Introduction “It’s really hot. You think you’re going to die.” -Child farmworker, North Carolina1 As the country has evolved from a largely agrarian society, and our population increasingly lives in urban centers, Americans have become mostly agriculturally illiterate,2 disconnected from their food, with a widening gap between farm and table. But as a rise in globalization began to awaken consumers’ consciousness of exploitative foreign labor practices that have a hand in creating the goods on which we depend — from clothing and sneakers, to mining and electronics. Domestically we have seen recent protests against companies like Wayfair for furnishing
1 Student Action with Farmworkers and Wake Forest School of Medicine Center for Worker Health, “Hired Latinx Child Farmworkers: HEAT-RELATED ILLNESS (HRI)” infographic, accessed September 23, 2021, https://saf-unite.org/ resources_/child-labor-research-study-2/ 2 Caitlin Dewey, “The surprising number of American adults who think chocolate milk comes from brown cows,” The Washington Post, June 15, 2017, https://www.washingtonpost.com/news/wonk/wp/2017/06/15/seven-percent-of-americans-think-chocolate-milk-comes-from-brown-cows-andthats-not-even-the-scary-part/
6
child migrant detention facilities,3 and Chipotle for contracting with vendors who violate OSHA rights.4 However, one domestic industry — agriculture — has been largely overlooked, and the children who work the fields and farms across the United States go unnoticed harvesting fruits and vegetables, tending land, raising livestock, cultivating crops, and feeding the nation. For many white communities in this country, family farming has been a strong tradition. The farming community has long prided itself on values of independence and self-reliance and passing down that same strong work ethic to their children and future generations. But that image betrays a history of racist terror and exploitation. The agricultural system that once depended on the subjugation of African Americans now increasingly exploits impoverished Brown and Black migrant 3 Jasmine Wu, “Wayfair employees walk out, customers call for boycott in protest over bed sales to Texas border detention camp,” CNBC, June 26, 2019, https://www.cnbc. com/2019/06/26/wayfair-draws-backlash-calls-for-boycott-after-employee-protest.html 4 Christopher Weber, “Chipotle in hot salsa over tomato pickers’ rights,” Grist, September 26, 2012, https://grist.org/ food/chipotleciw/
Child Farmworkers
