We’d like to take this opportunity to state for the record that agricultural labor is skilled labor. It takes many skills, manual dexterity, physical and mental stamina to plant, cultivate and harvest the 80 different crops we grow here. In our strawberry patch, our team is actually multi-tasking: harvesting good berries and packing them directly into clamshells for sale, as well as picking and sorting berries that will go into jam, and cleaning up rotten fruit from the field and plants. Stoop labor (work you do bent over) is difficult even if you are experienced doing it. While doing all this work, all our team members also use digital tools including spreadsheets to record harvest data. We hope you will appreciate the care and attention that goes into each pound of berries. We are so grateful for everyone who shows up, does the work, and even has a smile at the end of the day. There is so much more we want to share with you, but for now, check out these links for a few different perspectives:
Short documentary films produced by Student Action with Farmworkers
This short article on the Economics of Farm Labor Shortages provides an excellent perspective on some of the larger systemic conditions affecting farm labor in the United States including the prices of imported food and purchasing power of wages.
Did you know? Farm workers in the United States, including U.S. citizens, and regardless of immigration status, were purposefully excluded from worker protections of the NLRA and FLSA, including the minimum wage and the right to organize. Learn more at www.farmworkerjustice.org
We believe that farm workers deserve respect, and our appreciation on a daily basis. We pay all workers above the minimum wage, provide opportunities for advancement, a profit sharing program, paid sick leave, and we also pay for workers compensation insurance. Though required by law, having this insurance is not always the case for farms where undocumented workers are paid cash, and if an injury occurs, they are on their own as well as out of a job. We believe farm workers deserve better, and we will continue to work to improve what we can offer our team.
We are eternally grateful for all of our local year-round team members, and our seasonal field crew members who choose to return to work with us each year through the H2A visa seasonal guest worker program. We want to specifically thank those who spend months each year away from their families to help us grow food: Jaime, Eduardo P., Jose Franciso, Eduardo B., Maria, Martha, Fatima, Efrain, Luis Miguel, Margarito, Faustino and Pablo, who are all from Puebla, Mexico. Their efforts in field production have helped us create many additional jobs, including doing deliveries, farmers markets, logistics and farm operations.
We hope that all of our customers and CSA members will take time to learn about the issues that farm workers all over the country face, and take action to push for reforms that protect and value farm work and sustainable food production in this country.