How wage structure and crop size negatively impact farmworker livelihoods in monocrop organic production: interviews with strawberry harvesters in California

Soper, Rachel

doi:10.1007/s10460-019-09989-0

Cited by 14 publications

(12 citation statements)

References 26 publications

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“…Initiatives include fair trade, vegetarianism, organic agriculture, urban agriculture, food justice, food sovereignty, food security, farmer’s markets, food banks, local food, and community gardens. Alongside the major themes of food justice and access to organic food (Soper, 2020), there is an emphasis on food localism—in fact, thanks to the food movement “locavore” appears in the New American Oxford Dictionary (Gray, 2014). But while food movement initiatives have emerged and spread rapidly, the actual workers who pick and pack food are overlooked (Glennie and Alkon, 2018; Gray, 2014; Minkoff-Zern, 2014; Wald, 2016a).…”

Section: Introductionmentioning

confidence: 99%

Making labor visible in the food movement: Outreach to farmworkers in Michigan

Saldanha

2020

Qualitative Social Work

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While the food movement includes many critical positive initiatives, it shows little recognition of the labor contributions of the farmworkers who produce the food. A visit to a few local towns in western Michigan revealed farmworkers are invisible in “farm to table” tropes. A study was undertaken to explore farmworkers and their living conditions, and the links between their local invisibility and historic, political, and global processes. Using ethnographic fieldwork, the author visited housing camps, spoke with farmworkers, rode along with outreach workers, and volunteered at migrant summer schools. A framework of structural violence informed the analysis. The findings include descriptions of migrant housing camps, in which migrants face substandard and overcrowded conditions, and their placement in hard to access locations. The study describes how outreach is conducted, highlighting strategies and methods outreach staff/interns use to connect with farmworkers in labor camps, taking information and services directly to them, sensitive to their circumstances, which include limited time availability and communal living conditions. The study also highlights the invisible faciality of farmworkers locally and in international agribusiness restructuring and concludes with a discussion on the role of social work in increasing farmworkers’ visibility in the food movement and practice.

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Section: Introductionmentioning

confidence: 99%

Making labor visible in the food movement: Outreach to farmworkers in Michigan

Saldanha

2020

Qualitative Social Work

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“…Strawberry harvesters prefer conventional because they can make up to twice as much money in conventional compared with organic (Soper 2020). Ignacio is from Michoacán.…”

Section: Resultsmentioning

confidence: 99%

“…As consumer demand rises for organic fruits and vegetables, agribusiness companies convert parcels of land to certified organic production. These work places are less environmentally hazardous, but do not necessarily pay more, or even the same amount, as their conventional counterparts (Soper 2020).…”

Section: Introductionmentioning

confidence: 99%

“…Negotiating piece rate prices is a longstanding form of workplace resistance (Holmes 2013; Wells 1996). Workers prefer piece rates over hourly wages because they can make more money in less time (Guthman 2017; Soper 2020). However, scholars have critiqued piece rate wage structure for incentivizing farmworkers to push themselves to the limit, leading to injury, illness, and chronic pain (Holmes 2013; Horton 2016).…”

Section: Introductionmentioning

confidence: 99%

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Workplace Preference among Farmworkers: Piece Rate, Pesticides, and the Perspective of Fruit and Vegetable Harvesters

Soper

2021

Rural Sociology

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Farmworkers in US agriculture encounter structural vulnerability. They are economic refugees, fleeing starvation. After risking their lives to cross the border and find work, they continue to be marginalized in society, and constantly fear deportation. Although farmwork is hazardous, it is necessary to be able to support themselves and their families. Research has found that although farmworkers are aware of the health side effects that result from exposure to pesticides, they continue to labor in conventional fields because not working is viewed as a larger risk. This study adds to that literature by asking farmworkers about preference for working in organic or conventional production. Even when organic is an option, farmworkers prefer conventional production when they earn more money in conventional. Because of their extreme economic vulnerability, the possibility of earning less income to work in a safer environment is viewed as undesirable. Rather than changing wage structure to incentivize working in organic agriculture, what is needed, in addition to more political protection for farmworkers, is increased regulation of pesticides. All agricultural workplaces should be made less toxic.

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“…Nonetheless, empirical research has not supported the widespread belief that labour conditions are necessarily better on farms that are smaller, diversified, family-owned, and organic (Dumont and Baret 2017 ; Harrison and Getz 2015 ; Reid-Musson 2017 ). In some cases, conditions may be demonstrably worse based on farmworkers’ own criteria (Soper 2020 ). Beyond farm-level characteristics, people’s relationship to capital, whiteness, and power mediates job quality and the craft knowledges one can express.…”

Section: Introductionmentioning

confidence: 99%

Seeing the workers for the trees: exalted and devalued manual labour in the Pacific Northwest craft cider industry

Weiler

2021

Agric Hum Values

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How wage structure and crop size negatively impact farmworker livelihoods in monocrop organic production: interviews with strawberry harvesters in California

Cited by 14 publications

References 26 publications

Making labor visible in the food movement: Outreach to farmworkers in Michigan

Making labor visible in the food movement: Outreach to farmworkers in Michigan

Workplace Preference among Farmworkers: Piece Rate, Pesticides, and the Perspective of Fruit and Vegetable Harvesters

Seeing the workers for the trees: exalted and devalued manual labour in the Pacific Northwest craft cider industry

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