Originally from Wilder, Marielena Vega is a farmworker activist. She traveled to Washington, D.C., and spoke to hundreds of attendees at the “Farmers for Climate Action: Rally for Resilience” event on March 7.
Originally from Wilder, Marielena Vega is a farmworker activist. She traveled to Washington, D.C., and spoke to hundreds of attendees at the “Farmers for Climate Action: Rally for Resilience” event on March 7.
In March, Marielena Vega traveled to the U.S. Capitol alongside 20 progressive agricultural groups to represent the Idaho farmworker community during the Rally for Resilience in Washington, D.C., Idaho Capital Sun reporter Mia Maldonado writes.
In her speech to hundreds of attendees, the Canyon County native urged Congress to prioritize climate change policy and protections for farmworkers. She lobbied for those protections in the upcoming farm bill, an omnibus, multiyear law that governs many agricultural and food programs across the country.
“Our farmworker community gets excluded time and time again, and this is something that has never made sense to me because farmworkers provide very essential work here in the U.S.,” she said at the rally. “We don’t want to be overlooked or silent anymore. I will not be silent today.”
Vega attended the event after her colleague, Samantha Guerrero, nominated her to attend the climate rally in Washington, D.C.
Guerrero is a bilingual agriculture and food community organizer at the Idaho Organization of Resource Councils who met Vega during the COVID-19 pandemic. Guerrero said Vega stood out to her because of her connection with Idaho’s farmworking community.
