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  • From: "Tradingpost" <tradingpost@lobo.net>
  • To: livingontheland@lists.ibiblio.org
  • Subject: [Livingontheland] Are You Sure That Slaves Didn't Pick the Produce That Fills Your Fridge?
  • Date: Thu, 24 Sep 2009 20:37:14 -0600


Are You Sure That Slaves Didn't Pick the Produce That Fills Your Fridge?
http://www.alternet.org/healthwellness/142790/are_you_sure_that_slaves_didn%27t_pick_the_produce_that_fills_your_fridge?page=entire
By Vanessa Barrington, EcoSalon. Posted September 23, 2009.

If you think buying organic, locally-raised food from the farmers' market
means that the workers who harvested your food were treated fairly, it’s not
necessarily a given.

I recently had the opportunity to attend a panel discussion about farmworker
justice entitled, "The Fruits of Their Labor." We've read about modern
slavery in the tomato fields in Immokalee, Florida. You might ask why the
situation in Florida would be any different than, for instance, the large
farms in California's Central Valley.

Turns out, what happens in Florida isn't unique. Sexual harassment and abuse,
non-payment, being forced to drink water from irrigation ditches, having no
access to the fresh food harvested for others' consumption, constant
pesticide exposure, heat-related deaths, 12 to 14 hour work days and child
labor are all routine in our agricultural system.

In addition, workers toil for an average yearly wage of $7,000-$10,000 per
individual or $13,000 per family, without health insurance, sick pay or
overtime. The people affected are powerless because they are often
undocumented immigrants (often of indigenous heritage) from some of the
poorest states in Mexico and Central America. The fact that people are
willing to come here to work under such horrible conditions should give you a
pretty good idea of how bad things are for poor people in their home
countries.

The four panelists who spoke are all well-versed in different aspects of the
food system as it relates to agricultural workers. They were: Sandy Brown,
co-owner of Swanton Berry Farm; the first organic farm to contract with the
UFW (United Farm Workers); Alida Cantor, of the California Institute for
Rural Studies, a nonprofit research organization focused on farm labor
conditions, rural health and sustainable food systems; Alegria De La Cruz,
Staff Attorney for the Center for Race, Poverty, and the Environment, an
environmental justice litigation organization; and Maisie Greenawalt, Vice
President of Bon Appétit Management Company, which recently signed a
ground-breaking agreement with the Coalition of Immokalee Workers.

Here are a few more statistics laid out by the panel:
• Farmworkers today are generally young men who have left their families
seeking work
• 50% have never seen a dentist
• One-third have never seen a doctor
• Agricultural workers toil under some of the most dangerous conditions of
employment with 39.5 fatalities for every 100,000 employees in 2008.
• Child labor in agriculture is legal. The Fair Labor Standards Act
regarding child labor sets the minimum age of agricultural workers at 12 and
16 for everyone else.
• California's Central Valley has the 2nd worst air quality in the nation
and 1 in 4 children there have asthma.

It kind of takes the pleasure out of eating, doesn't it?

And unfortunately, if you think buying organic, locally-raised food from the
farmers' market means that the workers who harvested your food were treated
fairly, it's not necessarily a given.

The whole idea of social justice has only recently begun to be talked about
in sustainable food circles. It's true that some owner-operated organic farms
do treat their workers well, but nothing requires them to do so. After all,
profits are low; the farmers themselves have a hard time making a living and
they have to compete in the marketplace.

So: You don't want bad juju in your food caused by the horrible conditions
under which the people who harvested it work. What can you do about it?

One of the things that was suggested in the panel was to go ahead and ask the
farmers you buy your food from about worker treatment. Start by saying
something like, "Who works for you, and how many people do you employ?" "How
do you keep a stable workforce?" or anything non-confrontational to start the
conversation. It may seem hard to ask about such personal things, but you
have a right to know -- just like you have a right to know if your food was
sprayed with pesticides. One of the panelists brought up the fact that 10
years ago it seemed awkward to ask if the produce was organic.

This approach is only part of the picture, however.

As Americans (especially eco-minded ones), we're inclined to think we can
shop ourselves out of any problem. Voting with your fork won't do the trick
here, though it might make you feel better and nudge a few farmers toward
treating their workers better.

The fact is, farmers -- especially small, organic ones -- don't have it so
easy in this system, either. How can they actually provide others with a
living wage when they barely make on themselves? How can they provide their
workers with health insurance when they can't afford it for their families?
These questions point to systemic changes that are needed in the areas of
agriculture subsidies, health care, trade policies that cause people to seek
work in the U.S. in the first place, and finally, immigration reform.

On a hopeful note, all the panelists had thoughts on things farmers could do
to treat workers better that cost little to no money. The panelists have all
asked farmworkers about what kinds of things would make their lives better.
The answers won't surprise you because they are really the same things we all
need in our daily interactions with our supervisors and fellow workers.

• Being treated like a whole person with hopes, dreams, plans for the
future
• Clear, respectful communication
• A clear grievance policy
• Flexible schedules
• Worker safety measures
• Shared decision-making
• Occasional team-building activities like potlucks

None of these things cost much money and farmers who implement them say that
they have a stable, productive workforce year after year.

Good food should be clean, and healthy for the people eating it and the
planet. We're working hard on that. Now we need to start including social
justice in our conception of what sustainable food is. That means starting
the conversation with each other, the people from whom we buy our food and
our elected officials who set food policy.

I'll end with a photo gallery of farmworker's lives from The Migrant Project.
http://themigrantproject.com/gallery.html






  • [Livingontheland] Are You Sure That Slaves Didn't Pick the Produce That Fills Your Fridge?, Tradingpost, 09/24/2009

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