Farmers admit we need immigrant laborers; now we have to step up to be accountable for their role.
Fresno, Calif., author and farmer David Mas Masumoto advocates immigration
reform not just for the welfare of those who grow and harvest food, but also
for the enjoyment of all who eat it.
Last year, for one day, no one came to work in my peach orchard. A row of
ladders stood empty. This was my day without immigrant labor.
Without workers, I cannot farm. If I cannot farm, my organic heirloom peaches
and raisins won’t reach peoples dinner tables.
Without passage of immigration reform, I can’t get enough help to harvest my
fruits. This work is transient and something most Americans won’t do, even with
higher wages. Under the current system, which gives so many immigrants illegal
status, good workers from south of the border are forced to hide in the
shadows, constantly fearful of deportation.
As the debate over undocumented workers unfolds, the growing of food seems to
be left out. This debate isn’t just about citizenship. It’s also about who
works the fields and how crops are grown. And it’s about working conditions and
treating workers fairly —something that I and other small farmers try to do as
we labor side by side with our workers.
Immigration reform needs to grant some form of legal status to the nearly 2 million
illegal workers on farms and acknowledge their contribution to the farm economy
and rural communities. At the very least, we should grant undocumented workers
a guest-worker status, ensuring fair treatment for their hard work.
Specialty fruits and vegetables depend on these hands. Now more than ever, a
labor shortage threatens these crops.
I almost lost my raisin crop two years ago. Last year, pear farmers in Northern
California were forced to let fruit rot on trees because there were not enough
workers. I try to ripen my peaches to perfection, but lose many when I can’t
get pickers; some of my best fruits fall from my trees.
There's an art to pruning and growing a perfect peach that requires years of
practice and many hands. Without workers, I’ll have no choice but to farm
differently: The politics of undocumented immigrants can change the flavor on
my farm.
Without labor, agriculture will mechanize the process as much as possible,
substituting technology and capital for people on the land. This shift is not
simply about the invention of a machine, but rather a dramatic change in how
things are grown. It means rewarding plant breeders not for great flavor, but
instead for fruit that works with machines.
I can imagine the ideal machined peaches of the future. Design them so they
will simultaneously ripen. (My crews revisit a single tree four to five times,
picking only what is ripe at the moment.) Breed a peach with a stem that snaps
easily, so a tree can be shaken by a machine. Manufacture fruit that won’t
bruise when harvested, picked rock hard to survive a handless system.
But there is no technology that can replace the human touch without sacrificing
good taste.
Sustainable and organic fruit farming demands constant attention and response
to nature each season: Our systems are labor intensive. I need the human
element on my farm.
Farming is an inexact science. There’s an art to pruning and growing a perfect
peach that requires years of practice and many hands. Without workers, I’ll
have no choice but to farm differently: The politics of undocumented immigrants
can change the flavor on my farm.
But agriculture is morally wrong if the sole goal is to create a new pipeline
of cheap labor. Farmers must acknowledge the value of the people in their
fields.
Undocumented workers have labored like ghosts—invisible, hidden, secluded.
Immigration reform would shed light on them, revealing their worth.
Agriculture has openly acknowledged the need for labor: We also must accept
responsibility for these workers.
As these new Americans are recognized, wages, working conditions and health
benefits must be addressed. This will challenge farmers and the old ways of
doing business. Agriculture has openly acknowledged the need for labor: We also
must accept responsibility for these workers.
I farm with a social contract—a network of honorable, mutually supporting
relationships that contribute to the quality I seek. My work can’t be done by
machines. I want to grow "face food," produce with faces and their
stories, keeping alive the legacy of good, authentic food.
Undocumented workers are part of this food system. We all have a stake in
immigration reform, and the need to recognize the important role of all food
workers. We need to support farming that contributes true flavors to life.
By David Mas Masumoto, Prairie Writers Circle
Farmer David Mas Masumoto of Fresno, Calif., is a Kellogg Foundation Food
and Society Policy Fellow. He has written several books, including Epitaph for
a Peach: Four Seasons on My Family Farm. He wrote this comment for the Land
Institute’s Prairie Writers Circle, Salina, Kan.
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