Food on the table

Do you really know how the food on your table comes from? Or how it got from the fields of the Central Valley of California to Whole Foods?

Thanks to brownfemipower, she brought us a good point. Although, she brings up feminist issues regarding migrant farm work, I think this is a human rights issue. Its almost silent in the organic, sustainable food movements that seem to have caught on.

Having been raised and lived in the central valley of California I witnessed first hand of the human side. My family arrived here from the Philippines in the early 70's and one of the earliest work they could find was picking asparagus in the fall, peaches in the summer.

One of my earliest memories was being dragged to the fields because my mother couldn't find a babysitter. I must have been 6 years old. I remember my mother taking my brother and me to the fields with her, dressed in layers even though the weather was triple digits. My mother warning us that the peaches were prickly. Having to be there at 5:30 in the morning, and leaving 12hrs later. Much later, when I was a teenager, I remember the last time I dealt with migrant farmers, this time, my mother was dating a foreman. I came to visit a camp, literally a shack, by the farm site. It housed 10-12 men, in rudimentary sleeping quarters. His job was to hire the men for the jobsite, none of them were "legal" aliens.

I am well aware of the conditions of migrant farm work. It wouldn't take very much to make the work humane. Yet, you never hear of the people who shop at Whole Foods, or insist that they are vegans take a second though about how your food gets on the table. As long as it has the "organic" tag on it its ok. This is why food is relatively cheap in this country, its why we have plenty of good produce. Its a shame that we liberals are quick to point out the slave labor in other countries, only to ignore the same conditions that is literally on our back yard.