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Mark Anema's avatar

Yep, let's make farm labor less onerous. Let's direct investment to innovation that will support farm labor. Tractors, harvesters, combines and a lot of other tools have made farm life a lot better. Let's also pay farm laborers better and offer them benefits many office workers take for granted.

Consumers will have to pay more for food. And we'll need to agree on some forcing mechanism (unions?, regulations?, shame?) so that higher prices benefit those doing the labor instead of those who administer the business or provide capital, no matter what part of the food supply chain they occupy. But those are problems that all industries need to solve, not just agriculture.

It's not realistic to hope that farm labor will eventually be able to own enough land to farm by saving their farm wages. I don't think that has ever worked here or anywhere else. Farm workers are labor in a manufacturing plant called a farm. Other than its episodic nature and relaxed OSHA and other regs, it's not really different from other manufacturing jobs. Who expects an auto work to own their own assembly line?

But the flip side is maybe it's time for the pendulum to swing back to labor receiving a bigger piece of the pie from where it's gotten today.

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naturALL - Wine & California's avatar

Love your column. I really respect you for including the farm workers’ perspective. One thing I see missing from the national conversation on farming is how we create a system where those farm farmland ownership can transition to the farm workers. Would love to hear your thoughts!

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Brian Miller's avatar

As a farmer, and someone surrounded by farmers, I don't recall anyone every saying "Farm work sucks. We know it sucks. It has sucked for a long time, at least since people were slicing up their arms with corn stalks and their legs on cotton brambles." Perhaps industrial farming is less rewarding? Perhaps industrial farming is not the model.

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Bruce Steele's avatar

I think you may be missing the social enjoyment that working with other people can bring. Competition, joking, singing are all part of group labor , often far more enjoyable than sitting in a tractor cab on GPS, or a cubicle in some office. Sometimes the work itself is rewarding and the friends close. Money isn’t everything it is cracked up to be and physical labor isn’t something to be looked down on. Power should be an adjunct to labor , not a replacement.

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NPG BELL's avatar

YES!!

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