Unfair Organics
Photo by Alan Thornton/Getty Images
Ay caramba, another problem with big-box organics and another reason to know thy farmer: conventionally unfair labor.
From Grist: “Workers on organic farms are treated as poorly as their conventional counterparts.”
“There’s a common conventional wisdom by a lot of consumers, especially at the higher-end stores, that just because it’s organic the workers are treated better,” said UFW spokesperson Mark Grossman. “And that’s simply not true.”
That disconnect between reality and public perception is of increasing concern to farmworker advocates, food activists, and some farmers, who worry that as the organic sector replicates the abusive conditions of conventional agriculture, it is sacrificing the founding values of the sustainable-food movement. The desire to return organic to its roots is driving a slew of initiatives to develop labor standards for organic farms. If successful, the new standards would establish the organic sector as the kind of fully sustainable industry—both socially responsible and environmentally sound—that could be a model for the entire economy. …
Although comprehensive studies of conditions on organic farms are hard to find, complaints like Ortiz’s are not uncommon. For example, Willamette River Organics, one of Oregon’s largest organic operations, has been hit with several lawsuits charging violations of minimum-wage laws. A Human Rights Watch report on the exploitation of adolescent workers said the atmosphere at Arizona’s organic Pavich Farms was “hostile, suspicious,” with laborers apparently not permitted to speak to inspectors. Threemile Canyon, a large organic dairy and potato farm in Oregon, faces accusations of sexual discrimination in its hiring practices.
Tirso Moreno, farmworker organizer, answers questionsWorkers get no consolation in the form of higher wages or better benefits, either. According to a report published last year by researchers at UC-Davis, a majority of 188 California organic farms surveyed do not pay a living wage or provide medical or retirement plans. In fact, most organic workers earn the same as those in conventional fields—less (adjusted for inflation) than they were making in the 1970s, when the famous [United Farmworkers of America] boycotts occurred. “The exploitative conditions that farmworkers face in the U.S. are abysmal—it’s a human-rights crisis,” said Richard Mandelbaum, policy analyst at the Farmworker Support Committee. “In terms of wages and labor rights, there’s really no difference between organic and conventional.
We already know that recycling makes the world go round. But in order to keep parade moving, we need to buy recycled, as well. These days, we’re not restricted to just paper, either—and even then you have choices such as stationery pulped from recycled denim or coffee chaff. From recycled glass to recycled rubber, practically anything that can be recycled, has been. Recycling often takes much less energy and resources than it does to mine virgin materials—although, strictly speaking, most materials are “downcycled” because some of their properties are degraded when they’re reworked, such as when paper is downcycled to low-grade cardboard. And eventually they’ll hit a point where they’re of no practical use whatsoever and have to travel to that big recycling plant up in the sky. So recycling doesn’t grant you a Get Out of Jail Free card when it comes to minimizing your own personal consumption, but it’s nice to have eco-friendlier options when we’re looking for them.
Michelle said,
August 4, 2006 at 12:12 pm
This, of course, is disappointing. I recently read that the company that produces Silk is no longer buying soybeans from US farmers. Profit, profit, profit!!! Oh man I am sick of this. It is difficult to know what to do.
The Worsted Witch » The Organic Myth? said,
October 6, 2006 at 12:55 pm
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