tomorrowcometoday:rockanrolera:raw-powerhouse:kchannel9:gazcreature:kchannel9:occupyalls
tomorrowcometoday: rockanrolera: raw-powerhouse: kchannel9: gazcreature: kchannel9: occupyallstreets: Whistleblowing Wednesday: Children As Young As Six Harvest 25 Percent of U.S. Crops Knowing the farmer who grows your food has become an important tenet of the modern food movement, but precious little attention is paid to the people who actually pick the crops or “process” the chickens or fillet the fish. U Roberto Romano’s poignant film, The Harvest/La Cosecha (2011), being screened across the country for Farmworker Awareness Week (March 24-29), informs us that nearly 500,000 children as young as six harvest up to 25 percent of all crops in the United States. What’s illegal in most countries is permitted here. Child migrant labor has been documented in the 48 contiguous states. Seasonal work originates in the southernmost states in late winter where it is warm and migrates north as the weather changes. Every few weeks as families move, children leave school and friends behind. If you’ve had onions (Texas), cucumbers (Ohio or Michigan), peppers (Tennessee), grapes (California), mushrooms (Pennsylvania), beets (Minnesota), or cherries (Washington), you’ve probably eaten food harvested by children. This isn’t a slavery issue, or an immigration issue per se. What’s remarkable is that most of the migrant child farmworkers are American citizens trying to help their families. This is a poverty issue and it gets to the heart of what we, as consumers, see as the “right price” to pay for food. Children earn about $1,000 per year for working an average of 30 hours a week, according to the U.S. Department of Labor. When you consider that the average annual pay for a migrant family of four is $12,500-$14,500, it’s apparent why some families feel they have no choice but to bring their children into the fields with them. Half of these kids will not graduate from high school because they’re always moving around, perpetuating the cycle of poverty that caused them to be day laborers in the first place. Read More Food system renovation imminent Hey vegans. Check it out. Cruelty free, huh? Hah. Derp. HEEEEEEYYYY VEEEGGGGAAANNNNSSSSS WAAKKKKEEEE UPPPPPPPPP Y en méxico, jitomates, ejotes, pepinos, maiz, tomates, uvas, chilehttp://www.youtube.com/watch?v=fDyiISiXpHE Uh, last I checked people who eat meat still eat these same vegetables. Plus, slaughter house and meat packing workers have extremely high rates of severe workplace injury. These facilities prey on undocumented people and others who have few options for employment e.g. Felons and people with significant mental health problems for unemployment. These workers are subjected to truly horrid working conditions with low pay. Because of the structural barriers to finding better employment, these workers have to put up with these work conditions. Employers hold the very real threat of getting fired and deported over workers heads in order to coerce them into accepting their workplace conditions. That doesn’t even include the millions upon millions of animals slaughtered for the industry and the wretched lives they lead until their death. So maybe instead of self-righteously exploiting the story of these already exploited children for anti-vegan sjw points, you should direct your anger at the real enemy: capitalism. There are very real problems in the animal rights movement that should be confronted, I agree. Personally, I think “cruelty free” rhetoric is shallow and misleading as this article points out. However, to exploit this article as justification to oppose animal liberation is equally myopic, self-righteous, and self-serving. -- source link
#food industry#child labor#vegans#capitalism