Chasing the Harvest

Chasing the Harvest
Author: Gabriel Thompson
Publisher: Verso Books
Total Pages: 321
Release: 2017-05-16
Genre: Political Science
ISBN: 1786632209

Lives from an invisible community—the migrant farmworkers of the United States The Grapes of Wrath brought national attention to the condition of California’s migrant farmworkers in the 1930s. Cesar Chavez and the United Farm Workers’ grape and lettuce boycotts captured the imagination of the United States in the 1960s and ’70s. Yet today, the stories of the more than 800,000 men, women, and children working in California’s fields—one third of the nation’s agricultural work force—are rarely heard, despite the persistence of wage theft, dangerous working conditions, and uncertain futures. This book of oral histories makes the reality of farm work visible in accounts of hardship, bravery, solidarity, and creativity in California’s fields, as real people struggle to win new opportunities for future generations. Among the narrators: Maricruz, a single mother fired from a packing plant after filing a sexual assault complaint against her supervisor. Roberto, a vineyard laborer in the scorching Coachella Valley who became an advocate for more humane working conditions after his teenage son almost died of heatstroke. Oscar, an elementary school teacher in Salinas who wants to free his students from a life in the fields, the fate that once awaited him as a child.

Hired Farm Workers

Hired Farm Workers
Author: United States. Employment Standards Administration
Publisher:
Total Pages: 142
Release: 1971
Genre: Agricultural wages
ISBN:

The New Rural Poverty

The New Rural Poverty
Author: Philip L. Martin
Publisher: The Urban Insitute
Total Pages: 138
Release: 2006
Genre: Business & Economics
ISBN: 9780877667292

Immigration is changing the face of rural America, from Florida to Washington and from Maine to California. Migrants arrive, many from Mexico, to fill jobs on farms and in farm-related industries, usually at earnings below the poverty. Leaders of rural industries are adamant that a steady influx of foreign workers is necessary for economic survival. But the integration of these newcomers is uneven: many immigrants achieve some measure of the American dream, but others find persistent poverty, overcrowded housing, and crime. The New Rural Poverty examines the effect of rural immigration on inland agricultural areas in California, farm areas in coastal California, and meat and poultry processing centers in Delaware and Iowa. The authors examine the interdependencies between immigrants and agriculture in the United States, explore the policy challenges and options, and assess how current proposals for immigration reform will affect rural America.

Farm Workers, Agribusiness, and the State

Farm Workers, Agribusiness, and the State
Author: Linda C. Majka
Publisher:
Total Pages: 368
Release: 1982
Genre: Agricultural laborers
ISBN:

Historical account of the social conflict between agricultural workers and agribusiness, and the role of state intervention in California, USA - analyses agricultural trade unionism since 1870, immigration of Chinese, Japanese, Mexicans and Filipinos, and its regulation; examines the economic recession of the 1930s, rise of rural worker organizations, internal migration, and state-enrolled contract labour; reports on the formation of the United Farm Workers and its struggle for trade union recognition, opposition, and state mediation. Bibliography.

The U.S. Produce Industry and Labor

The U.S. Produce Industry and Labor
Author: Linda Calvin
Publisher: DIANE Publishing
Total Pages: 57
Release: 2010
Genre: Technology & Engineering
ISBN: 1437942695

Fruit and vegetable production is a labor-intensive process, and over half of the hired workers employed by growers are believed to be unauthorized immigrants. Reforms to immigration laws, if they reduce the labor supply, may increase the cost of farm labor. The authors of this report assess how particular fruit and vegetable commodities might adjust if labor rates increased. Analysis of case studies suggests a range of possible adjustment scenarios, including increased mechanization for some crops, reduced U.S. output for a few crops, and increased use of labor aids to improve labor productivity for others. Charts and tables. This is a print on demand edition of an important, hard-to-find report.

The Farm Labor Problem

The Farm Labor Problem
Author: J. Edward Taylor
Publisher: Academic Press
Total Pages: 244
Release: 2018-11-29
Genre: Business & Economics
ISBN: 0128172681

