Food is indispensable in human life.
Food provides people with nutrition and health, helping people to function and
work effectively. But who has ever asked where this nutritious food comes from?
Are these foods grown from hard labor in a harsh environment of farm workers? Nobody
wants this to happen. So what is the exploitation of farm workers? A person
should not work more than 8 hours a day, but a farm worker works 10 hours a
day. A person can work 6 hours a day in the sun, but a farm worker works
relentlessly under the heat of the sun. A person who works, especially in
contact with chemicals, must have protective equipment, but a farm worker picks
crops with bare hands. They are exploitation of farm workers. But this is what
is happening every day throughout the farm in the United States. Therefore,
bringing better conditions to farm workers is what everyone should do. A really
fresh food must really be a food from an unencumbered farmer's hands.
Farmers and farm workers are different. Farmers
are people who work in the field, under the temperature of the environment,
grow whatever product they want. Farm workers are also people working in the
field, under the temperature of the environment for entire working hour, they
follow the rules of cultivation in the field, but there are no regulations on
rest time and their safety. Overtime work is nothing new to everyone. However,
overtime work every day is a serious problem. According to Shaw, working too
many hours in a day leads to many health problems: cardiovascular, resistance,
body fatigue, nervous exhaustion, and stress. This is a problem that many
people encounter. However, for farm workers, what they are suffering is even
more. Farming has never been easy. Many conditions and factors that people
cannot control make the job more difficult. Humans cannot adjust to improve healthier
themselves to be able to do more strenuous tasks: carrying, fertilizing,
tending plants on a large area. Farm workers are not healthier than anyone else,
they are just used to enduring these things.
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Field work is greatly influenced by the
weather. Good weather brings good harvests for harvesters. Sunny and rainy environment
must combine harmoniously to bring fresh food. But none of us wants to pick
juicy red tomatoes on a scorching sunny day, or to pick up a bunch of fresh
green grapes on a stormy lunch. However, the farm workers have to do it. The
rigors of working hours as well as the weather-based working environment make
the work of farm workers much more difficult.
The main reason leading to the health
status of the farm workers is the chemical medicine used in farming. Although many
agricultural reforms have been carried out to bring more nutritious food, but
the use of chemical fertilizers is unavoidable. From the movie The Harvest, people who are most exposed
to chemical fertilizers become farm workers. We eat green vegetables, and
people who directly suffer from the negative effects of fertilizers are farm
workers. Chemical fertilizers mix not only in soil but also in the air. Farm
workers in the process of working must be in direct contact with chemical
fertilizers by hand as well as through inhalation. The farm working environment
does not allow them to choose which types to harvest and how to harvest. They
become machines that work incessantly at the farm. Machines need rest and
maintenance, so do they. However, the difficult life and the need to make a
living has led the farm workers to trade much better working conditions to be
able to work on unsafe farms like this.
Although forced labor may sound
unrealistic in the 21st century, the truth is still happening. According to Bowens,
decades ago, farm workers had to work around the clock and were caught in
produce trucks. Their lives went through violence and death in the fields.
Suffering seeps into their lives, like chemicals ingrained in their bodies. Man
is born equal. People should work in a more equal environment. Therefore,
Bowens mentioned that the violence of farm workers was continuous in many
places and years. Even the Immokalee farm workers are well known for the
scandals of human rights violence, which took place in tomato growing areas. In
addition, the Coalition of Immokalee Workers fought heroically to improve wages
and working conditions for farm workers working in tomato fields. Bowens
mentioned in the article, "The Coalition of Immokalee Workers continues to
fight for the rights of its majority Latino, Haitian, and Mayan Indian
farmworkers, and continues to investigates slavery in the fields today”. Meanwhile,
not only Florida farm workers continue to suffer from these problems, but farm
workers around the world are also facing such bad things.
Exploiting farm workers is illegal, but
migrant's exploitation of child labor is even more inhumane and unethical. The Harvest by U. Roberto Romano, a
documentary is about the difficult and needy lives of immigrant children who
have to work as adults in the fields. The film struck a heavy blow on the minds
of viewers about the process of harvesting the fresh food sold in supermarkets.
These foods are the miserable life of the children and their families, the time
not to go to school, the effort spent for the little money. Children are the
future of a country, a generation that everyone must protect. Children can pick
crops in the field, but must be under the condition of learning and playing.
The life of migrant children should not be dominated by money. If we were a
school, we should share those difficulties with migrant children. If we were a
tree, we should shade the migrant children to go to school and have a better
future. There are many associations to help immigrant children in the US such
as Young Center for Immigrant Children's Rights, Refugee and Immigrant Center
for Education and Legal Services (RAICES) or Act Blue's Support Kids &
Families at the Border. Becoming a volunteer to help migrant children who need
help is a very meaningful job. Helping children who are in more difficult
circumstances than themselves is the best job we can bring to society and the
future.
If one thinks the co-ordination
difficulties are always suitable for colored people or migrants, it is a big
mistake. According to Holt-Gimenez, smallholders, women and people of color, they're
the world's main suppliers of food. But seeing how this world treats those who
diligently create food will make us not want to stay still. Marosi mentioned in
his article The Times that uncovered the truth behind fresh food at Wal-mart,
Whole Foods, Subway and a number of other brands: farm laborers detained for
months at a time. rat-infested camps, lack of running water and no beds to
rest; Unclear wages lead to a lack of living expenses, and workplace violence. Therefore,
protecting the rights of farm workers is a right thing amidst the many
difficulties they are facing.
The life is hard, the material is
escalating, but the wages of farm workers have never changed. Helping farm workers
to raise wages is difficult, not an overnight job. But things related to human
rights and the rights of working people are things we can change together. Want
to change the working environment of farm workers, we can change our own small
daily living habits. We should start by choosing to buy food from reputable
stores or directly from the supermarket. We cannot control the activities of
others, but we can be self-conscious. “It takes both sides to build a bridge”. In
order to change the working conditions of farm workers, both farm workers and
those who want to help them have to fight together. Farm workers must make
clear arguments and opinions to their employer, where they work. People who
want to help farm workers can communicate with each other, spread the message
through public places, or social networks like Twitter, Facebook and Instagram
are great choices. Helping everyone around is something everyone should do.
Everyone eats every day, but helping others sometimes only needs one of those
days. With our small actions, migrant children will still be able to go to
school. Also, farm workers, who work diligently can keep their hands safe,
continue to bring us fresh food.
