Low Cost Of American Farming

Over the past couple decades the number of undocumented immigrants involved in American agriculture has increased by the hundreds. They have dominated the fields on the west coast and have been put to work in some very harsh conditions. Many people in the US believe that these men, women, and even children are occupying jobs that legal citizens could have. We realize that even though much of our agriculture these days is harvested by modern technologies, a big part of the agriculture’s economy is made up of labor intensive from people, such as harvesting grapes, strawberries, pistachios, raspberries, etcetera. As we dig deeper into this topic we will realize why our agricultural

Every living organism on the planet has to eat and without farmers that production is lost. Crash Course reports, “Before the Industrial Revolution about eighty percent of the world’s population was engaged in farming to keep itself and the other twenty percent of people from starving. Today, in the United States, less than one percent of people list their occupation as farming” (“Coal, Steam, and The Industrial Revolution”). That leaves only one percent of people to feed the other ninety-nine percent of people in the country. What if something were to happen to this one percent? People are completely reliant on this small group of people to care for them, this must be unbelievably stressful on these farms knowing the demand. If the population continues to grow at it’s projected rate, then starvation will only worsen and America will face a large tribulation as a

Factory Farming is an increasing industry in the United States. These large farms, which evidently appear to be more like slaughterhouses than the typical farms a person can imagine are located throughout the United States. These factory farms contain animals ranging from chickens, sheep, goats, cows, turkeys, and pigs, they also contain dairy products. The conditions for the animals and the employees of these factory farms are inhumane and vile. Life behind the walls of the factory farm is both unsanitary for the animals and the employees. Employees are forced to endure long hours and poor treatment. Animals in these conditions withstand living in cages and are forced to live in uninhabitable ways.

Despite harsh working conditions, farmworkers have worked constantly for years due to the need of necessities for their families along with themselves. After thorough investigation, I have come to a conclusion that even after so many years of protesting as well as working diligently, farmworkers still have experienced unacceptable working conditions, however they were not as bad as the past. There was a definite need for a drastic change due to the working conditions of the farmworkers. Conditions may have improved due to the social justices that Cesar Chavez including The 5 Year Strike has gained. As I was comparing both working conditions of today’s farmworkers with farmworkers of other times in history, I have come to find many differences

Following the Civil War, a second industrial revolution in America brought many changes to the nation’s agriculture sector. The new technologies that were created transformed how farmers worked and the way in which the sector functioned. Agriculture expanded and became more industrial. Meanwhile government policies, or lack of them for a while, and hard economic conditions put difficult strains on farmers and their occupation. These changes in technology, economic conditions, and government policy from 1865 to 1900 transformed and improved agriculture while leaving farmers in hardship.

In Jeanne Laskas’ article, “Hecho en America”, which translates to “Made in America”, Laskas recalls when she spent a season with the blueberry pickers and argues how they are responsible for providing the fruits Americans consume. According to her article, “Most of the people who pick our food come from Mexico. They blanket the entire country, and yet to most of us they 're strangers, so removed from our lives we hardly know they 're here, people hunched over baskets in the flat distance as we drive down vacation highways. ” She is basically saying that the fruit pickers are taken for granted. Then, she states her argument that in the media and during election times, illegal immigration is a big problem and something must be done. They are taking American jobs, jobs that no one in America wants to do anyway. All of these things are used to distract America from the back-breaking, hard work these people do.

Holmes’ purpose in conducting his fieldwork with the migrant workers (specifically the Triqui of Mexico) of California and Washington fruit agriculture was to gain understanding from a perspective many do not consider and that has not been assessed in this way before. Similarly, the goal of this book was to pass that understanding to the common reader, the average American, those who are affected directly and those who are believe they are unaffected by the migrants of American agriculture—and to distinguish that they are not unaffected. Doing so creates the potential for change, even if by only a small factor like

"Where there 's a will, there 's a way" is a phrase often used here in America and it holds true to all walks of life including migrant workers. The desires range from the simple want to make an honest living to wanting to support the family to just wanting to live the American dream. However, the "way", does not always possess the same innocent light of the optimistic saying. In Eric Schlosser’s article, “In the Strawberry Fields” he discusses exactly that. Immigrants often end up doing the laborious farm work most Americans are unwilling to do with good reason. More specifically, he discusses the working conditions of migrant workers in strawberry fields, one of the most difficult row crops to grow. This work is largely done in California where the farming industry is allowed to bend laws as they please, routinely exploiting the vulnerability of immigrants’ legal states. Though, the concepts of small fruits and workers ' rights are not completely relatable to one another until we move past the happy connotation of the vibrant red, juicy fruit and into the grittier efforts that go into making them what we know in grocery stores. Many of us have the pleasant memories of the cool fruit on warm summer days but this image is quite the opposite to its production. Bent at the waist, hundreds of migrant workers, pick fruits under the sweltering summer sun and it would seem like a way a farming that vanished long ago but it is most certainly here. Though the conditions are worsened

With tension on the rise, American farmers continue to demand reforms to lift their burden of debt as well as greater representation in government. Recently, with the tremendous growth in industrialization of oil and steel, migrants have felt the difficulties associated with farming and continue to fall into arrears.

It is hard for farmers who need employees to keep agricultural business going when they cannot find willing people to work these jobs. Farmers are not the only businesses affected but also slaughterhouses, dairies, and lumber businesses as well. These jobs

In 1965 in Delano, California, there are many migrant farmers struggling to pick grapes at the end of their long shift. The poor farmers do not have any bathroom breaks during their long work hours. They barely have enough money to support their family after taking a pay cut from $1.40 to $1.25 per hour. There is no clean water as they all sweat profusely in the scorching heat of the California summers. The farm workers work as long as possible because they need the money.

It was also conducive to fraud by farmers: only they knew the size of profits to be shared.” So migrants’ labors needed more pay and fair treatment. Some workers were willing to work, but others were not because of unfair treatment. The most migrant labors earn yearly incomes under the poverty level, so how can they pay higher taxes. Another reason, why farm worker has not to pay higher taxes because migrant labors faced injuries, exposure to heat and sun, and poor condition in the fields.

The United States is well known as the land of opportunity. Many immigrants come here to work and live a better life. For immigrants that cannot enter the country legally, the end result is to enter the country illegally. The majority of undocumented immigrants “do often take some of the country’s least attractive job, such as agriculture” (Davidson).

Growing up on a small family wheat farm in southwestern Oklahoma, I have experienced the harsh conditions of farming firsthand. The job that used to employ the largest amount of people in the United States has lost the support and the respect of the American people. The Jeffersonian Ideal of a nation of farmers has been tossed aside to be replaced by a nation of white-collar workers. The family farm is under attack and it is not being protected. The family farm can help the United States economically by creating jobs in a time when many cannot afford the food in the stores. The family farm can help prevent the degradation of the environment by creating a mutually beneficial relationship between the people producing the food and nature. The family farm is the answer to many of the tough questions facing the United States today, but these small farms are going bankrupt all too often. The government’s policy on farming is the largest factor in what farms succeed, but simple economics, large corporations, and society as a whole influence the decline in family farms; small changes in these areas will help break up the huge corporate farms, keeping the small family farm afloat.

Over the past two decades the number of low-skilled workers in the United States has increased because of immigration, both legal and illegal. (Chiswick, 2006)