#seasonal agricultural workers program

[wausaupilot]

Updated state regulations aim to provide more protections for migrant farm workers

The state Department of Workforce Development, which administers the state’s Migrant and Seasonal Farm Worker program, says it’s the first significant update to migrant labor rules since 2007. 

By Joe Schulz | Wisconsin Public Radio Migrant farm workers in Wisconsin will have additional heat, health and safety protections this year under revised administrative rules that took effect earlier this month. The state Department of Workforce Development, which administers the state’s Migrant and Seasonal Farm Worker program, says it’s the first significant update to migrant labor rules…

[havatabanca]

[republicansaredomesticterrorists]

“Failed presidential candidate Gov. Ron DeSantis (R) signed a bill late last week barring Florida localities from requiring employers to provide outdoor workers with access to water, rest and shade, outraging workplace safety advocates who say the new law will kill people.

Backed by the agricultural and construction industries, the controversial legislation is what’s known as a “preemption” law: It forbids cities and counties from pursuing their own ordinances on a particular subject, in this case protections from extreme heat.

The law effectively nullifies a proposal in Miami-Dade County that would require some employers to maintain a heat safety program and provide employees with water and shade on hot days. The county commission recently withdrew the proposal after the state legislation put its legality in doubt.

The preemption bill recently passed the Republican-controlled state House and Senate, along with a similar measure that prevents jurisdictions from requiring employers to pay livable wages on government-funded projects.

Unions and other progressive groups said blocking heat regulations would endanger farm and construction workers and anyone else who labors in one of the hottest states in the country.

“Someone is going to die as a result of this legislation,” Kim Smith, a telecommunications technician, told HuffPost last month.

Last year, Texas Republicans passed a similar preemption bill that blocked localities from implementing heat protections as well as other ordinances related to housing and labor. The legislation, known as Texas’ “death star bill,” appeared designed to thwart local laws in Austin and Dallas that guaranteed water breaks for workers.

The bill Gov. Ron DeSantis (R) just signed blocks jurisdictions like Miami-Dade County from implementing their own heat safety standards.

The bill Gov. Ron DeSantis (R) just signed blocks jurisdictions like Miami-Dade County from implementing their own heat safety standards. SOPA IMAGES VIA GETTY IMAGES

Florida Republicans pushing for the preemption law said they wanted to avoid a “patchwork” of local regulations around the state related to heat safety, arguing the matter was better left to the federal Occupational Safety and Health Administration.

But OSHA does not yet have a heat-specific safety rule, and proposals to create a uniform, statewide standard in Florida have gone nowhere over the years because of a lack of Republican support.

More than 430 workers have died due to environmental heat exposure since 2011, according to OSHA. But relatively few jurisdictions have laws in place that require employers to provide water, shade and heat safety training. Just three — California, Oregon and Washington — mandate heat breaks for outdoor workers. Minnesota has heat standards for indoor workers, while Colorado does for farmworkers.

“Overheating is one of the most common and most serious dangers in the workplace,” Rep. Alma Adams (D-N.C.), who recently co-authored a federal bill ordering OSHA to regulate heat exposure, told HuffPost. “Is requiring a glass of water and some shade too much to ask?”

Climate change is making heat waves both more intense and more frequent, raising fears that a growing number of workers could die if governments don’t implement safety measures.

A farmworker in Miami-Dade County died last July during what would become the hottest month ever recorded. The man’s family told NBC South Florida that he’d recently suffered symptoms consistent with heat stress. A farmworker in the county told HuffPost last month that the foreman at the plant nursery where he works prohibited even 30-second breaks in the blazing sun since this is the busiest growing season for exotic flora.

The Biden administration is currently crafting a federal heat safety standard through OSHA, but federal rules take years to develop, often face litigation and can be undermined by subsequent administrations. Former President Donald Trump could simply drop pursuit of the rule if he defeats Biden in their expected rematch in November.”

