Hey everyone!!
When I think of farming, I immediately think of the people behind
all the food—not the businesses that market and sell the food, but all the
people who actually plant, grow, cultivate, harvest, and package our food. I wasn’t
always this way. Like most people, I was pretty ignorant when it came to
looking past the surface level of our farming and agriculture systems. Amy touched
upon this topic in her Week 4 farm blog post, however, with my portion of the
class on Thursday, I hope to delve deeper into issues of farmworker justice.
Currently, I work at Farmworker Legal Services, which is a
legal aid office in Kalamazoo that provides free legal assistance to migrant
and seasonal farmworkers throughout the state of Michigan (http://www.farmworkerlaw.org/ and https://www.farmworkerjustice.org/
). My work at FLS has opened my eyes to the population of migrant farmworkers
in Michigan and has given me a passion for legal advocacy of this population. I
grew up in Michigan, but not anywhere near farmland, so I had no clue that
Michigan has one of the highest populations of migrant farmworkers outside of
the Southwest and North Carolina. I have learned so much about this population
of people over the last year, yet I am consistently surprised at how deplorable
their working and living conditions are.
For class Thursday, I found a documentary called “Harvest of
Dignity.” It is in response to a documentary made and released in the 1960’s
called “Harvest of Shame,” about the examination of the plight of migrant
farmworkers in the United States. It was the first time millions of Americans
were given a look into what it means to live in poverty. “Harvest of Dignity”
was created in North Carolina in 2011 by Student Action with Farmworkers (SAF)
and the Farmworker Advocacy Network (FAN) to show that farmworker conditions
have remained stagnant since the original documentary aired in the 60’s. I’ve
provided both links in case you are curious about the original documentary.
http://www.pbs.org/video/unc-tv-presents-harvest-dignity/
--Harvest of Dignity (26 minutes)
https://www.cbsnews.com/video/1960-harvest-of-shame/
--Harvest of Shame (52 minutes)
This is an interview with Dr. Seth Holmes, a medical anthropologist
and author of “Fresh Fruit, Broken Bodies, Migrant Farmworkers in the United
States.” In order to bring new insights into this marginalized population, he
became a farmworker himself. For two years he spent summers working with
farmworkers in Washington and California. He then later moved to Oaxaca, Mexico
and lived with the workers there, while documenting the physical toll that the
farm work took on the laborers’ health. I have also included the link to his
TEDx Talk if you want to learn more about Dr. Holmes and the work he has done with
this population.
Here are some questions to ponder in your responses:
1.
Has the treatment of farmworkers ever impacted any
of your purchases in the past? Do you think you feel more inclined to inquire
about farmers’ treatment of their farmworkers?
2.
How does our food and agriculture system
perpetuate racism and oppression in the United States?
3.
What possible solutions can you imagine in order
to achieve farmworker justice? How could these solutions affect food
production/consumption? How could slow farming assist in achieving farmworker
justice?
Dr. Holmes' statement about sacrificing the health of farm workers to enable the health of consumers really stood out to me. Aside from one trimester here at K, I haven't really done much of my own grocery shopping. At home, my parents shop for the family, and even if I go with them they are pretty steadfast about what they buy. However, I definitely think when I am responsible for my own groceries I will try to seek out smaller and more humane farms, as much as I am able. The more I learn about the conditions farm workers go through to produce food, the more respect I feel for the food I eat, and feel responsible for perpetuating a system so destructive. I think the racism and oppression inherent in the food and agriculture system is expressed pretty clearly by Holmes' statement about the transfer of health from migrant populations to consumers. However, I am really unsure about what solutions could be taken to address this problem.
ReplyDeleteI believe the average American consumer has been so divorced from the process of food cultivation that the life of the farmer never crosses their mind, much less the working conditions of the laborer. At least this is the case for me. It seems that the agriculture industry in America has always relied on a degree of exploited labor, and this century is no different. From slavery, to undocumented migrants, we have actively entrenched this is as a part of our economic system. I have first-hand seen staunch conservative farmers turn a blind eye to the prolific use of said immigrants on there own farm, to the degree that they wouldn't be able to operate at capacity otherwise. This is tragic, though I believe intentional oversight of the American judicial system.
