Western Minnesotan Labor Activist Talks Beets

Mark Froemke, Western Minnesota Area Labor Council president and sugar beet expert.

Story and Photos By Barb Kucera. Editor, Workday Minnesota

A crowd of about 40 people attended a screening of "From Field to Factory: Sugar Beets, Trade and the Future of the Red River Valley" July 28 at the Waite House in south Minneapolis. Mark Froemke, sugar beet worker and member of the Bakery, Confectionery, Tobacco and Grain Millers Union, led a discussion on the economy of the Minnesota-North Dakota border and the effect of trade agreements on the sugar producers and workers and the communities that depend on them. The screening was
organized by the Minnesota Fair Trade Coalition and co-sponsored by the Blue Green Alliance and the University of Minnesota Labor Education Service, which produced the documentary.

Renville BCTGM workers at theevent.