Forecast: Tuesday, high of 57 degrees F, 60% chance of showers; Wednesday, high of 55, partly cloudy.
It's been an eventful weekend for us, both on and off the farm. We lost Bud, we found Bud, and my Dad had a significant medical set back caused by gross incompetence and a completely f-ed up healthcare system. Which means that instead of having the past three days of nice weather to prune and plant as I had planned, I had one afternoon. And this was supposed to be the weekend that I caught up on all of the farm work I haven't gotten done over the past few weeks of needing to be with my father.
All of which to say: one thing about farming is that things need to happen when they need to happen. The fruit trees need to be pruned before the buds swell and get tender or we'll knock the fruit buds off as we work the tree. The prunings need to be removed from the orchard before the tree leaves emerge so that we can pull the spray tank between the trees to apply the first of our Spring holistic sprays. Pheromone mating disruption for fruit tree pests only works if it's in the trees when the moths are mating. And running a CSA just makes that all the more complicated: if we don't follow our Spring planting schedule, we won't have anything to harvest that first week of June when we have promised our members their share distribution will begin.
Now that the weather has warmed up, we're racing the season. I'm not sure we're going to win. The next two weeks will be critical for getting the rest of our transplants started, our garden beds prepared, and seeds and transplants into the ground. We're going to try to host a couple of volunteer workdays for students, friends, and members who want to pitch in and help us get caught up. If that goes well and my Dad's condition stabilizes, then I think we'll be okay. If not, I may be refunding CSA share deposits.
So this week when you are on the farm, we are going to "dig in" and do more bed preparation by clearing beds of weeds, loosening the soil with forks, and adding compost. We'll also be direct seeding crops like spinach, carrots, and turnips and transplanting others like kale. We may need help getting more transplants started in soil blocks and if our new strawberry plants arrive via FedEx before class time, we might ask you to help us plant those as well. Are you tired yet?
In the event we do get to planting the strawberries, I thought it might be interesting to look at some issues in commercial strawberry production. Though
Michigan has a reputation for growing tasty strawberries, 80% of this
country's strawberries are grown in California. Here's an article on
some of the problems created by conventionally grown berries:
http://www.npr.org/blogs/thesalt/2012/05/17/152522900/the-secret-life-of-californias-world-class-strawberries. Note the sidebar: "Why Are Strawberries Getting Bigger and Blander?"
And
this article talks about the effects of conventional strawberry
production on the farm workers who plant, cultivate, and harvest the
berries: http://civileats.com/2015/03/26/is-the-strawberry-field-the-next-farmworkers-rights-battleground/.
Make sure to watch the short documentary embedded in the article!
And here's an update on the state of the strike referenced by the Civil Eats article: http://www.truth-out.org/news/item/39653-strawberries-and-solidarity-farmworkers-build-unity-around-driscoll-s-berries-boycott
The Civil Eats article ends with a statement by Dana Geffner, executive director of Fair
World Project: "When farmworkers stand up for their rights and livelihoods, consumers will stand up with them. Consumers do not value fresh berries more than the lives
of those who pick them." Maybe I'm way too cynical, but I wonder if that's true. If it is true, then why is it so difficult for farmworkers to win a living wage and working conditions that aren't debilitating? Are consumers just that much in denial that they don't know what's happening in the strawberry fields? Or do they know and not care?
Fifty years ago, Cesar Chavez helped to organize a boycott of table grapes that eventually led to the first union contracts among grape growers: http://ufw.org/1965-1970-delano-grape-strike-boycott/.
I don't know whether to be depressed that fifty years later, strawberry workers have to use the same tactics to fight for their rights or inspired that there continue to be brave people willing to fight.
Questions for you: In your comments, please help me think more deeply into this issue of what factors in our culture allow farmworker exploitation to continue. Is this an issue that you think about when you choose your food purchases? Do you wonder about the people who grew/raised/harvested/slaughtered the plants and animals that became your dinner? Does their well-being factor into your food choices? Why or why not?
Finally, I wanted to share this video as a resource for information on starting transplants, since it gives a nice, concise overview of factors to consider when starting seeds
indoors (you could develop your own version of their "garden planner"): https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=RWCIaydwM_w&nohtml5=False.
I don't know, or highly doubt people think of the people and beings that made it possible to eat the food they do, and at the current prices. Our supermarkets are so full of bright colors, and "options" that are so disconnected from the land. Many corporations, like Driscoll put positive labels on their packages that make people think they are making fair, and good decisions about the food they're buying.
