This blog is no doubt full of young idealism and proselytizing with regards to organic agriculture. I started writing at 17 with these outraged notions of big agribusiness with its chemical bastardization of plants/soils and its animal abuses; all largely informed by the usual suspects of Michael Pollan, Wendell Berry, Food, Inc. and so on. I'm sure plenty of young college students would have shared in my experience. Sustainable food is most definitely the rage these days. Yet our 'holistic' critiques of the modern food system are still incomplete: discussion remains curiously subdued on the subject of the actual farm laborer. And it's something that should genuinely concern of all of us who profess an interest in sustainable agriculture. Inquiry into the topic betrays an awkward tension between organics as a movement and organics as an industry. When pursued as a movement, operations tend to be on a smaller scale with more equitable and steady employment. But when organics grows into the size and practice of industry, workers find themselves as marginalized and disposable as before, if not moreso. Organic husbandry is acknowledged as more labor-intensive because of its rejection of synthetic pesticides, but no consideration has been extended to the wellbeing of the often faceless laborers who bear this burden. On a commercial scale, the work is not quite so idyllic as weeding your backyard garden. This is the type of repetitious work that can break bodies.
California's agricultural labor force is overwhelmingly foreign-born and even illegal, and so they receive very little in the way of representation. Their bodies are classified as 'the other' and therefore not protected with the same venom as most red-blooded American workers. The problem is that an effort to improve labor conditions for these employees is often politicized into an attack on the merits of organic production. Yes we believe organics is good and noble, but some of us want to minimize the effects it has on fieldhands where possible. Democrats just don't know what to do with themselves in this instance, because they're not meant to oppose organics, but nor do they want to be seen opposing equitable labor laws. So they abstain. Is this how we reward the people who put their health on the line so that we can eat fresh produce? By ignoring them. All the while bragging how we know what local farm it came from; when really we don't know the half of it. The demographic divide from farm to plate remains enormous. The fashion of the organics trend is built upon the stooped backs of Mexican immigrants.
All of this leads me to wonder when agriculture will be raised to the level of a respected livelihood again. I believe the people who feed us through all seasons and conditions deserve at least some monetary stability and not the transient, impoverish existence they lead today. Rectifying this will involve paying authentic prices: a concept which scares the Pakistan-made pants off any consumer. Organics already cost more because of the field practices they employ, but this doesn't necessarily see any more money going to the workers. The reality is that food is expensive produce. For some reason though, we've come under the assumption that it's almost a given. This lets us spend the rest of our disposable income on non-essentials and frivolities that effectively drive the degradation of our planet and other social justice crises. What we need is a rearrangement of economic priorities. We can afford to give agricultural workers the wages they deserve, but this requires trade-offs in other segments of our budgets. Paying more for food could really be one of the best ways to decrease anthropogenic environmental impacts.
But really, this whole labor issue needs to be brought up for broader public discussion. For now it only exists in the shadows of our white Anglo-Saxon minds. Today's budding foodies need to expand their understanding of the American agriculture system if it is going to be both ecologically and socially sustainable. With more middle class, college-educated folks showing interest in farming and the 'simple life' away from the city, maybe debate can begin when they realize you can't always make a living at it and that not everyone enjoys their privilege. That's sort of how it happened for me.