ReplyDeleteI would like to see action addressed in the form of more flexible seasonal work permits which afford migrant workers the same entitlements and protections given to an American worker doing the same job.
The "Harvest of Dignity" documentary does a good job of showing that the agricultural practices built on exploited bodies and labor have not changed much over time, even as environmental conditions and available technologies (subtly) change the way in which work is done. Like Josh mentioned above, I feel responsible for supporting these exploitative systems by buying food without thinking much about its origin, especially the people that have cultivated and harvested it. Buying 'ethical' food is the one place where I feel that the argument of whether consumers are willfully ignorant is clearest for me: it's really difficult to find real information about where food came from. Just looking for an 'organic' label does not address the human labor behind food production, and real-time information about boycotts can be pretty confusing as well. The whole "these eggs came from a HAPPY chicken who eats only the best chestnuts and gets lots and lots of playtime" story that's printed on some egg cartons is shady enough, but (to my knowledge) there doesn't seem to be any label on food sold in stores concerning the ethical treatment of workers. I like buying produce from farmer's markets or participating in CSAs (or, more generally, 'slow farming' movements) because you can usually visit farms or get to know the farmers themselves, but what about when you have to buy food in the late fall or winter? I think that the work that Farmworker Legal Services does is really important, because legislation surrounding agriculture is so confusing and farmworkers should not have to spend time navigating legal jargon to receive fair wages and work conditions. I also think that, as we talked about briefly last class, access to soil to farm should be a right for individuals, and encouraging individuals to farm small plots of heavy-labor crops (such as strawberries, or beans that have to be threshed) themselves could decrease the heavy-labor work by corporations that tend not to treat their workers as well.
ReplyDeleteThanks for all this great information, Madison! The interview with Seth Holmes makes me want to read his book. To answer your questions:
ReplyDelete1) Though I am aware of farmworker issues, I don't know if I think about that when making purchasing decisions. I think that's because, as Rosie mentioned, it's really hard to tell in the grocery store what purchases wouldn't contribute to farmworker oppression! I guess I assume that most food that I buy at stores has come from exploited labor in one way or another. Thinking about farmworker issues definitely affects my decisions to grow my own food though. Because I feel like it's not right for me to gain my nourishment off from someone else's forced labor, I feel like I need to put that labor in myself, since I have access to soil and the ability to do so.
2) One thing I appreciated about the interview with Seth Holmes was that he mentioned some of the reasons that migrant workers might choose to work in the U.S. under such challenging conditions. One of those reasons is that international trade and economic policies like NAFTA force people off their own farms and into desperate circumstances where they feel like trying to work in the U.S. is their best choice. So essentially, our economic policies that contribute to this are racist at their core and ensure that the U.S. has access to people whose labor can be exploited in agricultural fields and processing plants.
3) I think there are a lot of ways to work towards solutions. Economists can work toward changing economic policy; lawmakers and lawyers can use legal strategies to protect farmworkers; consumers can participate in boycotts to put pressure on companies to prioritize farmworker well-being. But all of this probably means that food has to get more expensive. Or it means that executives running food companies have to get paid less. Or a combination of those things. I think that middle-to-upper class folks have come to take it for granted that they shouldn't have to expend a significant portion of their income and energy in feeding themselves. If we really value living in an equitable culture where our pleasure isn't at the expense of someone else's pain, more people are going to have to take more responsibility for their food, whether that means growing it themselves or paying a fair price to ensure that the people growing it for them aren't being exploited. For me, this is what "Slow Farming" is all about--creating a system where farmers and farmworkers can make a decent living farming in a way that doesn't break their bodies, their spirits, and their relationships.
I agree with what others have posted. I think there is a lot of ignorance with shoppers, especially at the supermarket. The process to how items got to the shelf aren’t on the label. Even happy labels of cows or chickens in open fields aren’t true, and can be misleading. Strawberries, and other fruits and berries aren’t labeled either. Often when I think of berries I think of u-picking with my mom in the summer time or other happy memories, and don’t think about how those berries got to the supermarket.
