I Am Not a Tractor! - by Susan L Marquis (Hardcover)

About the Book

I Am Not a Tractor! celebrates the courage, vision, and creativity of the farmworkers and community leaders who have transformed one of the worst agricultural situations in the United States into one of the best. Susan L. Marquis highlights past abuses workers suffered in Florida's tomato fields: toxic pesticide exposure, beatings, sexual...

Book Synopsis

I Am Not a Tractor! celebrates the courage, vision, and creativity of the farmworkers and community leaders who have transformed one of the worst agricultural situations in the United States into one of the best.

Susan L. Marquis highlights past abuses workers suffered in Florida's tomato fields: toxic pesticide exposure, beatings, sexual assault, rampant wage theft, and even, astonishingly, modern-day slavery. Marquis unveils how, even without new legislation, regulation, or government participation, these farmworkers have dramatically improved their work conditions.

Marquis credits this success to the immigrants from Mexico, Haiti, and Guatemala who formed the Coalition of Immokalee Workers, a neuroscience major who takes great pride in the watermelon crew he runs, a leading farmer/grower who was once homeless, and a retired New York State judge who volunteered to stuff envelopes and ended up building a groundbreaking institution. Through the Fair Food Program that they have developed, fought for, and implemented, these people have changed the lives of more than thirty thousand field workers. I Am Not a Tractor! offers a range of solutions to a problem that is rooted in our nation's slave history and that is worsened by ongoing conflict over immigration.

Review Quotes

I Am Not a Tractor: How Florida Farmworkers Took on Fast Food Giants and Won provides an interesting and clearly written account of how a group of migrant tomato workers developed an innovative and unique approach

-- "Relations Industrielles"

A scholarly study of an effort by Florida farmworkers to improve working conditions by building partnerships along the supply chain. In the United States, the majority of consumers give little thought to where their food comes from. On that score alone, Marquis (Unconventional Warfare: Rebuilding U.S. Special Operation Forces, 1997), vice president of innovation for the RAND Corporation, does good service with this exploration of labor organization in the tomato fields of Florida.... A solid work of labor history that offers valuable lessons for other activists and organizers.

-- "Kirkus Reviews"

Describes the critical figures behind these campaigns, the challenges of monitoring workplace conditions, and the role of labor reformers in ensuring that growers uphold code-of-conduct agreements, pointing out that the agreements represent a major advance for workers. This is a moving story at a time when the capitalist class typically fights, rather than negotiates with, labor organizations.

-- "Choice"

Marquis brings in a fresh perspective to the issue of agricultural labor and provides an important update on the progress of CIW and their FFP in recent years.... Marquis' book is well-researched, engaging, and layered. A major strength of the book is the deep-dive into all the important stages that have led to CIW's successes.

-- "Agriculture and Human Values"

Marquis' book is well-researched, engaging, and layered. A major strength of the book is the deep-dive into all the important stages that have led to CIW's successes.

-- "Springer Nature"

With the publication of I Am Not a Tractor, the field now has the definitive description of what a worker-driven social responsibility initiative...looks like.

-- "ILR Review"

About the Author

Susan L. Marquis is Dean of the Pardee RAND Graduate School and Vice President of Innovation at the RAND Corporation. She is the author of Unconventional Warfare.