Farmworker food insecurity

 This was an extremely eye-opening read for me. One quote particularly stuck out: "Undocumented farm workers must be both "invisible" due to their illegal status, and visible, to resist exploitation." It is disheartening to hear that those responsible for putting food on so many tables can't put food on their own. Low wages, seasonally available work, lack of access to welfare programs, and exploitative policies help to create an "agrarian social order," in which farm workers become a racialized "other." Immigration policies fuel this otherness. Immigrants are allowed in for temporary work but are then racially marginalized to justify poor working conditions and low wages. These people are viewed as undeserving of rights/benefits/welfare that citizen workers would receive. The fact that they have an illegal status means that they are unable to resist this exploitation, as they are threatened with deportation, getting fired, etc. This vulnerability is then exploited by employers, who have access to an unending flow of un-unionized workers. Unions are incredibly important as tools of collective bargaining power. However, due to previously mentioned reasons, farmworkers typically cannot unionize. Addressing the issues of farmworker food insecurity in California therefore requires an approach that aims to dismantle the systematic racial policies that contribute to farmworker exploitation. 

I also think that this article ties nicely into last week's food sovereignty discussion. As most farm workers are migrants, they should be able to have access to culturally appropriate food, not just whatever food stamps permit them to buy.