Events focus on migration, fair food policies

At 10 a.m. Saturday, the Resource Center of the Americas, 3019 Minnehaha Ave. S., Minneapolis, will host a coffee hour with Melody Gonzalez, national coordinator of Fair Food Across Borders. She will present “Paying the Price,” a video screening and discussion about the role of agribusiness and internal migration in Mexico, NAFTA, and corporate and consumer responsibility in the United States.

From 1 to 3 p.m. Saturday, Centro Campesino will hold a Farm Worker Awareness Week celebration at the Parkway Theater, 4814 Chicago Ave. S., Minneapolis. Proceeds will benefit Centro Campesino and its work to organize Latino workers in Minnesota.

Starting at 8 p.m. Saturday, an informal gathering and discussion with Melody Gonzalez will be held at the home of Brian Payne. For more information, contact him at brianpayneyvp@gmail.com

It is estimated that there are more than one million migrant farm workers in Mexico. They leave their communities from four to six months a year to work in the fields of northern Mexican states like Sinaloa, where they encounter deplorable and over-crowded housing, exposure to toxic pesticides, child labor, and sub-poverty wages. Much of the produce they harvest is exported to the United States and Canada by transnational agribusiness companies operating under the North American Free Trade Agreement.