[justinspoliticalcorner]

Craig Harrington at MMFA:

The economic policy provisions outlined by Project 2025 — the extreme right-wing agenda for the next Republican administration — are overwhelmingly catered toward benefiting wealthier Americans and corporate interests at the expense of average workers and taxpayers. Project 2025 prioritizes redoubling Republican efforts to expand “trickle-down” tax cuts for the wealthy and deregulation across the economy. The authors of the effort’s policy book, Mandate for Leadership: A Conservative Promise, recommend putting key government agencies responsible for oversight of large sectors of the economy under direct right-wing political control and empowering those agencies to prioritize right-wing agendas in dealing with everything from consumer protections to organized labor activity. [...]

Project 2025 would chill labor unions' abilities to engage in political activity. Project 2025 suggests that the National Labor Relations Board change its enforcement priorities regarding what it describes as unions using “members' resources on left-wing culture-war issues.” The authors encourage allowing employees to accuse union leadership of violating their “duty of fair representation” by having “political conflicts of interest” if the union engages in political activity that the employee disagrees with. [Project 2025, Mandate for Leadership, 2023; National Labor Relations Board, accessed 7/8/24]

Project 2025 would make it easier for employers to classify workers as “independent contractors.” The authors recommended reinstating policies governing the classification of independent contractors that the NLRB implemented during the Trump administration. Those Trump-era NLRB regulations were amended in 2023, expanding workplace and labor organizing protections to previously exempt American workers. [Project 2025, Mandate for Leadership, 2023; The National Law Review, 6/19/23; National Labor Relations Board, 6/13/23]

Project 2025 would reduce base overtime pay for workers. The authors recommend changing overtime protections to remove nonwage compensatory and other workplace benefits from calculations of their “regular” pay rate, which forms the basis for overtime formulations. If that change is enacted, every worker currently given overtime protections could be subject to a slight reduction in the value of their overtime pay, which the authors claim will encourage employers to provide nonwage benefits but would effectively just amount to a pay cut. The authors also propose other changes to the way overtime is calculated and enforced, which could result in reduced compensation for workers. Overtime protections have long been a focus of right-wing media campaigns to reduce protections afforded to American workers. [Project 2025, Mandate for Leadership, 2023, Media Matters, 7/9/24]

Project 2025 proposes capping and phasing out visa programs for migrant workers. Project 2025’s authors propose capping and eventually eliminating the H-2A and H-2B temporary work visa programs, which are available for seasonal agricultural and nonagricultural workers, respectively. Even the Project 2025 authors admit that these proposals could threaten many businesses that rely on migrant workers and could result in higher prices for consumers. [Project 2025, Mandate for Leadership, 2023]

Project 2025 recommends institutionalizing the “Judeo-Christian tradition” of the Sabbath. Under the guise of creating a “communal day of rest,” Project 2025 includes a policy proposal amending the Fair Labor Standards Act to require paying workers who currently receive overtime protections “time and a half for hours worked on the Sabbath,” which it said “would default to Sunday.” Ostensibly a policy that increases wages, the proposal is specifically meant to disincentivize employers from providing services on Sundays as an explicitly religious overture. [Project 2025, Mandate for Leadership, 2023]

[...]

International Trade

Project 2025 contains a lengthy debate between diametrically opposed perspectives on international trade and commerce.Over the course of 31 pages, disgraced former Trump adviser and current federal inmate Peter Navarro outlines various proposals to fundamentally transform American international commercial and domestic industrial policy in opposition to China, primarily by using tariffs. He dedicates well over a dozen pages to obsessing over America’s trade deficit with China, even though Trump’s trade war with China was a failure and as he focused on China, the overall U.S. trade deficit exploded. Much of the rest of Navarro’s section is economic saber-rattling against “Communist China’s economic aggression and quest for world domination.”In response, Kent Lassman of the conservative Competitive Enterprise Institute promotes a return to free trade orthodoxy that was previously pursued by the Republican Party but has fallen out of favor during the Trump era.

The Heritage Foundation’s Project 2025 agenda would be a boon for the wealthy and a disaster for the working class folk.

