The article I chose to compare to our readings on migrant farming is titled Migrant Farm Workers: Our Nation’s Invisible Population. Migrant farming is necessary to market non-blemished produce to the public. Walking into a grocery store, nobody wants to grab a bag of squished, wrinkly grapes. Migrant farm workers rise at early hours in the day and spend their entire day in a field, harvesting and packaging produce. This work is done for extremely low wages, a median income of $7,500/year. Migrant farmers do their jobs mostly because it is necessary for them to provide for their family. A majority of migrant farmers are undocumented citizens that are not legally allowed to work at big corporations, so they do not have many other options. Working for low wages allows corporations and fast food companies that use the farmer’s products to sell their processed versions of these fruits and vegetables for very cheap. Processed foods, like noted in Food Inc., are inexpensive to make and to buy, but can be detrimental to our health. This article can also be paralleled to Tracie McMillan’s The American Way of Eating. McMillan discusses that she was the only “white girl” working in the fields, which were filled primarily with illegal workers from Spanish speaking countries. Their work is done with pride; they are proud to support their families and make low wages, because anything helps, “it adds up” (34).
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Meet the Author: Rachel KonchalRachel is a sophomore Pre-Med Biochemistry & Molecular Biology major in the Honors College at Michigan State University. Rachel also is working towards a minor in Environmental Studies & Sustainability. This web page was created for use during her time in the class ISS 310 001H, Eating Industrial. Archives
November 2016
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