The Ugly Truth Behind Organic Food

By Sarah Newman, AlterNet. Posted May 14, 2009.

Enter the union, which offers its "Robert F. Kennedy" medical plans for unionized growers at a significantly cheaper rate than if the farm set up its own ($200 per month per worker). As a unionized operation, Cochran could now also offer pension plans to his workers, in addition to official grievance procedures.

Irv Hershenbaum, a UFW leader, has devoted much of his life to the farm labor movement. While workers on organic farms aren't exposed to toxic pesticides, he argues that they, like their counterparts on conventional farms, work without the basic protections commonly afforded workers in other blue-collar industries. "They are working in the 21st century with 19th century working conditions," he asserts.

Jesus Lopez, a community worker with CRLA, says he hears the same concerns from workers on organic and nonorganic farms. The No. 1 complaint among both groups is that they receive neither state minimum wage nor overtime pay. This in an industry where 30 percent of all farmworker families earn less than $10,000 a year, and 24 percent live below the poverty line, according to a report by California Institute for Rural Studies. The institute also found that 70 percent of farmworkers had no health benefits.

While unions across the country continue to fight an uphill battle to organize members as numbers decline nationwide, unionizing farmworkers poses an additional challenge, because most aren't afforded legal rights by the National Labor Relations Board.

A 1975 California law offers protections for farmworkers to organize, unlike other states. But, there doesn't seem to be much traction at the national level to expand organic certification standards, which only cover agricultural practices, not labor standards.

The Organic Trade Association, a marketing group that represents organic products is focused on increasing sales and protecting the current USDA organic standards. According to Barbara Haumann of the association, the group "isn't minimizing labor issues, but other [issues] have taken up so much time and energy."

The hostility of many organic growers to labor issues was evident in a 2006 report cited by CIRS, which found that most preferred to not include social standards in USDA certification. In contrast, says Hershenbaum, "Cochran didn't let his fears prevent him from doing what was best for his workers."

Cook says the union contract has been an undeniable asset to the farm, which sells a popular, high-quality product tended by well-paid workers who return every season. He concedes that workers still aren't paid enough, an inevitable consequence of farmers not being valued in our society at the level they should be.

"Consumers' demand for cheap food limits the ability to pay true wages," he says.

Working within these confines, however, Cook believes the union contract offers benefits that help to make the farm more sustainable ... a step beyond organic.

A stark contrast is Driscoll's Berries, a privately held company that is one of the biggest growers of organic and conventional berries in the world. The company has thousands of acres stretching across California and into Mexico.

It employs 5,000 people to pick its berries, which accounts for a quarter of California's strawberry workers. Its sales total 50 percent of all the state's berry sales, and its products can be found on five continents. None of its workers are unionized.

Organic farmer and activist Elizabeth Henderson says that unionization on large farms is totally appropriate.

"If Tanimura and Antle were forced to pay union wages, it would raise the price of food and be good for small farmers, who could then raise their prices, too," she says. She is backing a Domestic Fair Trade label that, through a certified system, would help make consumers aware of small farms with good labor standards..

"Unless the farm is unionized, workers are almost universally exposed and vulnerable, whether or not the work conditions at any given time are abusive with zero legal support for farmworkers," says Ryan Zinn of the Organic Consumers Association.

"The greatest irony is that the people who pick your food to eat don't have enough to eat," says Hershenbaum, quoting his mentor, Chavez. Not all growers are as bold as Swanton Berry. But as conscious consumers we can demand that more farms follow their lead.

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