See Also:

MMFA: Project 2025’s dystopian approach to taxes

[ot3]

ok i think you have really good, reasonable, down-to-earth takes across the board, but your ai perspective is genuinely very confusing to me and i would love your help in understanding. especially wrt your last post. to reiterate: you are saying that people who hate ai art should also hate game consoles and off-season produce, and that hating ai art betrays a hypocritical attitude toward what forms of labour deserve protection and value? if i have this wrong please correct me!

if i have that write, then if i can ask in good faith: how is it that ai art generators can be seen as equivalent to gaming consoles and off-season produce? do you mean from a tech perspective or a labour perspective? i understand neither. gaming consoles are machines - designed and made by humans - designed to run games - games that were made by (typically) huge human labour forces and artists and writers and designers. off-season produce is able to be grown thanks to technology - but still has to be grown and watered and harvested by human labour. midjourney is a computer program, admittedly designed by people, yes, that then goes and autonomously scrapes data off the internet (“data” here being art and photography created by humans) to then autonomously spit own a hashed together image when prompted. without appropriate compensation for the people whose art and photography has been included in such a dataset, i do not see how they might count as similar to the greenhouse farmers or console designers. i am sincerely clueless as to how something like midjourney entails equivalent labour worthy of equivalent protection as items made or grown by hand, or how disliking ai art, and feeling uncertain about what it might mean for human labour the future, is hypocrisy. are you able to clarify any of this?

i'm not saying that people who hate ai should also hate video game consoles or out of season fruit. im saying that people who look at ai and see something that is fundamentally incapable of being interesting or enjoyable because it existing involved stealing the labor of Creatives seem not to care as much about the labor theft that goes into providing them with other luxury goods. i picked out game consoles and out of season fruit as my specific examples here because they're things people could easily choose to live without.

without appropriate compensation for the people whose art and photography has been included in such a dataset, i do not see how they might count as similar to the greenhouse farmers or console designers.

this is the part where we're not quite on the same page, i believe. the point i was trying to make is that the people who are responsible for making your consoles and for making sure your grocery store has produce are not adequately compensated either. they just aren't. i'm not talking about engineers who design consoles or people running greenhouses, i'm talking about miners, factory workers, and agricultural laborers.

the metals for your console were mined by someone whose labor is exploited. the console was assembled by people whose labor was exploited. the fruit from the greenhouse was planted by someone whose labor was exploited, tended to by someone whose labor was exploited, and then harvested by someone whose labor was exploited.

i don't think there's anything wrong with disliking ai art or feeling unsure about where it leaves human artists. i think that's a completely natural way to react to it. i think discussing AI image generation as if the lack of compensation in the labor necessary to develop it makes it uniquely exploitative, thereby putting all AI image generation off limits to everyone forever, means people don't spend enough time thinking about the stolen labor that goes in to making the rest of their life possible.

[fatehbaz]

The SAWP is a temporary labour program that brings foreign workers to Canada for periods between six weeks and eight months annually [...], paving the way for the recruitment of Jamaican workers as well as workers from other Caribbean countries like Trinidad and Tobago and Barbados [beginning] in 1968. [...] The SAWP has been a resounding success for Canadian growers because offshore indentured workers enable agribusiness to expand and secure large profits. Being indentured means that migrant farm workers are bound to specific employers by contractual agreements [...]. First, they are legally prevented from unionizing. [...] Additionally, because they are bound to specific employers, they must ensure that the employer is happy with them [...]. For instance, migrant farm workers are forced to agree to growers’ requests for long working hours, labour through the weekend, suppress complaints and avoid conflicts, if they want to stay out of “trouble” [...]. In “Canada’s Creeping Economic Apartheid”, Grace Galabuzi shows that the Canadian Government’s immigration policy is, in reality, a labour market immigration policy [...].

[Text by: Julie Ann McCausland. "Racial Capitalism, Slavery, Labour Regimes and Exploitation in the Canadian Seasonal Agricultural Workers Program". Caribbean Quilt Volume 5. 2020. Paragraph contractions added by me.]

