Bringing a Living Wage to the Farm

Poverty wages for farmworkers were the problem. As Dick Nogaj figured it, blueberries were the answer. On vacation in southwest Florida in 1997, Nogaj and his wife Florence heard about a hunger strike by migrant workers in Immokalee, an agricultural town 35 miles inland from Ft. Myers. The Nogajs immediately drove to Immokalee. They were appalled at how hard the tomato and citrus pickers worked and how little they got in return. The average farmworker in the area, according to researchers at the University of Florida, brings home from the fields an annual income of between $6,500 and $7,000.

To boost these wages, Dick Nogaj put his faith in consumers. "We can end poverty in the agricultural sector if only 10 percent of the public pays 10 percent more for their food," he says. That's where blueberries entered the picture. The market for the anti-oxidant-rich fruit was growing, particularly among Florida retirees. A variety capable of prospering in south Florida would allow Nogaj to dominate the market for at least a month and possibly two, between the fading of Chilean imports and the ripening of more northern varieties. Higher prices for spring blueberries could translate into higher wages for farmworkers.

In 1999, having recently sold his Illinois engineering firm to its employees, Nogaj invested millions of dollars to turn 36 acres of Immokalee's sandy soil into a blueberry farm. He took a risk on a new variety developed by University of Florida researchers. He waited two seasons before harvesting the first crop.

These "leaps of faith" were motivated by Nogaj's experience with Habitat for Humanity and a personal philosophy that is equal parts progressive Christianity and solid Midwestern liberalism. Today, he boasts of paying his workers $8.50 an hour, two dollars above Florida's minimum wage, and his piece-rate pickers as much as $12 to $14 an hour. Nogaj thinks his blueberries, on sale at Whole Foods and other outlets, represent a new model for agriculture in Florida and nationwide.

Yet much has changed betwixt blueprint and blueberries. Nogaj had high hopes for federal legislation to provide tax incentives for growers who paid living wages. "But then, 30 days after our visit to Washington, Sept. 11 happened, and we haven't gotten an audience in Congress since," he laments.

The problems were not just legislative. It was initially difficult to get the mix of soil right for the finicky berries. Last fall, Hurricane Wilma uprooted 10,000 bushes and swept away critically important surface soil.

Then there's been the price of land. The area between the Gulf of Mexico and the Everglades has become hot property. The congested two-lane highway from the Ft. Myers airport to Immokalee is lined with "For Sale" signs and construction crews plotting out subdivisions. Soon 20,000 people will move into Ave Maria, an abortion-free development southwest of Immokalee that will encircle the new Catholic university funded by the Dominos pizza fortune.

As a result, Nogaj's blueberry farm is now on top of real estate worth five times its original price. "The farm is no longer saleable as a farm," Nogaj says. "As developable land, its value exceeds the value of farm property." If California's past is Florida's future, Nogaj's blueberry farm may live on only in the name of a future gated community.

In the meantime, though, southwest Florida remains the winter produce capital of the United States, and someone has to pick all those tomatoes and oranges. Dick Nogaj believes that informed consumers will reach out a hand to pull farmworkers out of poverty. Other living-wage efforts focus on the growers or the farmworkers themselves.

Living-wage campaigns have succeeded in putting more money in workers' pockets in 135 cities and counties across America. With rates of unionization stagnant, the federal minimum wage at its second lowest value since 1955, and global competition pressing down salaries, activists have employed creative tactics to end poverty for working people. Bringing a living wage to rural America, however, faces additional obstacles, such as a migrant labor force and legal prohibitions against unionizing on farms.