ReplyDeleteI think a solution would be to have more honest labels, and clear marketing about how large companies, like Driscoll, treat their farmers.
As a now conscious consumer, it makes me furious that there’s a need for me to research the items I purchase for signs of human rights violations. I would love to live in a world where I could walk into a grocery store (or really any store) and know that whatever I buy has not been at the physical, financial, and emotional pain of others. I do not want to perpetuate any form of injustice, so I will try to research more of the companies/corporations producing common brands I buy and how these companies acquire/treat their workers. Our food/agriculture system perpetuates oppression by making certain groups of people dependent on systems (immigration, business/financial, law, etc.) that do not treat them fairly in terms of working conditions, wages, access to quality health care, etc. On a societal level, we must support systemic/structural reform of broken systems—immigration reform, legal reform, health reform, economic reform, etc. On the cultural level, we must promote the truth-telling research like that of Dr. Holmes, and continue to oppose prejudicial thinking toward migrant farm workers and immigrants in general.
ReplyDeleteSince I usually buy my groceries from large chain grocery stores, the treatment of farmworkers has not influenced my purchases in the past, however, as I have been in this class, I have thought more and more about the people who put their lives into planting and growing the food the world thrives on when buying produce from the grocery store.
ReplyDeleteOur food and agricultural continues to perpetuate racism and oppression in its exploitation of farm workers today and historically as 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 peoples 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 also think more recognition of farmworkers in general needs to be given, especially in grocery stores in which a lot of our food is distributed. Currently, not much acknowledgement or credit is given to farmworkers in the places in which food is made available, which essentially erases the narratives of those who grew, raised, and harvested those foods from the attention of the people buying them. I would hope that if people were made more aware of farmworker's work and the injustices they face, that there would be more support given to farmworker justice.
ReplyDeleteWhen I was growing up, I would hear farmworker stories from my dad. Whenever we have lettuce,oranges, radishes, tomatoes, apples, and strawberries at the table, there would be a story associated with each individual crop. My dad was a farmworker and a truck driver when he first migrated to the U.S. He came to this country as a teenager, along with a group of individuals that will soon be harvesting the foods to a new nation. Besides learning basic English, my dad would tell me how the harvest of fruits became his universal language.
The systematic racism within farmworkers are tied with the beginnings of food and agriculture that early settlers established within the New World. New empires and nations might enslaving groups of individuals that were not welcome to the upcoming opportunities. The ones that are getting their hands dirty, and spending the rest of their days to providing the nation’s food assembly are not getting credit and are being ignored. A great example is the role of undocumented migrants in farm work. Undocumented migrant workers are endorsed with fear that their hard work would not be enough to avoid deportation. Deportation divides the individual’s right to pursue equality and happiness by separating undocumented workers from their love ones and the land, where their hard work and long hours were spent and unaccounted. There needs to be more conversations about these issues because it is something that is occurring when discussing about the contribution of food within this country.
1) The treatment of farmworkers has affected the food I ate, but not because of me or my family's decision. The grocery store for which we shopped had been influenced by local residents not to serve certain produce because of strikes or in protest of the farmworker treatment.
ReplyDelete2) I see our food system reproduce racism on two sides. On the one side, there are racist policies that target the personal health and wealth accumulation of migrants of color that do work to provide our food. These processes also work to veil who is actually producing the food we eat, especially when behind the face of a corporation. This erasure further perpetuates racism and its realities through a colorblind process. On another hand, at the end of consumption racism becomes salient in who can afford to shop for healthy and nutritious food. It is also important to acknowledge classism's role on this end. While racism may be assumed to not exist in the context of LA where many people of color shop for healthy food, class also influences the ability and access to food.
3) I think a central component in moving toward farmworker justice is acknowledging the precarity in their position as people as acknowledged by the state and as society. Many times, we can distance those folks from humanity and that dehumanization is the fundamental crux of racism.