---

A big finding that came out of the oral history interviews was a much richer tapestry of worker protest than has previously been documented. Speaking with workers – including former workers back in their home countries of Jamaica and Barbados – allowed me to hear the types of stories that often don’t make it into archives or newspapers. Interviewees told me stories about wildcat strikes, about negotiating conditions with employers, and also about protesting their home governments’ role in organizing the migrant labour program. [...] [T]hings did not have to be this way; our current world was anything but inevitable. [...] [But] economic forces transformed tobacco farming (and agriculture writ large), [...] leaving mega-operations in their wake. [...] [L]arge operations could afford [...] bringing in foreign guestworkers. The attraction of foreign workers was not due to labour shortages, but instead in their much higher degree of exploitability, given the strict nature of their contracts and the economic compulsion under which they pursued overseas migrant labour. [...] Ontario’s tobacco belt (located in between Hamilton and London, on the north shore of Lake Erie), was from the 1920s to 1980s one the most profitable sectors in Canadian agriculture and the epicentre of migrant labour in the country [...]. In most years, upwards of 25,000 workers were needed to bring in the crop. [...]

[The words of Edward Dunsworth. Text is a transcript of Dunsworth's responses in an interview conducted and transcribed by Andria Caputo. 'Faculty Publication Spotlight: Ed Dunsworth's "Harvesting Labour"'. Published online at McGill Faculty of Arts. 15 December 2022. At: mcgill.ca/arts/article/faculty-publication-spotlight-ed-dunsworths-harvesting-labour. Some paragraph breaks/contractions added by me.]

---

Jamaican agricultural workers say they face conditions akin to “systematic slavery” on Canadian farms, as they call on Jamaica to address systemic problems in a decades-old, migrant labour programme in Canada. In a letter sent to Jamaica’s minister of labour and social security earlier this month [August 2022], workers [...] said they have been “treated like mules” on two farms in Ontario, Canada’s most populous province. [...] The workers [...] are employed under [...] (SAWP), which allows Canadian employers to hire temporary migrant workers from Mexico and 11 countries in the Caribbean [...]. “We work for eight months on minimum wage and can’t survive for the four months back home. The SAWP is exploitation at a seismic level. Employers treat us like we don’t have any feelings, like we’re not human beings. We are robots to them. They don’t care about us.” Between 50,000 and 60,000 foreign agricultural labourers come to Canada each year on temporary permits [...]. Canada exported more than $63.3bn ($82.2bn Canadian) in agriculture and food products in 2021 – making it the fifth-largest exporter of agri-food in the world. [...]

[Text by: Jillian Kestler-D'Amours. "Jamaican farmworkers decry ‘seismic-level exploitation’ in Canada". Al Jazeera (English). 24 August 2022.]

---

In my home country, St. Lucia, we believe in a fair day’s pay [...]. In Canada, we give more than a fair day’s work, but we do not get a fair day’s pay. [...] I worked in a greenhouse in [...] Ontario, growing and harvesting tomatoes and organic sweet peppers for eight months of the year, from 2012 to 2015. [...] In the bunkhouse where I lived, there were typically eight workers per room. Newly constructed bunkhouses typically have up to fourteen people per room. [...] I also received calls from workers (especially Jamaicans) who were either forbidden – or strongly discouraged – from leaving the farm property. This outrageous overreach of employer control meant that workers had difficulty sending money home, or buying necessary items [...]. [O]n a lot of farms, [...] workers’ movement and activity is policed by their employers. The government knows about this yet fails to act.

[Text are the words of Gabriel Allahdua. Text from a transcript of an interview conducted by Edward Dunworth. '“Canada’s Dirty Secret”: An Interview with Gabriel Allahdua about migrant farm workers’ pandemic experience'. Published by Syndemic Magazine, Issue 2: Labour in a Treacherous Time. 8 March 2022. Some paragraph contractions added by me.]

---

The CSAWP is structured in such a way as to exclude racialized working class others from citizen-track entry into the country while demarcating them to a non-immigrant status as temporary, foreign and unfree labourers. The CSAWP is [...] a relic of Canada’s racist and colonial past, one that continues unimpeded in the present age [...]. [T]he Canadian state has offered a concession to the agricultural economic sector in the way of an ambiguous legal entity through which foreign agricultural workers are legally disenfranchised and legally denied citizenship rights.

