GREG ASBED

CO-FOUNDER, COALITION OF IMMOKALEE WORKERS, IMMOKALEE

After college, Asbed spent three years in Haiti with the Papaye Peasant Movement empowering rural agricultural workers with food sovereignty. That experience — plus 18 seasons harvesting watermelons in the southeastern U.S. — led him to co-found the Coalition for Immokalee Workers in 1993 to address injustices in the Florida tomato industry. In 2011, the group introduced the Fair Food Program to enforce codes of conduct among participating growers and buyers. It now protects tens of thousands of farmworkers across 20-plus states, four countries and a variety of crops. Asbed also is a founding member of the Worker-Driven Social Responsibility Network, established in 2015 to promote the worker-focused business model in supply chains worldwide. In 2017, he was recognized as a MacArthur Fellow for his human rights work.

EDUCATION: Brown University (BS), Johns Hopkins School for Advanced International Studies (MA)