Got Food? Say Thanks to a Farmworker This Week Maisie Ganzler - The Huffington Post
go to original March 24, 2015

National Farmworker Awareness Week is March 24-31, 2015. What are you going to do to thank the people that pick our food? Watch the film Food Chains on iTunes for just 99 cents. (IllumineGroup)

An apple a day keeps the doctor away... but not if you're a farmworker picking 7,000 lbs. of apples per day on average for around 2 cents per pound. Apple pickers carry the fruit around their necks in a 40-lb sack that they empty into 1,000-lb. bins on the ground - each bin earns the worker $15 to $20.

Doesn't sound very ergonomic does it? Too bad U.S. law doesn't require farms to offer health insurance, workers compensation, or disability insurance.

A few years ago comedian Stephen Colbert had United Farm Workers President Arturo Rodriguez on the Colbert Report for a joint campaign they called "Take Our Jobs - Please." They invited any American who wanted a job harvesting produce to replace an immigrant worker, with free training. (Despite common perceptions, harvesting food fast and carefully takes a lot of skill and practice.) Even with unemployment soaring, only three people took the UFW up on the offer - and one of them was Colbert. His day spent in the fields opened a couple million eyes to how hard farmworkers work, for how little money and respect.

I mention all this because the 16th annual Farmworker Awareness Week starts Tuesday, March 24, and continues through March 31, the birthday of revered labor leader César Chavez. What, you didn't know about Farmworker Awareness Week? I'm not surprised.

Although farmworkers feed the world - 85% of fruits and vegetables are hand-picked - harvesting fruits and vegetables remains one of the most underappreciated, poorly paid, and dangerous jobs in America.

Student Action with Farmworkers aims to change that with this annual week of educational events and social media campaigns (follow along via #NFAW2015) dedicated to different farmworker issues such as living conditions, pesticides and health, living wages, rights, and more.

Read the rest at The Huffington Post

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