And We Grow Fat Upon The Fruits of Their Labor
THERE IS A HIDDEN COST to our delicious food. There is a hidden cost to Capitalism. There are vulnerable people suffering, and for their trouble, they are demonized.
MY ABUELO AND ABUELA made their way in this América by working the fields for years. That is why I keep the UFW icon and link on my site. This is an important part of my family’s history. Even as a child, my own papi worked the fields with my grandparents for years until my nanita decided it was “time for Juanito to go to school.” (That’s him in the pic to the left.) And then they made that happen.
I don’t necessarily think that it is bad for children to work alongside their parents. Actually, I think that is very good. And missing from what I see in the culture out there. It’s a sad loss. But as long as parents can be teachers in other ways (and not relegate it all to strangers) I suppose not all is lost.
This story, reporting on the Adkin Blue Ribbon Packing Company, in South Haven, Michigan, and the fact that many children are doing the work of picking the blueberries that we delectably drop into our desserts kicks off the lede by framing the magnanimous actions of Walmart, who is cutting ties with Adkin. I’m sure this is seen as a great opportunity by Walmart, known to many as the “most anti-union company” out there, a way to boost their image. But what will it do to those families who need that money? Is that really the most righteous thing they can think of doing?
Truth is, I watch these kids picking berries, smart kids who know about pesticides; strong little girl that can carry two buckets at five years old or so, and think to myself they are going to be so much more prepared for life than the little girl who is learning to feel self esteem when handed a trophy and tiara for being “Little Miss Blueberry.” Truth is, I see that little girl stooped over carrying two buckets for measly pay, and then those shots of kids happily eating blueberry ice cream or getting crowned Little Miss Blueberry, and it all feels very wrong. It’s just too symbolic of a larger truth. And anyway, why don’t they go out in the fields and crown the little girl with buckets? SHE is Little Miss Blueberry as far as I’m concerned. And her crown is the sacrifice of what most of us think of as childhood.
Despite the benefits of working closely with your parents, it’s obviously true that it’s egregious and wrong that this is what people are forced to do to live decently in this country. People should not have to enlist all their children to help them earn a living, to barely get by, to get paid by the bucket and not much. We know how spendy those little crates of blueberries are at the store!
But it’s not as simple as punishing the company. That punishes the families, too. Soon, lest we perish as a nation, it is incumbent upon us to open our eyes and begin seeing a larger picture.
We need to realize that this is the price of Capitalism as we know it, today.
The amount of poverty and suffering required for the emergence of a Rockefeller, and the amount of depravity that the accumulation of a fortune of such magnitude entails, are left out of the picture, and it is not always possible to make the people in general see this.”
- Che Guevara
There is no free ride, there is no cheap food, the reason we get delicious berries out of season anywhere in the nation is similar to the reason Madoff got rich. A lot of “little people” get screwed for these conveniences, to make it possible for distributors and retailers to jack up the cost and rake in profit on the sweat of children’s backs. It ain’t just going on in Michigan. It’s going on all over the nation, as the report says. (If you’ve TV, watch the special tonight on Nightline.) And you know what? This is the story of how this nation even got its feet of the ground. Enslavement and exploitation of people just like this, just like today.
Who works these fields? Who built this land? Who builds it today? Who keeps your fruit and vegetables on the table? Who keeps the agricultural engine running? It ain’t Pat Buchanan and it ain’t Mister Perdue and it ain’t Lou Dobbs.
Whenever will we get smart about the world? Stop pretending that economic problems sneak across borders with brown skin? Start staging ICE raids in DC, where the real border thievery goes on? When will we stop playing these little games, selling fake dreams that profess a pot of gold at the end of the rainbow, while leaving off the whole truth of all the people that sweat and bled and died nameless to carry that pot there?
Posted in Borders, Economy, Featured, Human Rights, Immigration, Justice, Latinos, Mujeres, Politics, Raza, United States Politics
This cycle seems to be never ending. Consumers often forget or ignore the fact that food products do not mjust magically appear in the the grocery store. Someone has to labor to get it from the fields to the market place. It often seems that too many people don’t realize that the workforce that is responsible for this task is often one that is held up as “the problem”. While bypassing the conditions that create the problems.
Yup…and I think we are separated from making our food, and seeing the larger connections between everything as part and parcel of what makes our system possible. Were were to address all these imbalances, it would change the shape of everything we know. That is, there is a resistance to positive change, always. We must provide the counter force.
Have you read the comments over at ABC? Ridiculous. Basically, a good portion of the comments ask, “What’s wrong with (Chicano or Latino) children being exploited in child labor?” They make it seem as if been denied an education and adequate health care, exposed to dangerous chemicals, and living in crippling poverty is merely a character-building exercise. Naturally, little Dakota and Madison won’t be picking fruits anytime soon.
I make it a habit not to read comment threads on anything to do with Mexican@s or Ch/Xican@s or immigration when possible! I’d live in a state of turmoil.
No, I haven’t read them. And though you didn’t ask, no—I’m not surprised to hear them. What ugliness, eh? Talk about a “tone” problem.
i am like you nez, in that i can not stomach the ignorant comments of a few idiots that seem to attach to msm, so i don’t go there. they are always the same people and comments it seems. but like you, it never surprises me, which is truly unfortunate.
your story here, contains the essence of the harm that is our heritage in this country. food is an epitome of how oppression works in many of this country’s life’s avenues. i find capitalism to be but the means for, (some new words (to me) that keeping coming to my mind), for so much of what is the root of our troubles…oligarchy, plutocracy, aristocracy… it is the corporations, it is the elite few that somehow keep a majority struggling (untouchable goldman-sachs types, if you know what i mean).
it is a transfer of a bad vibration that i avoid, by going to my local health food store, farmers market, farmers, etc. to avoid the abuse done to people, our planet, the animals. bigger just isn’t better, and even the people working and shopping at these “health” food stores, have an energy that contributes to a better way…instead of the stress of a super store always challenging the good. pretty much anyway.
this is a country/world that has enough of everything for everyone…it just needs a different distribution that is moral and ethical, not so dollar profit orientated.
i guess that is pretty much a “duh” “ya think” as i state the obvious:), but greed is a tough battle.
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