The Human Cost of Cheap Food
Published March 10, 2009 @ 09:43AM PT
Chances are that if you’ve eaten a domestic tomato this winter, you’ve eaten a fruit picked by the hand of a modern-day slave.
In Immokalee—an immigrant community an hour down the road from the ultra-posh enclave of Naples, Florida—farm laborers work at a torrid pace to supply the United States with roughly 90 percent of its domestic tomato supply each winter.
As the logistics of industrial food systems often require, exploitation is a key ingredient in feeding our desire for out-of-season produce. Workers are paid only 45 cents for every 32-pound basket of tomatoes they pick, which almost ensures a cycle of endemic poverty.
It’s especially troubling when you realize those who are responsible for getting our food from field to plate often aren’t even able to feed themselves. Yet the commercial food industry that benefits from cheap tomatoes has long been opposed to increasing workers’ pay.
A measure proposed by the workers’ rights group Coalition of Immokalee Workers (CIW) to pay growers one cent more per basket was met with such resistance that one fast-food executive used his middle-school daughter’s online username to spread rumors about the CIW’s leaders pocketing donations.
(It should be noted that in recent years, a handful of supermarkets and fast-food chains have agreed to pay increases for Immokalee workers. But not without a fight.)
Living conditions in the Immokalee community are dismal at best, and Stuffed and Starved author Raj Patel likens the conditions to an apartheid-era township in South Africa, only worse.
Although this is an isolated example of human exploitation, it is by no means uncommon. As Carlos Marentes (founder and director of the Border Agricultural Workers Project) describes it, our food system is an economic model rooted in exploitation of farm workers.
In order to ensure our food is slavery-free, we must not only become more aware of where our food comes from but also value what we eat more. When we value our food less, we value those who produce it less and so on right down the distribution line.
In the United States, we spend less than 10 percent of our disposable income on food. In comparison, many people living in countries in Asia, Africa and South America spend over 40 percent of their disposable income on food.
The sign of a developed nation should not be an overly-abundant supply of cheap food produced with slave labor, but rather, a steady supply of highly nutritional food grown by environmentally conscious farmers with an admirable human rights record. This is probably a bit idealistic. However, it doesn’t mean it’s not something we should strive for in our every day food choices.
(Photo credit: sylvar on Flickr)
Facebook
Twitter
Digg
StumbleUpon
EmailRelated Posts
Comments (3)
Comments on Change.org are meant for further exploration and evaluation of the ideas covered in the posts. To that end, we welcome constructive comments. However, we reserve the right to delete comments that are offensive, abusive, or off-topic; that contain ad hominem attacks; or that are designed to subvert or hijack comment threads rather than contribute to them. Repeat offenders may be permanently removed from the site at our discretion.
Author
-
Greg Plotkin is a local food enthusiast, former farm laborer from Connecticut, and current grant writer at an agriculture-focused nonprofit in Washington, DC. He believes that the future of food depends on the future of farmland and that access to good food is a right, not a privilege.
Any advice on how we can go about figuring out the conditions under which our food was produced? I live in the Canadian prairies, where eating local is a pretty huge challenge, so it's inevitable that I'll get food from far away.
Posted by Lianne Lavoie on 03/12/2009 @ 01:29PM PT
You must be signed in to report content.
Lianne, I have to admit that I know very little about the challenges of buying local in Canada, but assume they are significant with such short growing seasons.
I'm a pretty obsessive label checker, and think that is one of the best ways to know where our food comes from (even though I'd prefer more specific origin info). Even if a particular farm isn't listed as a source, there usually is some sort of language like "this product is packed by X corporation." Some quick Googling would probably be able to tell you if there are any rampant human rights/food safety problems associated with the company.
Other than that, of course I would say try and eat food from farmers you know. But realizing the challenge that poses to you, the next best option is to just try and inform yourself as best as possible about where the food comes from.
Posted by Greg Plotkin on 03/13/2009 @ 08:27AM PT
You must be signed in to report content.
It is going to get MUCH MUCH worse. (bear with me while I explain.)
Our food safety system was trashed in 1995 by Sec of Ag Ann Venman (Board member of Monsanto) She appointed Dan Amstutz (VP of Cargill) who wrote the World Trade Organization Agreement on Agriculture.(WTO AoA)
"Aims to ensure that governments do not use quarantine and food safety requirements as Unjustified trade barriers.. It provides Member countries with a right to implement traceability {NAIS} as an SPS measure."
In other words the WTO did away with "quarantine and food safety requirements" that gave us "the safest food in the world" and is graciously going to allow Farmers to track AND COUNT the world's livestock for them instead. Now HR 875 and a FDA release indicate All food will be tracked and all food producers will have "written safety plans" Food Czar inspections and the threat of fines up to $1,000,000 a day will eliminate all the independent farms that have acted as a check on Corporate AG.
These Ag corporations are interested in one thing, PROFIT. American Farmers and farmers around the world have been feeling the squeeze caused by big Ag eliminating competing middle men who would buy their product. In the USA there are only five big slaughter houses left. After WTO AoA was ratified, the USDA (under Sec of Ag Venman) immediately changed the regs and eliminated over 100 independent slaughter houses in one state alone. Now the Ag corporations are going to complete the elimination of all their competition.
In reading the bill HR 875 I notice a very frighting thing. The Animal Welfare Act specifically excludes livestock and pets. This bill does not list ANY EXCLUSIONS! On the contrary it specifically states
"..facility owned or operated by a person located in any State that processes food or a facility that holds, stores, or transports food or food ingredients."
Notice it does not say a person SELLING food, it says a person holds, stores, or transports food or food ingredients.
This is very scary given Ag Sec. Venman's " September, 1995, USDA's Food Safety & Inspection Service presented a 600-page document Farm-To-Table - control of every step in the food chain from production to home preparation. "
HR 875 also includes this.
"in any action to enforce the requirements of the food safety law, the connection with interstate commerce required for jurisdiction SHALL BE PRESUMED TO EXIST."
The fact you are growing veggies for you and friends does not exclude you!
This means Americans will be forced to buy food from Ag business without any other option!
Everyone knows about Monsanto, so here is info on Cargill.
This is Cargill in action in the USA
Check out http://www.opednews.com/articles/Inside-Cargill--knee-deep-by-Linn-Cohen-Cole-090301-239.html
Cargill enslaving kids and killing strikers http://www.opednews.com/articles/Inside-Cargill--knee-deep-by-Linn-Cohen-Cole-090301-239.html
I am nuts right? Here is one Lady's recent brush with the USDA
"Today a state Ag inspector and two county officials show up and scare the bee-jesus out of me. First they accuse me of selling products and milk, then explain that even "giving milk products away" is illegal in California... They explained it was even ILLEGAL to give it to my own children if they did not live under my roof! I can't even take a lasagna dish to my grown sons home without risk of being fined, arrested and or jailed! This is OUTRAGIOUS!!!!" Donna Tue Aug 12, 2008 8:37 pm http://finance.groups.yahoo.com/group/Americans_Against_NAIS/message/26452
This is why attempts to build a border fence (authorized but never done) or control illegal immigration have always fallen on deaf ears. Ag business wants those illegals as slave labor.
Posted by gail combs on 03/13/2009 @ 09:59AM PT
You must be signed in to report content.