Tag Archives: essentialworkers

Racism in the Food System

Posted on by
12

Systematic racism is the basis of every aspect of the USA and the food system has no exception. In the 1600s, the first enslaved people were brought from Africa to America and were forced into labor. This included working on sugar, cotton, rice, and tobacco plantations. This brought on a sense of superiority to the white Americans, seeing anyone who is different from them as less than. The exploitation of many people of color were used to keep the social hierarchy going and it kept money in the white man’s pocket. This past of the United States has helped create the racist laws, actions, and institutions that are here today.

Now that forced labor is seen as immoral, even though it is still happening in the present, people have found a more covert way of keeping people of color oppressed. This is shown through wage gaps, the job market, the housing market, and so much more. A majority of minorities cannot find good-paying jobs with the only reason being simply that they are not white. Because of that, they find themselves working in factories, farms, and other jobs seen as undesirable and underpaying. This means that all the food being put on people’s tables are most likely being harvested or packed by people of color. While they are doing all of the hard labor, it is usually the white people that are in charge, gaining massive amounts of wealth.

Because of the unjust treatment of minorities, it makes it more difficult for them to support their families. It is harder to buy basic necessities, which can lead to a multitude of problems. This cycle continues on through generations because nothing is there to pass on to their children. However, most white people have the privilege and wealth to live healthy and have opportunities to pass onto generations of their families.

These disparities have magnified during the pandemic. For example, the wealthy have enough money to stop working while the poor continue to work in factories, farms or other underpaid jobs to keep food on America’s table and to keep their families afloat. Along with that, the systematic racism in the health care system keeps a lot of people of color from getting access to testing for COVID or getting treatment. 

Racism and oppression are at the very base of what America was built upon. With that, the food system cannot be ignored in this equation. It is often looked upon as a basic process of the way it gets to your fridges and pantries, but it is not that simple.

For Essential Food Processing Workers, “Thank You” Won’t Be Enough

Posted on by
8

When your health and possibly your life are on the line, a mere “thank you” from your employer won’t cut it. In an excellent blog post, Gregory Stine (gstine9) cites an article from The Fern reporting that as of May 1st, there have been 6,832 confirmed cases of coronavirus and at least 25 deaths among meatpacking and food processing workers across the country. This leaves me to wonder, is thousands of workers getting sick a business expense? Or did their employers make the age-old mistake of valuing profits over people, deciding that the costs of worker protections were simply too high. The question now – will they learn their lesson?

Gregory did a great job tying in what Michael Maniates’ piece, “Individualization”, taught us about the way in which large employers deflect responsibility for their own mistakes back onto the workers who suffer those mistakes’ consequences. This phenomenon has been especially evident during the pandemic. The New York Times reported how in a Tyson Foods pork plant that had over 1,000 confirmed cases, Tyson named “worker absenteeism” as a reason for having to temporarily shut down production, failing to recognize how their own practices had made going to work too dangerous for many of their workers.

A Tyson Foods factory in Waterloo, Iowa

A Tyson Foods factory in Waterloo, Iowa (Daniel Acker for The New York Times)

In Raj Patel’s “The Color of Food”, it was reported that food processing and meatpacking facilities across the country employ people of color at a disproportionate rate to the national population, as does every other sector of the food industry. Per the Food Workers Alliance, as well as being some of the most dangerous, 5 of the 8 lowest paying jobs in America are in the food system.

workers at a Tyson poultry plant in Georgia

workers at a Tyson poultry plant in Georgia (Tyson/AP)

Gregory’s post emphasizes the pressing need for structural change that the pandemic has only helped illuminate. When the dust settles, will employers continue to disregard health concerns in the name of profits or will this mark the start of a new age of food worker safety and empowerment.

A Response to “Migrant workers are the backbone of our food system, why don’t we treat them better?”

Posted on by
11

Original Post: https://sites.uw.edu/pols385/2020/04/13/migrant-workers-are-the-backbone-of-our-food-system-why-dont-we-treat-them-better/

The United States has a long history of social inequity and it is coming to light more during the recent events of COVID-19. I do agree with Ag519 with the unjust treatment of migrant workers especially during this time and the fact that things aren’t getting better. I do have an answer to their question on why it is not getting better. Upper class society has a substantial amount of power over what happens in this world, and they do not want to lose this power. With that, all they worry about is how to gain more money and power and finding the quickest way at attaining that. In addition to that, there is barely any media coverage around big social problems in the world, so only a small amount of people knows what’s happening.

The video So Close to America: Undocumented Farm Workers & The Myth of The ‘Free Ride’ illustrates how migrant workers work just as hard, if not harder, than other people in America while doing the jobs no one else wants to do. During this time, migrant workers continue to work in close quarters with each other and do not have resources to stay safe while others can work from home or not work at all. A question that I think Ag519 does not ask that is very important is what can we do as a community to change this. What can we do as allies to support migrant workers and what can we do to change the system? This is an important question because it asks where we go from here. These answers can include educating others about the unjust treatment happening, especially during this pandemic and donating to foundations in support.

