Dr. Jess Sparks

Trump Administration Eases Application Process and Lowers Wages for Guest Farmworkers United Farm Workers said the shifts will hurt both migrant and domestic farmworkers. Farm groups praised the changes.

Trump Administration Lowers Wages for Guest Farmworkers

civileats.com/2025/10/06/l...

#NewPaper in Science Advances finds that domestic fishing vessels account for the majority of port visits around the world. Comprehensive inspections at port for both foreign and domestic fishing fleets are a key deterrent for #illegalfishing.

🔗 stanford.io/45LXlB2
📷 Hong Wu/Getty Images

US Importers Sued for ‘Greenwashing’ Mexican Avocados Most avocados sold in the U.S. are imports from Mexico, where farming has environmental and human-rights impacts little known to consumers.

Most avocados sold in the U.S. come from Mexico, where farming methods have serious environmental and human-rights impacts. But importers continue to market the fruit as sustainably grown.

“Even God Cannot Hear Us Here”: What I Witnessed Inside an ICE Women’s Prison Tufts University doctoral student Rümeysa Öztürk opens up about her 45 days in a South Louisiana processing facility—and the generous and compassionate women she met.

A courageous and harrowing account of what it’s like in ICE women’s prison as written by Tufts’ doctoral student Rümeysa Öztürk www.vanityfair.com/news/story/r...

Conceptual framework showing the linkages between climate change and decent work in industrial fisheries.

🚨Our new paper examines how #ClimateChange threatens the achievement of #DecentWork in fishing, underscoring the urgent need for worker-driven, climate-sensitive labor policies. .https://www.sciencedirect.com/science/article/pii/S0308597X25002623#fig0005 @tuftsnutrition.bsky.social

What Deep Cuts to NOAA Mean for U.S. Fisheries

The dismantling of the once expansive agency will not only affect fisheries but also the oceans and weather forecasting. Across the U.S., fishers are already feeling the impact. buff.ly/g7G7JyI

With the Employment Rights Bill going through Parliament right now, we have a singular opportunity to turn the tide on the rampant labour exploitation that migrant workers face in this country.

Our latest video highlights the problems caused by restrictive visa systems, and the essential solutions.

H-2A Guestworker Program Impacted by Stalled USDA Payments, Cuts to USAID Dismantling USAID and freezing USDA support for H-2A guestworker programs mean farmers face a season of uncertainty.

Farmers who received USDA labor grants say they can’t get funding or answers. And, USAID cuts threaten guest worker recruitment more broadly.

H-2A Guestworker Program Impacted by Stalled USDA Payments, Cuts to USAID Dismantling USAID and freezing USDA support for H-2A guestworker programs mean farmers face a season of uncertainty.

Civil Eats Scoop: Farmers who received USDA labor grants say they can’t get funding or answers. And, USAID cuts threaten guest worker recruitment more broadly.

Exploited, recognised as a slavery victim, now facing deportation: one seafarer’s UK ordeal After years of helping Scottish criminal investigations and despite fearing for his life in India, Vishal Sharma’s asylum claim has been rejected

Many migrant fishers like Vishal are falling prey to unscrupulous companies in the UK who are keen to exploit them. www.theguardian.com/environment/...

In feature series, Mexico’s respected daily journal, La Jornada, shows why the Fair Food Program is global beacon of hope La Jornada: Both the administrators and the CIW explain that, in the end, the agreement not only directly benefited the workers but also improved the company's business and reputation.

ciw-online.org/blog/2025/03...

Lucas Benitez, @immokaleeworkers.bsky.social co-founder, on Worker-driven Social Responsibility: “How beautiful it is that we can say: here’s the formula for this medicine and you can adapt it to your reality…”

And FIPs are not tied to an actionable labour governance regime. The same fisher working in sub-standard conditions can put haddock into the MSC approved bucket and nephrops into the FIP under improvement bucket, but the working conditions remain the same. @bethjackson1x.bsky.social

1. Non-binding guidelines do not improve compliance (which is the bare minimum) and do not create a sense of moral obligation to improve. 2. Self-assessments failed to detect ACTUAL cases of #ForcedLabour being investigated by authorities.

The illusion of social improvements: A case study of the role of Fishery Improvement Projects (FIPs) in fairwashing the UK Nephrops fishery Fishery improvement projects (FIPs) are attempting to manage the labor dimensions of social responsibility through non-binding mechanisms that directl…

🚨New paper! We use data from the UK Nephrops #FIP to demonstrate how FIPs are fundamentally missing the mark on #WorkingConditions and #LaborRights, harming fishers in the process. www.sciencedirect.com/science/arti...

Visiting Immokalee: A Lesson in Worker-Driven Social Responsibility Yamilet Perez Aragon, a second-year student studying Agriculture, Food and Environment, and Emma Morris, a first-year student in the Food and Nutrition Polici

Teaching @tuftsnutrition.bsky.social students about the transformative change in agricultural working conditions driven by the #Worker-drivenSocialResponsibility model of the @fairfoodprogram.bsky.social with a visit to the @immokaleeworkers.bsky.social now.tufts.edu/2025/02/28/v...