Seeds bear fruit

Starting on Aug. 1, 1999 and for 20 years since, this page has tried to be a voice for voiceless farmworkers, who have been excluded from the protections of the law granted all other employees in this state. We have no vote, no authority, only words: nearly 37,000, in 93 editorials published season after season.

But sometimes, words have power, and we are proud that Gov. Cuomo has asked us to host his signing today of the Farmworkers’ Fair Labor Practices Act into the statute books. The law is a major step to end shameful inequity.

We didn’t begin the crusade. It began on farms, in churches and in labor organizing halls. It continues there across America.

Journalistically, too, we had many forefathers. In October 1936, a series of seven articles in the San Francisco News exposed the terrible conditions of farmworkers. The writer was named John Steinbeck; he went on to turn it into a

novel, “The Grapes of Wrath,” in 1939.

There was awareness, but no change. Decades passed.

The bad winter of 1957-58 ruined crops in South Florida. Reporter Howard Van Smith of the Miami News wrote of thousands of migrant field hands with no work and no money stuck in atrocious hovels in Immokalee. The public and the government responded, providing food, medical care and forcing the construction of new housing.

In 1960, Edward R. Murrow carried the torch in his CBS News documentary “Harvest of Shame,” elevating the issue further in the national consciousness.

Again there was awareness, but little change. Decades passed.

This time, awareness is finally going to bring change. For New York’s tens of thousands of farmworkers, the new year will bring new rights. A harvest, at long last, of equity.