Today, I attended a talk by Maggie Gray, a Lafayette alumnae, entitled “Labor and the Locavore.” I hadn’t done much research on her before the talk, so besides what I gathered from the name of the lecture, I didn’t quite know what the talk would be about. Essentially, her argument is that the local food movement has created a false binary between factory and small farms which has, in turn, caused farm workers at small farms to be overlooked. These farm workers are deserving of attention because, in many cases, their conditions are just as bad, if not worse, than those of workers in larger factory farms.

I learned some appalling things about worker conditions in small farms in upstate NY. The law does not require employers to give farm workers a rest day, allow for collective bargaining, or require employers to pay overtime. Many employers prefer that their workers do not learn English so that they would have very little ability to leave their job for a new one. The legal status of many of these workers coupled with paternalistic/favoring actions that employers make take and rural isolation create a psychological, social, and legal barrier which prevents workers from trying to better their pay and work conditions. Many of these problems, besides the paternalism aspect, are very similar to what I have learned happens in factory farms. The difference here is that since the local food movement is branded as the antithesis of factory farms, everything that goes on in the production of this food is completely moral and socially just, which allows these offenses to go largely unnoticed and un-discussed.

In short, I agree with her on the fact that attention and scrutiny must be brought to this situation. However, I think there is a fine line between pointing out an issue within a generally good thing and bashing that good thing as a whole. She pointed out the hypocrisy of “locavores” who would defend farmers when confronted with her stories of offenses against farm workers. I think this hypocrisy is true to some extent, but these people are generally doing the best they can with the information that they have. Gray made people who are trying to live morally look evil when all they really need is to read her book. I fear, however, that Gray’s most important audience is the one who she seems to be alienating.