Workers at the Bottom of the Food Chain

[Ohiorganic]

http://www.motherjones.com/environme...ers-poison-epa

Not good to be a farm laborer, especially if you are brown skinned and foreign born. I wonder if this sort of thing would be as common if most of the workers were American born and white?

The price some have to pay so Americans get cheap food (so many hidden costs)

[stone]

Really doesn't matter what colour you are, the point of serfdom is in being able to do whatever you want, without being held accountable.

As the gap between the haves and the have-nots grows ever wider, and deregulation makes ever greater in-roads (in the name of job-creation), expect things to keep getting worse for those of us at the bottom... expect to see a lot more of the population end up without protections, working for p-nuts, while the country turns into an Oiligarchy.

There's going to be a lot of white people without drinking water with Harold Hamm to thank, as he pushes for the freedom to destroy the environment without being required to clean up his messes.
http://www.rawstory.com/rs/2012/06/2...per-pac-donor/

[rockpilefarmer]

Originally Posted by stone

Really doesn't matter what colour you are, the point of serfdom is in being able to do whatever you want, without being held accountable.

As the gap between the haves and the have-nots grows ever wider, and deregulation makes ever greater in-roads (in the name of job-creation), expect things to keep getting worse for those of us at the bottom... expect to see a lot more of the population end up without protections, working for p-nuts, while the country turns into an Oiligarchy.

There's going to be a lot of white people without drinking water with Harold Hamm to thank, as he pushes for the freedom to destroy the environment without being required to clean up his messes.
http://www.rawstory.com/rs/2012/06/2...per-pac-donor/

I have to agree. As an unemployed teacher, I (and one other teaching professional) spend our days cleaning high end cabins at a local resort. I would do anything to keep the cash coming even if it were harvesting fruit and veggies. I live pretty darn skinny, and make no excuses other than I should not have believed the rhetoric from the higher education department about forgiving loans if you become a teacher. Now there are more unemployed teachers in this area....we owe, we owe, so off to make beds and clean toilets we go.

[Nastarana]

Originally Posted by rockpilefarmer

I have to agree. As an unemployed teacher, I (and one other teaching professional) spend our days cleaning high end cabins at a local resort. I would do anything to keep the cash coming even if it were harvesting fruit and veggies. I live pretty darn skinny, and make no excuses other than I should not have believed the rhetoric from the higher education department about forgiving loans if you become a teacher. Now there are more unemployed teachers in this area....we owe, we owe, so off to make beds and clean toilets we go.

Have you considered tutoring? Many parents who have not themselves the academic or social skills, or the time, to be effective home schoolers are desperate to find some kind of instruction for their children which whill actually teach math, reading, science, geography, history and civics. Are you willing to take a critical look at the curricula you were using when you were teaching? Could you come up with something better? If your school was using that abomination "Chicago math", any mid-20thC arithmetic text you might find in a second hand store would be an improvement.

[Silverbeard]

I worked on a farm in ohio for many years. among my co workers was a family who used to be migrant farm workers. It USED to be a pretty good job!! you didnt have benefits or security of course, but when harvest time came you could work a few months on a new crop yearly if you wanted (which is what they often did) and live off the cash the whole rest of the year.

This worked well for them all the way until the 80s or so. (now that I think about it I wonder if reagan legalizing millions of illegals was the turning point)

Various "free trade" agreements (obama is working on one now to further help our nation fail and international traders make out like bandits) ensure slave grown produce would out compete domestic produce if the bulk of our farmers (outside of niche markets) switched back to what always worked before... So we dont really have an easy fix on this one. Many intertwined issues here. If we dont reverse course however we will continually have to compete with the slaves more and more directly. It does NOT have to be this way. Although many have been conditioned to believe ensuring our own countries future is somehow anti social or wrong. A strange thought to put it mildly.

[Gardener5]

Originally Posted by Ohiorganic

http://www.motherjones.com/environme...ers-poison-epa

Not good to be a farm laborer, especially if you are brown skinned and foreign born. I wonder if this sort of thing would be as common if most of the workers were American born and white?

The price some have to pay so Americans get cheap food (so many hidden costs)

No one really wants workers to be abused or harmed and we have laws and regulations that are suppose to protect the workers. Most know or should that work in that area that being a farm worker isn't fun and can be risky at times and the pay is usually low. To try to make it a racial issue is not unfair it's a bit of fear mongering. It be great if the workers made $20/hr but then the food would be so high the poor couldn't afford it. It be wonderful if everyone could buy organic but the reality is not everyone has the finances to do so.