ReplyDeleteIn Thailand we witnessed a pretty painful pig slaughtering, that really made me think about the effort and life that goes into all of the meat I consume. This class is helping me to see all of the effort that must go into the plants I consume as well.
However, I think witnessing and partaking in the efforts and life that goes into producing our food is the only way we can truly appreciate it.
From the "Civil Eats" article, it seems like there is a myriad of political factors that enable farmworker exploitation, such as farm owners' ignorance of the law, lack of enforcement for worker-protection policies, and few opportunities for collective bargaining/union agreements. I believe these issues can eventually be solved with public awareness and education. I'd like to think that consumers do not value berries more than the lives of those who pick them.
ReplyDeleteWhat's more challenging to overcome are the cultural factors that enable farmworker exploitation. I believe the two main culprits are xenophobia and racism. Due to economic competition and Western ethnocentrism, people develop negative attitudes toward immigrants, and people of color in general. We can see this negativity (ex. fear, hostility) in the support for Trump's border wall, mistreatment of undocumented people, and stereotyping/derogation of cultures deemed the "other." If there is still xenophobia and racism embedded in the American collective (un)conscious, then it is difficult to gain political power for farmworker rights.
Until a few years ago, I didn't really give a second thought as to where my food came from or the people who produced it. Food was at the grocery store, I would buy it, take it home, cook/eat it, and that was that. However, now I'm very considerate about where my food comes from. Every time I eat a meal, I take a moment to silently thank all the hands that made it possible.
After reading these articles, I will try to research more of the companies/corporations producing common brands I buy, and exclude any with incidents of human rights violations. I wholly believe in supporting a food system that "puts people and the planet before profits."
Something I think is essential in the discussion of the exploitation of farmworkers, both historically and today, is the impact of race in policy making, farm practices, and overall values of our society. Similar to the tracking of the history of corporations, I follow the colonial history of land work (farming, plantations, spice cultivation). I think back to enslaved Black and Indigenous folks on plantations in early US history and the racial justifications of that project (and the overall colonial project that has never ended). I think to Dolores and Ceasar in the United Farm Workers Movement and the battles that they faced as Latinx folks - and the battles as undocumented folks. There were both culturally enforced racist norms and politically solidified enforcements of those norms. In many ways I am also not surprised by what is happening today with the strawberry farm worker. I don't think that the fight should stop or lessen, but I can feel the generational exhaustion of organizing for the same things.
ReplyDeleteConsidering the aforementioned realities of those who do the work to provide me food, I take great care in honoring them. I think back to the ways that my father said grace at the dinner table, and that he would mention all the people that made it possible to break bread with each other. I also think of the ways my extended family participated in the Grape Boycott and that level of consciousness to the food I was eating, that it was prepared and picked by people too. Those were some of the small ways in which I thought about it as a child. Moving forward into today, I have found out about more ways I am connected to laborers in Thailand, factory workers in China, construction workers in Egypt, and farm workers across this continent. I am thinking now more than ever of my responsibility to those people.
I work at Farmworker Legal Services, so farmworker justice is something I am very passionate about. Those of lower socioeconomic status and/or diverse racial or ethnic backgrounds have long been exploited in the United States. It is the systems we have in place that allow farmworker exploitation to continue. Because many of their resources (housing, income, healthcare, even immigration status, etc.) are directly tied to their employment, employers can often use these factors as leverage to continue exploiting their farmworkers. Plus, farmworkers are generally unaware of the various specific laws that affect them directly and indirectly, which allows the organizations/systems in place to oversee them to be insufficient at their job to protect our farmworkers. Since I have been so focused on this exact topic over the last year of my life, I definitely think about these issues when choosing my food purchases. I aim to buy my food from companies, stores, or farms that choose to treat their workers in an acceptable way. I often go to farmers markets to purchase my produce (as well as other products) and have recently gotten in the habit of asking the people at the farmers markets questions about their farms and produce. I feel like this is pretty bold of me, but I know if they are willing to talk about farming practices as well as the people they work with, I am more inclined to buy their products. I wish more people would be aware of how their food is produced and by whom, because it holds those in charge of these practices more accountable for their work and their treatment of workers. Education and outreach is imperative for greater awareness and understanding of this issue.
