Farmworker Food Insecurity

    It's extremely frustrating to learn about the farmers and laborers that work directly with the crops we rely on, yet experience some of the highest levels of food insecurity.  This article was very educational and answered some of the questions I had about why exactly farmers were experiencing such limited access to quality foods.  The combination of migrant farm laborers and large agri-business corporations that work to drive production and profit upward while decreasing wages seems to be one of the root causes of the issue.  One of the studies by the FFFSA found that the average monthly wage for migrant farm workers was between $319 and $762.  Clearly, some sort of change in the way we compensate farmers needs to be made or else access to nutritious food will be limited even further. 

    I really liked how this article incorporated terms from last week's reading like "food security" and "food sovereignty" which helped put some of the information into context.  While food sovereignty within communities can be a great way to retain a sense of culture while involving community members in the process of agriculture, it's very limited with what it can do to help increase wages.  The key word here is community.  Migrant workers, especially ones who are undocumented, rarely stay in the same place for very long.  As season's change, workers move around finding jobs wherever and whenever they can.  This constant nomadic lifestyle where communities of workers change by the month makes it very difficult for the idea of food sovereignty to even be considered.  Institutions like the United Farm Workers Union may exist to provide a sense of community among farm workers and advocate for more appropriate compensation, however, this is made extremely difficult when agri-business entities get involved and work to diminish any sustained improvements.