Often, we think of hunger as a result of there not being enough food in an area. However, in California, the problem is power and access. The people who are picking the food cannot afford the food because of the system that has been built. Farmwork is seasonal which causes the full-time laborers to fall below the poverty line. With the high cost of living in California, workers are unable to afford both rent and food. Additionally, farmworkers are often legally and socially marginalized. This means that they are often out-of-sight and out-of-mind. With this mindset, it is easy for exploitative conditions to persist without any public outrage. So, while we sit here and eat a piece of fruit or a salad, the person who harvested that food may not be able to afford a meal for their own family. So, in order for the food costs to remain lower, a class of people are going hungry.
There are three things we can do in order to make this better. We should be advocating for overtime pay, heat protections, and collective bargaining rights. This could be done in the form of unions and strikes. We should also be shortening the supply chain. There should be direct-to-community food access. Eliminating the middleman will ensure that the farmworker is paid a fair price. Additionally, there needs to be policy reform. This needs to include a change in the minimum wage to match the cost of living in California. This is common in every single state in America. People are making the same amount of money they did twenty years ago even though the cost of living has multiplied. Changing the minimum wage one time will not be efficient. This number should be fluctuating as the cost of living fluctuates. By the time you change the minimum wage to match the cost of living, the cost of living will have increased again. This creates a cycle where you never “get ahead”.
2 comments:
I really liked your active push on what we can do. Your point on a shorter supply chain is something I agree on as community food access makes more sense than having all my groceries shipped from halfway across the world.
Resourcing our food to local means we aren't paying for the shipping and we are paying for the farmers near us. I used to be able to buy milk from a farmer 10 minutes down the road, until he was bought out by Clover Farms. Yes, the milk I bought from him was the same as the grocery store, but I at least knew where I was getting it from.
I appreciate you shifting focus towards solutions as it is something we often forget to discuss in class. You are right that a solution to this problem does not come from just one or even two changes, but at least three for any significant change. To add on to the fluctuating minimum wage idea, I think the minimum wage in any area should always be enough to get by on, but it is also important to remember that raising wages fuels inflation and increases prices in an area. That is why it is important that you noted more specific changes than just raising wages. These farm workers are not being paid enough and that is a fact, but it is a delicate subject to touch without accidentally pricing those same people out more-so than they were without those other changes in play. It is just another reason as to why the cycle of never being able to "get ahead" exists, because positive change to legislation is an egregiously slow bureaucratic process where most of the time legislators are hard to get on to your side.
Post a Comment