ReplyDeleteCommunity-initiated acts like the boycott on grapes by Cesar Chavez and the current boycott on Driscoll's strawberries seem like a great way to show that individuals have more power when they come together for a cause, but the necessity for rallies against systems reminds me of my frustration with the way our economy operates to serve big businesses' profits above all else. Taking a class called "Environmental and Resource Economics" last quarter opened my eyes to the push-and-pull of economic aspects, particularly for environmental and social legislation. A watered-down version of this, from my understanding, is that economic models EXPECT for corporations to demand more leniency concerning environmental and social restrictions, which in turn puts the responsibility of shifting the laws the other way on individuals who suffer from these corporations' actions. The individuals who are often most affected by the power of big businesses are frequently marginalized and/or under-resourced. Expecting people to rise up every time to demand that human rights be honored seems to me to be a poor balance of power, as rallies take time, effort, and money for communication and travel. I feel that this could be prevented by holding businesses to higher standards from the start, rather than requiring mistreated farmworkers to lose their houses, jobs, and cars for the cause, as is noted in the article about the Chavez grape boycott. Consumers really do have a ton of influence on our economic system, which in turn has a ton of influence on legislation in our country. I think educating consumers about this influence is an important part of changing inequities in our system as it stands now, but it seems insufficient, or at least like it contributes to very slow progress, in the long run.
ReplyDeleteHonestly, until this class, I did not really put much thought into where my food came from. For me, my family went to the grocery store, bought food, and brought it home for us to consume, however, I, nor my family, ever really thought about how that food got to the grocery store or who put in the work to make that food possible. I think this lack of knowledge or acknowledgement is a big part of why farmworker exploitation continues to happen in our society. When people think about food, they often think about the finished product and not how it became that way, which erases the narratives of those who grew, raised, or harvested the foods we buy and eat.
ReplyDeleteI also want to add to the points that others made considering the impact of race in the exploitation of farm workers today and historically and how it has allowed the same kinds of polices regarding farmworkers to be reproduced. As it began as a system in the U.S. to exploit slaves, it has and continues to display a desire to keep black and brown bodies in a position where they are exploited, economically deprived, and allowed little social mobility in society. We must also consider the role of undocumented migrants in farm work as well and how they not only lack basic rights but do not have a mode of sharing their grievances or issues in fear of deportation. Especially in our current political climate, undocumented people and people of color are already perceived as other or non-human, which we see in discourses surrounding immigrants and people of color already, and this only adds to how farmworkers continue to be exploited because how do we get some people to care about the rights of people they do not deem human? I think a lot of farmworker exploitation comes back down to race and how the body is read, and I think a careful consideration of this is important in confronting the problem and history of farmworker exploitation in our society.
I definitely have become more aware of where my food comes from and have taken time to acknowledge who put work into making it something I can eat and live off of. This class has really made me think more about my food and has overall made me more aware of problems that exist in our food systems.
The NPR article mentions that even organic strawberry growers buy from fumigating nurseries, how are these crops still able to be labeled "organic?" I also noticed that in the YouTube video on transplanting, there was no indoor planting date for Kale. Was this due to the region this video was made in?
ReplyDeleteOn the topic of interactions between producers and consumers of crops, I'm torn (much like it sound like Amy is) between admiration for workers who are still fighting the good fight, and the fact that so many decades later any fight is still necessary. I think a lot of work goes into separating consumers and producers of food. Additionally, even in people who are closer to their food source, I think cultural norms still inhibit complete use of food products. As examples, I think of many people I know who do not use (whether by ignorance or choice) what are commonly perceived as "waste" parts of food. However, with proper treatment, many of these products can be used to create extremely tasty meals. As I type this, I think 3 of the most widespread examples would be organ meats, herb stems, and cheese rinds. With just a little bit of research, all of these can be used in the kitchen. I think the first step to strengthening ties between producers and consumers is to minimize waste, as the more use consumers have for a product, the more respect I believe they will have for it.
It seems the US agricultural system has always been built on the back of undervalued labor, whether it be slavery or exploitable undocumented migrant workers. Unfortunately this seems to be by design. It is alarmingly easy for producers to abuse this disparity between the production and consumption of our food.
ReplyDeleteDuring the course of my research for my facilitation of the class this week, I learned that the average American farmer, even on an industrial level, makes a poverty wage.
Ultimately I believe this is a result of a cultural disconnect between modern Americans and our food. The market has shown that people mostly care about price and quantity, increasing in proportion to how disconnected the food is from its source. For example, it's hard to break down the individual components of a root beer to molasses from the United States, anise from Spain, licorice from France, vanilla (bourbon) from Madagascar, cinnamon from Sri Lanka, cloves from Indonesia, wintergreen from China, pimento berry oil from Jamaica and balsam oil from Peru, in addition to the supply chains and harvesting techniques that all those ingredients entail. However, I believe that this generation's trend towards less-processed, ethical food is changing this.