Lucas Benitez Excerpt from the 2008 Bioneers Conference
Bioneers | Published: April 1, 2024 Food and FarmingJustice Video
Lucas Benitez was born in Guerrero, Mexico and moved to Immokalee, Florida at the age of 16, to do the grueling work of picking tomatoes earning sub-poverty wages. In 1996, Lucas and a few other farmworkers were in the early stages of organizing the CIW when a fellow farmworker came to them still bleeding from the beating he had received from a crew boss for taking a break to get a drink of water. His bloody shirt became a rallying flag for the CIW. In this excerpt of his keynote presentation at a Bioneers Conference, Lucas talks about some of the horrendous working conditions and lack of human rights that farmworkers endure.