This is a week to consider deeply the role of labor in our food system, to critically consider the systemic injustices that are consistently perpetrated by transnational agribusinesses as well as smaller farm owners. It is time to look beyond the labels organic, local, and fair and to reconstruct a food system that rewards business for treating produce better than the people who grow it.
Farmworkers in Baja California have left the fields near peak harvest season to protest unjust living and working conditions representing serious violations of their rights by agribusiness corporations (LA Times). Negotiations are underway to improve conditions but corporations are dragging the feet and the government is gearing up for unrest (LA Times). Our hopes and thoughts are with the striking workers.
Meanwhile undocumented workers on farms, processing centers, and restaurants to have their rights upheld within U.S. borders (The Nation, The Hands That Feeds). Their resistance has resulted in some victories, but the fight will continue until farm owners are held accountable to laws ensuring just living and working conditions regardless of what borders they fall within.
If you want to see where U.S. produce imports are coming from check out this visualizer over at Scientific American.
