Maggie Gray’s discussion on local food and labor laws was truly eye-opening. I have always been interested in the environmental impacts of food production and always framed monoculture/industrial farms as the bad guys. This semester I am taking Gender and Development and from this course I have started to think about the impact of development and gendered labor roles. However, it was not until Maggie Gray’s talk that I put the 2 topics together. I always assumed that “local” farms were all around better, including better treatment of their workers. I also assumed that these gendered labor roles and negative affects of them were problems in only developing countries. I learned that this is not the case at all and that farm workers in Upstate New York need to be treated with more respect just as much as workers on farms in the developing world need to be treated with more respect.

Gray discussed how farm workers’ jobs are unstable, require long hours and they receive low wages. Despite these negatives of the job, many do not speak up out of fear of losing their jobs or because their boss has given them “benefits” in the past. These can include providing employer housing for the worker and their family to live in, help with receiving a green card and permission to use farm owned vehicles. Gray described these favors as paternalism which creates a docile work force. Therefore they do not speak up when something else goes wrong.

As a consumer we assume that when we buy local and/or organic food that we are doing the right thing, when in fact the humans that harvested the food are not being treated fairly.  I think that inspecting and then certifying the farms for good labor practices would be a good way to tackle this problem. Then similarly to the USDA organic seals, food packaging could include these labels so that the consumer knows what goes on on these farms and can make an informed decision when buying food.