Treatment of food industry workers

It’s time to get serious, Accidental Epicure readers. I blog a lot about the happy side of food, whether recipes or shared experiences of food with friends. But, I think it’s super important, when we eat the food we are fortunate enough to enjoy, to be mindful of where the food has come from and how it got to our plates. Therefore this post focuses on some recent news and current conditions of workers in the food industry.

I was listening to WNYC, an affiliate station for NPR here in NYC, yesterday. One of my favorite shows on the station, the Brian Lehrer Show, had two guests who talked about slavery of farm workers in Florida. It piqued my interest and inspired me to write a post about where our food comes from. If you’ve read/seen Fast Food Nation, or have read up on the treatment of food industry workers, many who are undocumented immigrants working to send money back to their families at home, than this may not be much of a surprise. Even so, it’s a disgusting way to treat people and no one should ever have to endure slavery in any form.

At the most superficial level you can see what is happening. Companies hire undocumented workers for less money, no benefits and no protections because the workers won’t complain due to fear of deportation. Although the conditions are horrific, immigrant workers still come because they can make more money than if they were to stay in their native country. It’s a sad case when companies and people exploit this scenario with no respect for human life. Luckily there are organized groups taking a stand against this.

You may be asking what this has to do with you. You (hopefully) are not the one running the company or enslaving workers. But, the companies guilty of these crimes do not work in a vacuum. Please consider the following things:

-These kinds of systems function because of our demand for the products, whether direct or indirect. If we, in large numbers, boycott these foods, we no longer support the abusive practices and companies will have to change their ways or go out of business.

-Fast food restaurants and chain stores provide mass consumption of produce and meat. They do this to provide a service to the crap load of people who eat fast food. If you get the fast food industry to change their practices, it makes a HUGE affect on the food industry.

-When foods are out of season in our region we have to get them from elsewhere. We cannot support our local farms and must branch out to areas where these foods are common. This allows for large conglomerate companies to exploit workers in the areas where the food is. Since there is high demand, they need a lot of (cheap) help.

So it’s not so simple then. We are not outside of the boundaries of an abusive system. The system needs us to work. The most basic way we can help to prevent slavery of food industry workers is to be knowledgeable about where our food comes from. Simply do not buy food from companies who support this. Tell your friends to boycott them as well.

As far as grocery stores refusing to purchase produce from the tomato growers mentioned on the radio show, Whole Foods is the only one who has done so. We all know that Whole Foods is a bit expensive. The reason why your food is so cheap may have something to do with the small amount the company pays its workers. Times are hard but does that give us license to support the abuse of other human beings? If you must have something cheaper, many areas have local co-ops and farmers markets. If your area does not, maybe something needs to be done about that. These things will only come with demand.

We are responsible for the treatment of the people who pick and prepare our food. We can easily ignore this, because we are distanced from it. But by doing so, we are only allowing it to happen. The companies will not change unless there is an incentive to do it. There will be no rush of conscience. Justice may be brought to a company, but another one will do the same thing in its place. This is a capitalist system and therefore companies change policies based on what brings them business. We are their business, so we need to affect change with what we purchase and use in our daily lives.

I’ve really only touched on the tip of the iceberg with this post. I encourage you to continue researching and paying attention to this. Once you allow yourself to see what’s going on, it becomes much harder to ignore. You will not believe what you see!