The California Strawberry Festival in Oxnard is one of the largest outdoor annual events in California that celebrates the success of the multi-billion dollar global agricultural industry. However, this success has come at the great economic, social and overall health expense to those who pick the berries. On May 22, a protest outside the Strawberry Festival challenged the industry and governmental efforts to overlook the social and environmental costs of strawberry production, and questioned the logic of charity festivals.

The previous year, May 15, 2015, a Boycott Driscoll’s demonstration against the California Strawberry Festival in Oxnard was observed by hundreds of farmworkers, community members, and local organizations including FIOB (Bi-National Front of Indigenous Organizations) and Todo Poder al Pueblo.

Colectivo Todo Poder al Pueblo writes: While the City celebrates itself, in the interest of tourism and at the service of industry owners, we who live and work in Oxnard and Ventura County are left with human and environmental exploitation, including respiratory illnesses, cancer, unsafe work, and discrimination. Industry and city officials, even charities and non-profit social change organizations are aware, but, unfortunately, all benefit materially, and are largely silent, watered down in their concerns, or structurally limited in instituting meaningful labor and environmental reforms.

Strawberry Festival 2016: Brought To You By Exploitation | En Español | 2016 Announcement | 2015 Announcement | Farmworkers’ Daughter Rejects “Strawberry Scholarship” in Solidarity with San Quintín

See Also: Strawberry and Justice Festival 2016 at UC Santa Cruz || Latino Children Bear Greatest Burden of Pesticide Risk in California

Previous Coverage of the Driscoll's Boycott: International Days of Action to Boycott Driscoll's || May Day March for Beach Flats Garden and Boycott Driscoll's || Driscoll’s Runs Away At Watsonville Earth Day || UFW Tries to Silence Boycott Driscoll’s Activists at Cesar Chavez March || Washington State Farmworkers Launch West Coast Tour in Solidarity with San Quintín || Boycott Driscoll's Action at Whole Foods Market in Santa Cruz || Boycott Driscoll’s Action in Watsonville || U.S. and Mexican Workers Call for Boycott of Driscoll’s Berries