With Thanksgiving around the corner, we have been contemplating gratitude not just for the good food in our lives, but also for the farmworkers whose unseen hard labor brings this nourishment to our tables. We just watched a new online documentary on this subject, called Fair Food: Field to Table, and highly recommend it.
For many food lovers, the reality of unfair conditions for farmworkers is something we don't have to confront, and even if we do, it may be daunting to know what action to take. Watching Fair Food: Field to Table is a good way to start learning and acting. Created by photographer Rick Nahmias (The Migrant Project) and the California Institute for Rural Studies, the documentary shows us the poverty-ridden situations of U.S. farm laborers, but it doesn't end there or focus on making viewers feel guilty. More importantly, the documentary explores what can be done to transform the U.S. food system into a socially-just one.
Part one – The Farmworkers – identifies the problem and, through photographs and interviews, humanizes the workers who pick our fruits and vegetables. Parts two and three – The Growers and The Advocates – give solutions and highlight the organizations, businesses, chefs, and students that are committed to supporting fair labor conditions. The accompanying Web site also has suggestions for what we can do as eaters – things like buying local and direct, tips for talking to farmers, and asking our food service providers to buy fair trade.
Although consumers and farmworkers rarely, if ever, encounter one another, we are intimately connected, and this documentary is an important reminder. Watch it online:
• Fair Food Project
Related: Put Down That Winter Tomato! It Was Picked By a Slave
(Images: Fair Food Project)
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This is an interesting topic for The Kitchn to feature. There is a vast debate about this topic that has been raging for years. There have been a number of documentaries covering this topic trying to dig for the truth, sometimes generating a story that is only a shadow of the truth, presenting the viewer with what insiders know to be a skewed story. There are documentaries out there that cover the life of farmworkers that are fair and real. See Cynthia Hill's The Guestworker, www.theguestworker.com.
I've only seen a portion of Fair Food. What sets this one apart from others, is that the filmmaker presents you with positive farmworker/employer relationships and sends the message that not all farmworkers are being exploited and abused.
It's important to not over generalize here. Unfortunately, there are many farmworker advocacy groups in the US that are sending the message that all farmworkers are being treated badly--and that just isn't the truth.