While farmworkers were rendered "essential workers" amidst global lockdowns this year, community nutritionists are questioning if we have valued their lives as much as the economic returns.
Written by: Radhika
Trigger Warning: Slavery and Indentureship.
When sugar plantation workers in West Indies - ethnically African slaves and Indian indentured laborers - dreamed for the future, they would have hoped to change the realities of their dehumanized professions.
In 2020, the COVID-19 pandemic reminds us that we are far from realizing their dreams.
While many of us have been treating ourselves to generous servings of blueberries and blackberries in smoothies, sorbets, or acai bowls, global lockdowns have looked very different for those who 'make' our food. Earlier this year in May, farmworkers on Rancho Laguna Farms began organizing for higher wages and better working conditions (1). Interestingly, this labor dispute was not limited to this Santa Maria-based supplier. 'Driscoll's' - a household brand that monopolizes the global berry market, could not evade the controversy.
A California-based business, Driscoll's controls roughly a third of the berry sales across the United States (US $6 billion) and is found on grocery-store shelves in almost every continent.
Driscoll's, often celebrated for becoming 'leaders' in water conservation along the California coast and in the Central Valley, believes that "because the environment, workers and our communities are intimately intertwined, Driscoll's collaborates with growers on development and adoption of techniques for improved irrigation and nutrient delivery (2)." These systems are meant to be more convenient for farmworkers to use, facilitating better occupational health.
Driscoll's business model of working with independent suppliers who hire seasonal farm labor has been criticized for years. In 2018, protests in Chicago highlighted that 70,000 workers in San Quintin were victims of 'sexual harassment and child labor' while making [mere] “starvation wages of $7 for 12-15 hours" of grueling farmwork (3).
This May, the owner of Rancho Laguna Farms termed farm workers as "essential employees," lauding them for working despite the waging pandemic. While he announced social distancing measures for the farm laborers in July, activists have reported that these changes were only instituted after strained dialogue with farm owners.
Although globally, rights to land ownership and fair wages have always remained inaccessible to farm laborers, the COVID-19 pandemic only exacerbates these inequities, especially in low and middle-income countries (LMICs).
"In normal times, the pay for this backbreaking work is already low, and now, with higher costs of things like childcare because of the virus, [the pay] is unsustainable," a community organizer said. The farm management has also been accused of calling ICE or the police to suppress any form of protests for more democratic rights and fair working conditions - in the COVID-19 pandemic.
In solidarity with farmworkers, calling consumers to boycott Driscoll's berries and reject farmers' unfair treatment may seem far-fetched. However, thinking about food systems allows us to understand the role of agricultural workers in the 'farm to fork' journey.
While private agrarian businesses are responsible for farmer exploitation, governments cannot be exonerated. In 2009, researchers in Orissa, India, examined the quality of access that farmers have to institutional credit and distress sales (4). Here, farmers continue to depend on informal credit forces to meet their paddy production costs - an issue that stems from the poor implementation of the minimum support price (MSP) of the state's paddy crop.
Sadly, this problem is not unique in time or geography.
Agribusiness in India contributes to 18% of the GDP and employs 42.38% of the workforce while feeding the world's 2nd largest population (5).
As COVID-19 cases began to surge in India, the Indian Council of Agricultural Research (ICAR) launched a national advisory exempting farming operations and farmworkers from the lockdown. Apart from outlining social distancing measures for fieldwork, they advised farmers on harvesting, threshing, and storage of crops to prevent food insecurity (6).
In other parts of the country, wholesale markets that attracted farmers, traders, retailers, and buyers, were the first to be shut (7). Instead, 24 open grounds were designated for similar sales but farmers could not afford to incur new transportation costs. Thus, farmers were again forced into distress selling their produce at reduced prices or outside the city.
Female farmers were also more vulnerable to the risk of unstable livelihoods and diets (8).
In China, the world's largest agriculture-based economy, researchers piloted the COVID-19 Surveillance Community Action Network (C-SCAN) for food systems (9). This rapid tool has been developed using initial data from smallholder farmers living in rural and peri-urban Chinese provinces - Yunnan and Guizhou.
The C-SCAN tool includes interview questions that can be used to understand the demographics, food environments, diets, cultural preferences, and access to gardens or farms. Once this information is mapped, it becomes easier to address the gaps in access and resilience to ‘food shocks’ due to social positioning.
The C-SCAN tool researchers define ‘resilience' as retaining complex food systems' relationships despite disturbances imposed by the pandemic.
Back in Washington and California, the COVID-19 Community Engagement task force is linking health policy's racial and social justice needs to break institutional barriers to access (10)." An initial phase of a COVID-19 farmworker tri-state project, revealed that most farmworkers are wearing facemasks while at work.
The vulnerable farmworkers are aware of the barriers that make it unaffordable for them to fall sick. Neither can they pay out hospital bills nor afford to lose out on the already meager income their seasonal work makes for their families.
While existing in privileged food environments, we must push corporations like Driscoll's and governments to drive sustainable change through democratic action and our consumer choices. We must locally advocate for improved farmer rights, better wages, and strengthened unions that oppose exploitation and empower those who 'make' our food.
References:
Farmworkers in Santa Maria Win Better Wages, Working Conditions
How Driscoll's, the world's largest berry company, is becoming a leader in water conservation
Credit Constraints and Distress Sales in Rural India: Evidence from Kalahandi District, Orissa
Guidelines applicable for farmers and farming sector during lockdown period due to COVID-19
COVID-19 Lockdown, Food Systems and Urban–Rural Partnership: Case of Nagpur, India
The COVID-19 Farmworker Study - Washington State Department of Health
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