Lettuce be Friends....

Lettuce....

An unassuming vegetable that most people never give a second thought to. There is regular old Iceberg lettuce, Bibb lettuce, Leaf lettuce, and some varieties that my sons call “leaves and twigs” because they look like something you can find in the backyard. Less than 100 years ago, our forebears didn't have the option of fresh lettuce for their meals. The only people who ate fresh lettuce were those funny people down the street who grew it in their home garden. Today, lettuce is something that most Americans can buy at the local grocery store or can chose from the salad bar at their favorite fast food restaurant. But where does that lettuce come from? How does it get to us? And who in the heck is Cesar Chavez and what does he have to do with the quality of the lettuce in my salad?

Cesar Chavez was a migrant farm worker from a family who lost their farm in the Great Depression. Beginning in the 1930s, they followed the harvest through California and Arizona in order to earn a living for the family. Cesar's friends and family never saw him as an out of the ordinary person. He finished school in the 7^th grade, which was not unusual for someone like him then. He joined the Navy at the age of 17 to fight in WWII. His military career broadened his horizons somewhat, so that when he returned home he saw that nothing had changed for his family or other migrant families since he had left them. Something in Cesar told him that the only way things could get better for migrant workers was if the workers themselves stopped being afraid of the owners of the fields and stood up for their rights. He started out as a community organizer, but soon realized that the migrant workers needed to unionize if they were to be able to attain the pay and benefits that they deserved. So he used his own life savings to start the National Farm Workers Association (which later became the United Farm Workers union). Suddenly, this passion for helping his family became his life work. He traveled all over to different migrant camps teaching the workers how to come together and form groups. He helped them to realize that there was strength in numbers and that the farmers needed them as much as they needed the farmers. The road was a bumpy one, and there were many times when it seemed that what they were all working for might not ever happen. But Cesar was their mentor and their leader. His passion transferred itself to them and the workers saw that what he was saying was right. They deserved to be paid for the hard work they did. They deserved to be treated like any other American workers.

One of the strategies they tried was a boycott of the lettuce fields in 1975. Because of that strategy, the California Agricultural Labor Relations Act was signed into law. For the first time in US history it gave migrant workers the right to chose what union they wanted to represent themselves. They chose the United Farm Workers union (no surprise) and went back to the lettuce fields with the knowledge of a victory in their hearts. The UFW was later instrumental in changing the rules and regulations regarding pesticide use in vegetable fields. This not only benefited the workers, but the consumers of lettuce and other vegetables too.

So what has Cesar Chavez got to do with the quality of the lettuce in my salad?

Well, that lettuce is not only healthier for me to eat now than it was years ago, but I can also eat my lettuce with the knowledge that the people who worked in the fields to pick it and get it to my plate are working in better conditions with better pay and benefits than their parents and grandparents had. And that makes it much easier to digest if you ask me.