[Text by: Adam Perry. "Barely legal: Racism and migrant farm labour in the context of Canadian multiculturalism". Citizenship Studies, 16:2, 189-201. 2012.]

---

Other publications:

Smith. 'Troubling “project Canada”: the Caribbean and the making of “unfree migrant labour”’. Canadian Journal of Latin American Studies Volume 40, number 2. 2015.

Choudry and Thomas. "Labour struggles for workplace justice: migrant and immigrant worker organizing in Canada". Journal of Industrial Relations Volume 55, number 2. 2013.

Harsha Walia. "Transient servitude: migrant labour in Canada and the apartheid of citizenship". Race & Class 52, number 1. 2010.

Beckford. "The experiences of Caribbean migrant farmworkers in Ontario, Canada". Social and Economic Studies Volume 65, number 1. 2016.

Edward Dunsworth. Harvesting Labour: Tobacco and the Global Making of Canada’s Agricultural Workforce (2022).

Edward Dunsworth. “‘Me a free man’: resistance and racialisation in the Canada-Caribbean Seasonal Agricultural Workers Program,” Oral History Volume 49, number 1. Spring 2021.

[racefortheironthrone]

did african americans ever gain the benefits of the new deal or were they deliberately excluded by fdr or his administration?

The short version is "yes, but."

If you read the work of Ira Katznelson, Martha Biondi, Tom Sugrue, and others, the picture of the New Deal as it related to African-Americans is not one of comprehensive exclusion, but rather partial access on a discriminatory basis, depending on where you lived and where you worked.

The Faustian bargain that FDR made with the Dixiecrats was based on an either/or proposition that Dixiecrat legislators would vote for New Deal programs, but on the condition that they would either be jointly operated by state/local and the Federal government, or they would have occupational exclusions (chiefly agricultural and domestic workers). The objective was that either all-white Southern governments would be able to racially discriminate (as long as they could come up with a facially-neutral justification) or that the New Deal's national programs would exclude a supermajority of black people in the South, where sharecropping was the dominant occupation for black men and domestic service was the dominant occupation for black women, respectively. (IIRC, it was about 70% for both men and women.)

However, the intent wasn't to completely cut off black people from the New Deal - Southern governments desperately wanted Federal money to boost incomes and thus consumer spending without undermining their low-wage, low tax, low benefits political economy - but rather to ensure that black people's access to public benefits was under white control. So, for example, Southern governments did not want black workers to get access to Unemployment Insurance or Old Age Insurance, because those were entitlement programs where national eligibility and benefit standards would give people a due process right to social insurance. Instead, they wanted to funnel black workers into Aid to Dependent Children or Old Age Assistance (what we think of as "welfare"), where they could use the threat of arbitrary denial to keep black people compliant and achieve other policy objectives.

In addition to cutting people off benefits as punishment for violating the color line by trying to register to vote or hiring a lawyer or trying to buy land etc., Southern governments would routinely engage in a seasonal practice whereby ADC and OAA recipients would be kicked off the rolls when the cotton-planting and cotton-picking season came around in order to ensure a large and desperate workforce, and then re-added to the rolls to provide them with income during the winter months so that farmers didn't have to pay them a living wage.

You'll note that everything I've talked about above had to do with black people living in the South. The story was very different in the North, where black people could vote and largely worked in manufacturing and other occupations that were not excluded from New Deal programs (although black women did face a double burden, in that many of them still worked in domestic service). As a result, black workers were able to benefit from Unemployment Insurance, Old Age Insurance, the Fair Labor Standards Act, the Wagner Act, et al. and dealt with governments that were less interested in systematically discriminating against them. Not uninterested - there's a long history of Welfare Departments using dehumanizing regulations to exert social control on black people - but it tended to be a subtler and more patchwork form of discrimination than under Jim Crow.

