What's going on?.......Tell me what's going on!

We are in the second unit of our Food For Thought class, Death, and we talked lots about the it took for food to get to this time and place. Ho some traditions regarding food were lost and also how certain foods that were cultural converted from being cultural special to being a regular food for people to eat. For this unit we took a look at SDG number two, zero hunger, and focused on the targets and indicators. Each target for SDG 2 was different, but I picked target 3, underpayment for agricultural workers. I created a video explaining to the UN why this issue should be fixed, how long its been going on, historical examples and a solution that could help get rid of the issue. Below the video is my italicized script and I hope you enjoy.

Every day, farm workers are being exploited for their labor. Women, Children, Indigenous people, indentured servants, and even slaves are given no money or close to no money for their efforts. They provide us with fresh fruits and vegetables for us to eat , while we eat them with no concern about how the food got here or the conditions of the workers that got it to us. Why aren't they being compensated for their work? Who’s going to do something about it? Why should they? Well here is the answer to all of that.

The UN has addressed underpayment and exploitation of farm workers an issue because it understands that, around the world there are millions upon millions of people that are suffering from underpayment for their rate of productivity. Women, Indigenous peoples, family farmers, pastoralists, and fishers are all examples of people that are underestimated for their work. Another reason why is because the issue has been brought up by these people for decades and it won’t change unless something is done. And that is what the united nations is here to do.  They are here to take a stand to issues that the people of allied countries bring up.

The era of legal indentured servitude and slavery is a perfect example of historical evidence of underpayment/exploitation. During this period indentured servants, people that were treated almost like slaves to pay off a debt, were brought in mainly from England. Being able to be treated as a slave only until a debt was paid was considered a for for payment. Once they “did their time”, however, many of them were relieved of their duties which brought on the idea of chattel slavery involving Africans. Slavery, unlike indentured servitude, was for no payment whatsoever. There was only work and torture for the slaves. According to the National Farm Worker Ministry, from 1865-1866, they black codes were created after the civil war. These were set  in place by the government to ensure that blacks were limited with their rights. It also was intended to require black people to have a special permit if they wanted to work in anything other agricultural labor without pay.

The issue of  black codes to trap blacks into zero pay, agricultural labor was technically addressed. Though black codes were repealed in 1866, forced agricultural labor still exists today  as an aftermath of the black codes. In the prison system, inmates are treated much like slaves. Tortured, raped, forced to work with barely any brakes and close to no pay at all. So the question still stands. Did the issue of black codes and slavery and indentured servitude, really get effectively addressed or did it get touched on briefly and give rise to new, but similar issues? We can ultimately learn from these mistakes to devise effective plans of action.

There are a number of ways that underpayment for farm workers can be addressed. It may take some time, however. The most obvious way that I could think of, along with most other people, is to stop spending our tax dollars on the military and law enforcement. About 600 billion dollars goes into the military alone. About 100 billion dollars is spent on law enforcement a year. 80 billion dollars a year on the incarceration system. If that money was rather spent on paying agricultural workers then, the whole issue could be resolved in a snap. There are other solutions besides this one, but this is the most obvious and effective on that I could think of.

There are many issues all over the world regarding underpayment for "employees", but they could all be resolved if the world's largest powers decided to come together and take a stand. Focus their purchases on the the benefit of the lives of the workers who provide the number one necessity for everyone around the world to survive. 

Sources:

McCarthy, Niall. “How Much Do U.S. Cities Spend Every Year On Policing? [Infographic].” Forbes, 7 Aug. 2017, www.forbes.com/sites/niallmccarthy/2017/08/07/how-much-do-u-s-cities-spend-every-year-on-policing-infographic/#25f3a8c6e7b7. Accessed 14 May 2019.

“Military Spending in the United States.” National Priorities Project, 2015, www.nationalpriorities.org/campaigns/military-spending-united-states/. Accessed 14 May 2019.


“Timeline of Agricultural Labor | NFWM.” NFWM, 2017, nfwm.org/farm-workers/farm-worker-issues/timeline-of-agricultural-labor/. Accessed 14 May 2019.


“Goal 2 .:. Sustainable Development Knowledge Platform.” Un.Org, 2018, sustainabledevelopment.un.org/sdg2. Accessed 14 May 2019.

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Net Oxygen Sàrl (http://netoxygen.ch. “The Situation of Farm Workers in Guatemala -.” Cetim.Ch, 11 Nov. 2015, www.cetim.ch/the-situation-of-farm-workers-in-guatemala/. Accessed 14 May 2019.

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“Farmworkers’ Low Wage Rates Have Risen Modestly; Now Congress May Pass a Law to Lower Them | Farmworker Justice.” Farmworkerjustice.Org, 2018, www.farmworkerjustice.org/fj-blog/2018/09/farmworkers-low-wage-rates-have-risen-modestly-now-congress-may-pass-law-lower-them. Accessed 14 May 2019.