Greg Asbed

Asbed is a first-generation Armenian American; his grandmother, Hripsimee, is survivor of the Armenian genocide who was forced into Syria. In a 2017 interview, Asbed connected this fact to his human rights work, stating "I have always felt a certain responsibility, as a bearer of DNA that was forged in the crucible of genocide, to the idea of universal human rights."^[2]

Asbed was born in Baltimore and raised in the suburbs of Washington, D.C. His father immigrated to the United States from Kobane to study nuclear physics; his mother is a pediatrician at Johns Hopkins Hospital.^[3]

Asbed attended the Landon School and enrolled at Brown University. At Brown he studied neuroscience, graduating with a Bachelor of Science in 1985.^[3] After college he spent three years in Haiti where he learned Haitian Creole and became involved with a peasant movement.^[2] Upon returning to the U.S., Asbed pursued graduate study at Johns Hopkins University, where he received a Master of Arts degree in 1990.^[4]

After working with laborers in Pennsylvania and Maryland, Asbed and his wife moved to Immokalee, Florida, in 1991.^[2] Working with farmworkers, they established the Coalition of Immokalee Workers; at the time of its establishment, the group was one of the nation's first centers dedicated to aiding migrant workers.^[5][6] At CIW, Asbed led the development of the Fair Food Program through which companies could pay a small premium for crop purchases in exchange for a commitment from growers to abide by a code of conduct relating to wages and working conditions; participating companies must agree to drop suppliers who violate the standards.^[2][6] As of 2017, 90% of tomato growers in Florida participate in the program.^[7] The Fair Food Program has been hailed for its success in combating modern slavery in Southwest Florida and hailed as an exemplary paradigm for improving the rights of farmworkers.^[6][8][7]