Rock Stars and Bad Apples: Moral Economies of Alternative Food Networks and Precarious Farm Work Regimes

Abstract

Alternative food networks face both challenges and opportunities in rethinking the role of precarious employment in food system transformation. We explore how alternative food networks in British Columbia, Canada have engaged with flexible and precarious work regimes for farmworkers, including both temporary migrant workers and un(der)paid agricultural interns. Based on in‐depth interviews, participant observation and document analysis, we find that alternative food actors often normalize a precarious work regime using a moral economy frame. This framing describes precarious farm employment as either a necessary challenge in the transition to sustainability, or merely involving a few individual “bad apple” farmers. Further, this framing involves an aversion to “one‐size‐fits‐all” regulation by the state in favor of consumer‐driven regulation of labor standards. Our analysis suggests that a moral economy framing can obscure systemic inequities in precarious farm employment and dampen the impetus for structural change through collective food movement organizing.

Food Security at Whose Expense? A Critique of the Canadian Temporary Farm Labour Migration Regime and Proposals for Change

“…In so doing, we build on the findings of scholars who have critiqued government-managed 'temporary' labour migration schemes, such as the SAWP, for perpetuating a policy of cheap food that undermines livelihoods for farmers and farm workers alike, and that normalizes 'unfree' labour migration (Preibisch & Otero, 2014;Weiler et al, 2016b). We provide preliminary insights and an agenda for future research on the intersection between temporary farm labour migration regimes in Canada and food security.…”

“…We provide preliminary insights and an agenda for future research on the intersection between temporary farm labour migration regimes in Canada and food security. In so doing, we build on the findings of scholars who have critiqued government-managed 'temporary' labour migration schemes, such as the SAWP, for perpetuating a policy of cheap food that undermines livelihoods for farmers and farm workers alike, and that normalizes 'unfree' labour migration (Preibisch & Otero, 2014;Weiler et al, 2016b). This article reports on prominent claims that Canada's food security depends on maintaining the status quo for migrant workers.…”

Agroecology in Canada: Towards an Integration of Agroecological Practice, Movement, and Science

“…Among larger organic farms, it has been especially common for operators to employ migrant workers through the Seasonal Agricultural Worker Program (SAWP), a program that has been in existence since 1966 and that is designed to have workers from Mexico and several Caribbean nations fill labour shortages on various types of agricultural operations [66,67]. Many producers, including some employing migrant workers, are concerned about the precarity of migrant workers and the lack of citizenship rights they are afforded [68,69]. In the best cases, producers employing migrant workers on agroecological operations through guest worker programs have emerged as strong advocates for migrant workers' rights, calling for paths to citizenship.…”

Migrant Agricultural Workers in Local and Global Contexts: Toward a Better Life?

“…Existing research provides evidence for why the organic movement has had such success branding itself as an ethical alternative for consumers, while labour rights on organic and conventional farms alike remain largely unaddressed (Alkon ; Getz et al ). As Gray also argues in the case of small family farms, the ideology of agrarian exceptionalism and the belief that farmers are inherently trustworthy has served as a powerful justification for employers to act with voluntary discretion, rather than through formal accountability structures (see also Weiler et al ). As in the case of small, local family farms in Gray's study (see also Cross et al ; Harrison and Getz, ), there is a general assumption that labour practices on organic farms must be better.…”