Since spring of 2013, there has been a farmworker-organized boycott of Sakuma Berries and two main buyers of Sakuma: Driscoll’s and Haagen Dazs. Contacting Thriftway management several times, I was repeatedly told they would continue to sell Skauma products, so I still hold a vigil at the main entrance with available information on sporadic Wednesdays between 4 or 5 p.m. until 6 p.m.

Human rights should be of concern to residents of Vashon and Washington state. Ninety thousand farm workers pick our fresh food; most do not have basic rights. What Ceasar Chavez and California farmworkers fought for never extended to our state. Racism, sexism, harassment, poor living conditions and stolen wages are some of what workers endure in Skagit Valley and anywhere agri-business hires farmworkers.

Many residents I talk to simply do not care to know how easy it is to be complicit in the suffering of others. Sadly, lack of concern afflicts many in this society, allowing those whose power and greed threatens all life to continue unabated. We must be aware of how what we buy perpetrates human rights violations.

Recently, I heard two teenagers whose families work for Sakuma speak at Seattle University. Each had begun picking in the fields to help make ends meet. Much of their pay was kept by Sakuma, which then faced a lawsuit for wages stolen from 1,400 farm workers. As has been the case in several lawsuits against unfair practices by Sakuma, judges have ruled in favor of the farmworkers.

The most powerful way to persuade Sakuma to do the right thing is to not buy Sakuma products. For more information, see www.boycottsakumaberries.org.

— Swaneagle Fitzgerald