edward R. Murrow’s Harvest of Shame (1960) a half century later, Harvest of Dignity focuses on the lives and work of farmworkers in North Carolina, providing an in-depth portrait of the people who harvest our food today. Study guide available online.
Harvest of Shame (1960)
By Edward R. Murrow and CBS News. Harvest of Shame was an influential television documentary presented on CBS by broadcast journalist Edward R. Murrow that showed the US public the plight of migrant agricultural workers along the East Coast.
Our Forgotten Neighbors (2011)
By the Farmworker Advocacy Network and the Center for Documentary Studies at Duke University. Our Forgotten Neighbors describes the major issues that farmworkers face in North Carolina and the work of the Farmworker Advocacy Network with a focus on child labor in the fields and how faith communities are involved with farmworker advocacy.
Student Action with Farmworkers’ Documentary Projects
Student Action with Farmworkers has made selections from their student oral history and photography projects available online. Project themes include farmworkers’ memories of home, education, and work.
The Costs & Joys of Discipleship: Forty Years of the National Farm Worker Ministry (2011)
To celebrate its 40th anniversary, the National Farm Worker Ministry produced a short documentary project from interviews with people of faith who have been involved with the farmworker movement over the last several decades. Discussion guide available online.
Books and Other Publications
Christians at the Border: Immigration, the Church, and the Bible (2008) by M. Daniel Caroll R.
Christians at the Border provides biblical and ethical guidance for readers who are looking for a Christian perspective on immigration. As both Guatemalan and American, the author has immersed himself in this issue and is uniquely qualified to write about it. Drawing on key biblical ideas, he speaks to both the immigrant culture and the host culture, arguing that both sides have much to learn about the debate.
Fast Food Nation: The Dark Side of the All-American Meal (2001) by Eric Schlosser
Fast Food Nation tells the story of the US and the world’s infatuation with fast food, from its origins in 1950s southern California to the global triumph of a handful of burger and fried chicken chains. Schlosser visits the labs where scientists re-create the smell and taste of everything—from cooked meat to fresh strawberries; talks to the workers with some of the worst safety records in the world; explains exactly where the meat comes from and just why the fries taste so good; and looks at the way the fast food industry is transforming not only our diet but our landscape, economy, workforce, and culture.
Nuestras Historias, Nuestros Sueños/Our Stories, Our Dreams (2008) by Student Action with Farmworkers and the Center for Documentary Studies at Duke University
Nuestras Historias, Nuestros Sueños/Our Stories, Our Dreams uses the documentary arts to amplify the voices of Latino migrant youth and their families about their hopes and dreams for the future. The bilingual publication is complemented by a traveling exhibit. Contact SAF to host the exhibit or receive a copy of the publication.
Tangled Routes: Women, Work, and Globalization on the Tomato Trail (2002) by Deborah Barndt
Tangled Routes follows a corporate tomato from a Mexican field through the US to a Canadian table, examining in its wake the dynamic relationship between production and consumption, work and technology, health and environment, bio-diversity and cultural diversity.
The Human Cost of Food: Farmworkers’ Lives, Labor, and Advocacy (2002) edited by Charles D. Thompson, Jr. & Melinda F. Wiggins
The Human Cost of Food addresses major factors that affect farmworkers’ lives while offering practical strategies for action on farmworker issues. Focusing on workers in the Southeast United States, a previously understudied region, they cover a range of issues, from labor organizing, to the rise of agribusiness, to current health, educational, and legal challenges faced by farmworkers. Contact SAF to order a copy.
The Latino Migration Experience in North Carolina: New Roots in the Old North State (2010) by Hannah Gill
The Latino Migration Experience in North Carolina offers North Carolinians from all walks of life a better understanding of their Latino neighbors, bringing light instead of heat to local and national debates on immigration. Exploring the larger social forces behind demographic shifts, Gill shows both how North Carolina communities are facing the challenges and opportunities presented by these changes and how migrants experience the economic and social realities of their new lives.
The Ministry of the Dispossessed: Learning from the Farm Worker Movement (1987) by Patricia Hoffman
The Ministry of the Dispossessed provides a history of and justification for faith community involvement with the farmworker movement in the 1970s and the formation of the National Farm Worker Ministry.