Farm Workers

For every pound of Florida tomatoes purchased at a local grocery store, the worker who picked it likely earned one cent. With little legal protection, farm workers who provide Americans food are exploited in both the U.S. and Mexico. While the plight of the farm workers, especially itinerant workers, is not new, laws rarely protect them.
For centuries, Americans grew or purchased locally grown food, but with better transportation and multinational agribusinesses, Americans have become accustomed to purchasing produce grown elsewhere. Today, Americans rely heavily on products grown on farms often owned or used by large agribusinesses throughout the U.S. and Mexico.
In the U.S., small to mid-size farms rely on itinerant workers many of whom are undocumented immigrants with little legal protections. This can result in unfair practices and intolerable conditions. As described in, Injustice on Our Plates, “undocumented immigrant women living and working in the …show more content…
Public awareness and support can drive the companies to focus on better practices. It worked when an LA Times journalist reached out to Whole Foods citing the poor conditions on a farm used by Whole Foods. The company changed its sourcing.8 Companies face dual pressures. Consumers want the companies to pay fair wages with decent working conditions, but consumers want lower food costs. More expensive labor could mean higher prices at the grocery store. U.S. Immigration Reform would help fight the exploitation of workers. Changes would provide the majority of the farm workers more protection under U.S. law. However, immigration reform is highly political and takes time to implement. Again, the result would be higher food costs passed along to the consumer or sourced from other countries with cheaper labor such as