Community
Food and labour justice for all: a public invitation
Buying locally? Thank migrant farmworkers. At a time of international precarity brought on by tariffs and geopolitical instability, supporting local economies is top of mind, but the workers behind those goods are not.
Thousands of migrant farm workers, whose hands and bodies are at the frontline of protecting Canadian food security and uplifting Canada鈥檚 agricultural sector, face disproportionate food insecurity, are denied access to permanent residency, and are frequently injured or ill due to the back鈥慴reaking and hazardous work. Closed work permits tie them to a single employer, preventing them from changing jobs and leaving them vulnerable to deportation for speaking up about abuses or poor conditions.
These structural conditions led the UN Special Rapporteur on contemporary forms of slavery to describe Canada鈥檚 Temporary Foreign Worker Programs as 鈥渁 breeding ground for contemporary forms of slavery.鈥�
Global conversations around migrant farmworkers鈥� rights have led to the creation of Migrant Farmworker Awareness Week, which aims to inform the public, raise awareness, and propel change and collective action. The event which has a long history in the United States but is not widely observed in Canada.
In 2026, this changes. Thanks to two 天美mv天美 faculty members and their community collaborators, will be observed for the first time in B.C. from March 23-31.
Leading this progress are Dr. Evelyn Encalada Grez (Assistant Professor, 天美mv天美 Labour Studies) and Dr. Tammara Soma (Associate Professor, 天美mv天美 School of Resource & Environmental Management). Soma co-founded the , Canada鈥檚 first social innovation lab tackling food loss and food waste. Encalada Grez is co-founder of Justice for Migrant Workers in Ontario, which was the first organization in Canada to observe Migrant Farmworker Awareness Week.
Together, Grez and Soma are committed to bringing this important movement to 天美mv天美 and to B.C. Working in collaboration with community organizations such as , Justicia BC, the , the , and , there will be a series of events and in鈥慶lass lectures from March 23 to 31 at 天美mv天美, UBC, and KPU, as well as activities with migrant farmworkers in rural townships.
天美mv天美鈥檚 key event, , on March 26, 2026, will be in-person, free, and open to the public. This very special event will feature Gabriel Allahdua, a former migrant farmworker from St. Lucia and author of Harvesting Freedom: The Life of a Migrant Worker in Canada, and Aara贸n D铆az Mendiburo, an anthropologist and filmmaker from the National Autonomous University of Mexico.