[c1377]

Originally Posted by Gardener5

No one really wants workers to be abused or harmed and we have laws and regulations that are suppose to protect the workers. Most know or should that work in that area that being a farm worker isn't fun and can be risky at times and the pay is usually low. To try to make it a racial issue is not unfair it's a bit of fear mongering. It be great if the workers made $20/hr but then the food would be so high the poor couldn't afford it. It be wonderful if everyone could buy organic but the reality is not everyone has the finances to do so.

We do have laws and regulations to protect some workers.
I work at a Research & Development Facility, where OSHA regulation is so strict I can't even keep a bottle of water in my laboratory cabinet without a proper MSDS Label. Anytime there is any sort of chemical spill, it must be contained and properly disposed of. Whenever the quantity exceeds xyz, this process is carried out by a HAZMAT Team and is Recorded per OSHA guidelines. I always know what the chemicals are that I am working around, as well as the dangers and precautions related to each chemical. Every chemical is tracked, monitored, contained, and all this information is readily access-able to every employee! To continue working, I must periodically undergo training and pass tests that show I am able to access this information and use it to follow OSHA guidelines.

CLEARLY these migrant workers are not afforded similar EH&S Regulations.

And as for your $$ argument:
1) Does it cost money to have them wait 24 hours after a field is sprayed? --nope.
2) In the 50's when migrant work was not so bad, did food cost more? --nope.

And on a personal note, how does this:

Originally Posted by Gardener5

He who cultivates his land will have plenty of food,
but from idle pursuits a man has his fill of poverty
Proverbs 28:19

jive with this:

Originally Posted by Gardener5

Most know or should that work in that area that being a farm worker isn't fun and can be risky at times and the pay is usually low.

PS.
Read the immigrant farming laws in the Old Testament, and compare them to todays farming practices.

[Gardener5]

Originally Posted by c1377

We do have laws and regulations to protect some workers.
I work at a Research & Development Facility, where OSHA regulation is so strict I can't even keep a bottle of water in my laboratory cabinet without a proper MSDS Label. Anytime there is any sort of chemical spill, it must be contained and properly disposed of. Whenever the quantity exceeds xyz, this process is carried out by a HAZMAT Team and is Recorded per OSHA guidelines. I always know what the chemicals are that I am working around, as well as the dangers and precautions related to each chemical. Every chemical is tracked, monitored, contained, and all this information is readily access-able to every employee! To continue working, I must periodically undergo training and pass tests that show I am able to access this information and use it to follow OSHA guidelines.

CLEARLY these migrant workers are not afforded similar EH&S Regulations.

And as for your $$ argument:
1) Does it cost money to have them wait 24 hours after a field is sprayed? --nope.
2) In the 50's when migrant work was not so bad, did food cost more? --nope.

And on a personal note, how does this:
jive with this:


PS.
Read the immigrant farming laws in the Old Testament, and compare them to todays farming practices.

I'm not going to get into my signature because that is offtopic and the thread probaly be closed down. As to the other two points yes I'd say it be a good thing to wait a day or so after spraying to pick the crop. There is a difference between the 50's and now, so ya sayin if the workers made $20/hr it wouldn't make food prices increase.

[c1377]

Food cost has very little to do with migrant worker wages.
Their wages are a pittance compared with the overall cost of food production.

The primary catalyst for today's expensive food is fuel.
Fuel is used to ship the produce (which is no longer grown locally),
Fuel is used to produce fertilizer, pesticides, and herbicides,
Fuel is used to run machines that tend the land and the crop,
Fuel is used to mine ore, and make those machines, etc.

PS.
Don't get me wrong, I am not picking a fight.
I do feel rather strongly about this, though.
I have lived across the world and seen real poverty.
I have also seen how liberty can provide hope.
Generally speaking, the larger the operation is the less liberty is involved and the worse off the people doing the real work are.

[Gardener5]

Originally Posted by c1377

Food cost has very little to do with migrant worker wages.
Their wages are a pittance compared with the overall cost of food production.

The primary catalyst for today's expensive food is fuel.
Fuel is used to ship the produce (which is no longer grown locally),
Fuel is used to produce fertilizer, pesticides, and herbicides,
Fuel is used to run machines that tend the land and the crop,
Fuel is used to mine ore, and make those machines, etc.

PS.
Don't get me wrong, I am not picking a fight.
I do feel rather strongly about this, though.
I have lived across the world and seen real poverty.
I have also seen how liberty can provide hope.
Generally speaking, the larger the operation is the less liberty is involved and the worse off the people doing the real work are.

The wages workers get paid have a big impact on the cost of a product so if they made close to three times what they made now prices go up a lot.