Change starts with everyone fighting together against inequity and unjust treatment.

Farmworkers harvesting zucchini in Florida, April 2020

Photo credit: https://www.americanprogress.org/issues/economy/reports/2020/04/23/483488/protecting-farmworkers-coronavirus-securing-food-supply/

“Essential Workers”: Heroes or a Sacrifice to Capitalism ?

Posted on by
3

In the face of major shifts and/or unrest both global and domestic, the US has historically relied on the most marginalized groups to uphold the status quo; an aspect of our history that is too often left out of, or skewed within, popular narratives. An example ringing with familiarity, was the onset of WWII (when swaths of the agricultural labor force migrated into war production factories) the 1942 Mexican Farm Labor Program Act systematically promoted the exploitation of immigrant labor as a means to keep meeting food demands on the backs of “cheap” labor. Our immigrant workers are a labor force that has been consistently condemned, ridiculed, and cast out. And again, today, in the face of a global pandemic, we are turning to the numerous undocumented immigrants that make up our 2.4 million farmworkers to continue to supply us with our demands (Honig, 2020). They are essential to keeping America fed.

Yet, as the choir of bells ring through our cities in gratitude to those who are on the front lines, these essential workers continue to work unprotected in close quarters, high risk conditions, and extremely limited access to testing or health care. And when calls are made to solve these issues, and to provide adequate provisioning, they are too often being met with no answer. Ultimately, they are being ignored. Still though, the faces of leadership turn to the media to give praise and show appreciation of our essential workers… our “heroes.”

Is this the way to treat our heroes? Do we truly believe that these people put themselves at risk everyday, in-spite of the love of their families and own lives, to be our “heroes?” Or have they been given no other choice, no other option to sustain themselves, or their families? And, in knowing this well, the faces of leadership can chose to tend to their need or not. The migrant workers, who have always been an essential labor force, are treated as if they are disposable. This pandemic is not an independent actor, it is constantly being fed by the conditions that were already established, long before it’s outbreak. Vulnerable living conditions, limited access to health care, muted voices, and insufficient ground to establish self-determination are the by-products of our capitalist structure that continues to sustain itself through the most marginalized people, who tend to fill our most essential positions.

 

This blog post was inspired by the FERN article: https://thefern.org/2020/04/as-pandemic-spreads-and-growing-season-ramps-up-farmworkers-deemed-essential-but-still-largely-unprotected/

Farmworkers are essential!

Posted on by
2

Amidst this crisis, it is difficult to not feel useless at times, especially for someone who is used to being such a busy-body. Learning about and reflecting on the world food system sparks inspiration, yet makes me long for the days when I worked on the UW Farm. Like many, I am out of work due to the COVID-19 pandemic, and miss the long, yet rewarding days on the farm. Being so idle these days, I realize I sometimes took my wholesome farm life for granted, with access to local produce daily and constantly learning about the intricacies of organic food production. It seems that many people see being a farmer as a relatively easy job, in terms of the little education required. However, farming demands such fine attention to detail and an understanding of how farms operate cohesively as a system. 

Trying to feel connected to the outside world in some way, I came across an article on undocumented farmworkers while scrolling through news and politics. The article, by the New York Times, explained how immigrant farmworkers, most of which are undocumented, have been prescribed ‘essential work’ letters that prevent punishment for working during stay at home orders. While these letters don’t protect from deportation, measures have been shifted from ordinary undocumented workers to those who pose a threat to public safety.’ This allows these essential workers to feel more at ease, despite the high risk they are to contracting coronavirus. It is ironic to me that it took a public health crisis for the government to realize that immigrants are beneficial to our country, especially farmworkers. How can we continue to have the stigma of immigrants being ‘criminals’ and detrimental to the US, when in fact they are ensuring food safety for so many Americans? I resonate with these farmers, as I understand how crucial the agricultural sector is to the sustaining the well-being of a country. 

During this crisis, it is important to analyze systemic inequalities that are becoming more apparent, like the many hardships imposed on immigrant workers. It is these under-paid ‘essential workers’ that are holding up the upper class in America, and it is only now that society realizes how reliant the wealthy are to the poor. Deploying systems thinking and viewing the food system through a broader lens can help to reveal these inequities and understand how to restructure such weak points. Next time you take the convenience and selections at grocery stores for granted, reflect on the many hard workers that ensure food security across the country. 

 

-Reily Savenetti

Sources:

Jordan, Miriam. “Farmworkers, Mostly Undocumented, Become ‘Essential’ During Pandemic.” The New York Times, The New York Times, 2 Apr. 2020, www.nytimes.com/2020/04/02/us/coronavirus-undocumented-immigrant-farmworkers-agriculture.html.