The Farm Labor Problem: A Global Perspective explores the unique character of agricultural labor markets and the implications for food production, farm worker welfare and advocacy, and immigration policy. Agricultural labor markets differ from other labor markets in fundamental ways related to seasonality and uncertainty, and they evolve differently than other labor markets as economies develop. We weave economic analysis with the history of agricultural labor markets using data and real-world events. The farm labor history of California and the United States is particularly rich, so it plays a central role in the book, but the book has a global perspective ensuring its relevance to Europe and high-income Asian countries. The chapters in this book provide readers with the basics for understanding how farm labor markets work (labor in agricultural household models, farm labor supply and demand, spatial market equilibria); farm labor and immigration policy; farm labor organizing; farm employment and rural poverty; unionization and the United Farm Workers movement; the Fair Food Program as a new approach to collective bargaining; the declining immigrant farm labor supply; and what economic development in relatively low-income countries portends for the future of agriculture in the United States and other high-income countries. The book concludes with a chapter called "Robots in the Fields," which extrapolates current trends to a perhaps not-so-distant future. The Farm Labor Problem serves as both a guide to policy makers, farmworker advocates and international development organizations and as a textbook for students of agricultural economics and economics. - Describes the unique character of agricultural labor markets providing consequential insights - Contextualizes the economics of agricultural labor with a global perspective - Examines the history of farm labor, immigration, policy and collective bargaining with a view to the future

Agriculture, Forestry, and Fishing Research at NIOSH

Agriculture, Forestry, and Fishing Research at NIOSH
Author: Institute of Medicine
Publisher: National Academies Press
Total Pages: 354
Release: 2008-06-10
Genre: Technology & Engineering
ISBN: 0309177693

The agriculture, forestry, and fishing sectors are the cornerstone of industries that produce food, fiber, and biofuel. The National Institute for Occupational Safety and Health (NIOSH) conducts research in order to improve worker safety and health in these sectors. This National Research Council book reviews the NIOSH Agriculture, Forestry, and Fishing Program to evaluate the 1) relevance of its work to improvements in occupational safety and health and 2) the impact of research in reducing workplace illnesses and injuries. The assessment reveals that the program has made meaningful contributions to improving worker safety and health in these fields. To enhance the relevance and impact of its work and fulfill its mission, the NIOSH Agriculture, Forestry, and Fishing Program should provide national leadership, coordination of research, and activities to transfer findings, technologies, and information into practice. The program will also benefit from establishing strategic goals and implementing a comprehensive surveillance system in order to better identify and track worker populations at risk.

Fresh Fruit, Broken Bodies

Fresh Fruit, Broken Bodies
Author: Seth M. Holmes
Publisher: Univ of California Press
Total Pages: 323
Release: 2023-11-28
Genre: Social Science
ISBN: 0520399455

Fresh Fruit, Broken Bodies provides an intimate examination of the everyday lives, suffering, and resistance of Mexican migrants in our contemporary food system. Seth Holmes, an anthropologist and MD in the mold of Paul Farmer and Didier Fassin, shows how market forces, anti-immigrant sentiment, and racism undermine health and health care. Holmes was invited to trek with his companions clandestinely through the desert into Arizona and was jailed with them before they were deported. He lived with Indigenous families in the mountains of Oaxaca and in farm labor camps in the United States, planted and harvested corn, picked strawberries, and accompanied sick workers to clinics and hospitals. This “embodied anthropology” deepens our theoretical understanding of the ways in which social inequities come to be perceived as normal and natural in society and in health care. In a substantive new epilogue, Holmes and Indigenous Oaxacan scholar Jorge Ramirez-Lopez provide a current examination of the challenges facing farmworkers and the lives and resistance of the protagonists featured in the book.

Bio-economy and Agri-production

Bio-economy and Agri-production
Author: Dionysis Bochtis
Publisher: Academic Press
Total Pages: 384
Release: 2020-11-06
Genre: Technology & Engineering
ISBN: 0128211431

Bio-Economy and Agri-Production: Concepts and Evidence bridges the knowledge gap between sustainability and bio-economy aspects of agri-production. It complements traditional perspectives of agri-production with advanced engineering, information and communication technologies recently applied in agri-business. Including knowledgebased agriculture and reflecting sustainability and circular economy principles, the book presents a holistic view of sustainable bio-economy, contributing to the development of integrated agricultural systems. As technology advances, agricultural production management practices are now being called upon to address the need for sustainability in the bio-economy. Bio-Economy and Agri-Production: Concepts and Evidence presents information to broaden the awareness and promotion of practices and technology to reduce the use of inputs, protect health and environment and improve resource-use efficiency. Topics that are addressed include circular economy in agri-business, lifecycle thinking, lean management, agri-chains, green production, and waste management. Bio-Economy and Agri-Production: Concepts and Evidence is a valuable reference for professionals, consultants, and policy making stakeholders in biosystems engineering and agricultural industries - Focuses on responsible management practices to protect the environment while producing needed resources - Application based for those in agricultural sectors seeking to integrate bioeconomic strategies - Provides real-world insights into transitioning practices