Farm Labor in the US food system
Most of the farm laborers are paid under the minimum wage. And they are working more hours than normal people. According to the video that we watched in the class, the market of the food and farm labor are controlled by the supermarket like Safeway and Walmart. They paid less in the farm labor to get more profit in food. Our food are very rely on the farm laborers. I think we need to know the background of the food before when we are buying or eating. In the video, most of the farm laborers are migrant that means they move from other countries. They work in the farm because they are not educated, they cannot speak english fluently. When they move to the US, the only thing they can do is work in the farm. According to the research, 90% of the americans do not want to work in the farm. Therefore, immigrant worker plays an important role in american food production. Most of the immigrants are born in mexico and central america. In the article of New York times, most of the companies are hiring the undocumented immigrant workers instead of American Citizen. To do this, companies are lowering the wage so that Americans do not want to work in the farm. " But if you offer a decent wage and conditions, people do it" (Bronner 1). Therefore, they hire the guest workers especially Mexicans. Mexicans can work better than Americans in the farm. Some of the workers are working with H-2 visa which means the company must pay the minimum wage 9$ per hour. But, they are paid per piece and they can boost their wages by increasing their productivity. So, the company do not need to care how many hours they work. I think it is nice because it automatically eliminate the lazy workers in the farm. They company has less work in fire the workers. They have more time to focus on quality of the product. "Philip Martin, one of the researchers and an economist at the University of California at Davis, estimated that 47 percent of the 2.5 million farm employees are in the United States illegally. Large farms that employ contract labor tend to have more illegal immigrants than do smaller ones, and fruit and vegetable growers tend to hire illegal help more often than livestock farmers do, he said" ( Malone 1). The big company like Walmart tend to reduce their labor expense because they want to get more profit from the food. Hiring the illegal immigrant and paying them under minimum wage is the best way to solve the problem. Not only they hiring the undocumented workers but also they hiring child laborers.
According to the US law, children can work in the farm when they are 12. The reason is the same as hiring illegal immigrant that they want to make more profit from the food. The Fair Labor Standards Act (FLSA) requires a minimum of not less than $4.25 per hour for employees under 20 years of age during their first 90 consecutive calendar days of employment with an employer. Therefore, the companies reduce their expense and make more profit. For instance, if the company hiring the American worker who has social security number, the company must pay the worker minimum wage 9$. If the company hiring the child or undocumented worker, the wage will lower than 9$. It can be 6$ or 7$. So, undocumented workers and children help the company to get more profit.
To solve the problem of too many undocumented laborers in the US food system, we need to raise the price all of our food. Therefore, the companies can pay minimum wage to the American citizens and can hire more Americans. According to the research, many black people are willing to work in the farm. Because of undocumented workers, they lose their jobs and causes the US has a lot of homeless. If our society accept the raising the price of the food, it can narrow down our unemployment rate in the US. The more illegal immigrant in the US, the more unemployment rate in the US. Illegal immigrants do not pay the tax to our government that affect the budget of our country in the long run. Therefore, the companies need to hire more Americans and raise the price of the food.
Another way to solve the problem of the child labor is that changing the law. Government must change to 18 instead of 12 years old. I think we need to focus on education to the children. The problem of hiring the child in the farm is very similar to the previous one. The main reason of the companies is to get more profit and less expense. Government can also make a contract with this children. For example, government can help them to finish their education goals. After finishing their education goals, these children must work for our government to pay back their debt.
Hiring the undocumented labor and child labor can make our food cheaper. However, there are a lot of problems if we hiring these people. The government will not get tax from the undocumented labor. It will make our country poor. Even though we get the cheap food, it is not good for our health. According to the research of Michael Pollan, almost all of our food contains corn. HFCS substitutes the sugar because HFCS are cheap.