Farm Labor: Large Farms Vs. Diverse,Small Farms

Farm Labor: Large Farms vs. Diverse,Small Farms

It’s easy NOT to think about the people actually working in the field to grow your food. But if you do investigate this topic, you’ll soon see why small CSA farms typically employ more just and equitable labor practices.

Fair wages- Small farms that directly market to consumers are more likely to provide a safe working environment and reasonable pay to their employees. Local farms realize that they need to pay a decent wage in order to motivate and retain the best labor force possible. Oftentimes larger farms employ people who have no other options and are easily exploited.

Accountability - Knowing your farmer allows consumers to see firsthand who is doing the work on their farm. Farmers are held accountable by the fact that consumers know where the farm is located and can visit any time to see what is happening.

Living conditions - Many farmworkers are exposed to sub-human living conditions. In Immokalee, Florida some migrant farmworkers face far harsher conditions as slaves. Not “virtual” wage slaves, but actual slaves – kidnapped or tricked into captivity by slave traders, sold to field bosses as property, and confined at night in locked trucks or sheds, threatened or beaten if they try to escape, and sometimes even chained. Their wages, paid by tomato farmers, are confiscated by the subcontractors who supervise slave workers and bring them to and from the fields.

In Tomatoland, Gary Estabrook profiles one such slave, Lucas Mariano Domingo, a migrant Guatemalan worker who had come to the United States seeking farm work with the hope of supporting a sick parent back home. Instead, he was tricked by an Immokalee slave boss, Cesar Navarette, who promised good pay, good food and a safe place to live, only to hold Domingo captive for two years in a slave camp where Domingo was forced to work all day in the fields under Navarette’s direction and live in the back of a box truck with three other men, no heat or air conditioning, and no toilet. Navarette’s slaves were regularly recaptured and beaten if they tried to escape.
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Chemical Exposure - Many farmworkers on large farms don’t speak English or even Spanish, and are unable to read warning labels or signs meant to restrict them from doing something harmful.

Consistent Work vs Migrant Work- On large-scale, mono crop farms, there is much need for huge amounts of labor for short periods of time, followed by periods of no work at all. This leads to the need for a migrant labor force that must move from place to place to find work. On smaller scale, diversified farms, there is a more consistent workload allowing for workers to be employed over an entire season rather than just to come in and pick a single crop.

Quite a lot to think about!

~ by farmer Mike Noltnerwyss at Crossroads Community Farm, Cross Plains, Wisc.