The one major exception to this was in the area of housing. One of the peculiar manifestations of American racism is that the South was largely uninterested in residential segregation and focused instead on political, economic, and social control, and that the North was the reverse. Whether it was through the red-lining of the Federal Housing Administration and HOLC or straightforward racial segregation in public housing constructed by the Federal Housing Authority, Northern governments and communities went to great (and oftentimes violent) lengths to ensure that white neighborhoods and black neighborhoods were kept separate.

But here again, the pattern was one of partial access on a discriminatory basis. Black residents of Northern cities could get apartments in public housing, but only in buildings designated as black-only that were located in poor black neighorhoods. Some black residents might be able to get a mortgage from a black-owned bank to buy a house in a segregated neighborhood, but because they were cut off from the FHA and thus from the GI Bill, most black workers couldn't afford the option of overpaying for lower quality houses and the ones who could generally did not generate much long-term equity because their property was considered less valuable.

So there you have it.

[darkmaga-retard]

By Linnea Lueken

An article by the Associated Press (AP) claims that wildfires are getting worse due to climate change, which is causing farm workers more exposure to wildfire smoke and potential harm to their health. This is false. Wildfires are not getting worse, so farmers and laborers cannot be more exposed to smoke or particulates for that reason.

In the AP article, “Wildfires are growing under climate change, and their smoke threatens farmworkers, study says,” the deception is clear and immediate. The study referred to in the title is a health survey about air quality monitoring in mandatory wildfire evacuation zones, and the abstract paragraph asserts that wildfires are getting worse due to climate change, but offers no evidence of this. The only explanation given for the claim is that wildfire intensity and frequency “are predicted to increase with global warming.” The study also claims that the 2020 California wildfire season was “unprecedented” –which is false, as Climate Realism explained at the time, here. Their baseless claim gave cover for the AP to write the following:

As climate change increases the frequency and intensity of wildfires around the world, a new study shows that farmworkers are paying a heavy price by being exposed to high levels of air pollution. And in Sonoma County, the focus of the work, researchers found that a program aimed at determining when it was safe to work during wildfires did not adequately protect farmworkers.

That is the first and last time climate change is mentioned in the entire article. Despite the climate change hook at the beginning, it actually has very little to do with climate change while the rest of the piece focuses on how farm workers are pressured to work in unsafe conditions and the kinds of occupational safety protocols that should be followed to reduce smoke inhalation when wildfires occur in regions with a lot of agriculture.

The study itself also seems to use climate change only as a hook, when the bulk of the research is actually about air quality monitoring during wildfire outbreaks in Sonoma County in particular, and then makes policy recommendations for employers of farm workers to provide hazard pay and post-exposure healthcare cost coverage.

In a classic case of failure to avail themselves of readily available evidence that counters their pet theory, the researchers conveniently ignore the historically quiet wildfire seasons that have occurred since the 2020 outlier, even though the reversal occurred well before the study’s July 2024 publication date. A Climate Realism post covering the multi-year mild wildfire seasons quoted one scientist who admitted that California has some of the most extreme inter-annual variability with temperature and precipitation, and that it is “normal to go from a record wet year to a record, or nearly record, dry year and that’s just the way it is.”

The number of acres burned by wildfires in the United States declined rapidly after their peak in the 1930s, and only since the 80s began to see a mild upward overall trend again. (See figure below)

[iww-gnv]

Migrant farm workers in Virginia are organizing for better workplace treatment. The Farm Labor Organizing Committee has developed a union with two types of membership. The first is for people with H2A visas who come from other countries to work in the United States during agricultural seasons. The other is for community members or family members of farm workers. The group has relied on the immigrant community to alert people about this union. Hilda Castaneda, an organizer for FLOC, said this has been needed for a long time. "For 30 years we don't have, officially, any organization or something that can come in and help us and offer, because there's a lot in Richmond," she said. "But, they're not coming and continuing getting any kinds of programs to us." Workers want relief from forced overtime and hope organizing will achieve that. It was almost handled at the state level last year when Virginia's General Assembly considered a bill giving farm workers the right to sue for unpaid wages. However, it was changed to exclude farmworkers before it was passed.

[odinsblog]

To really understand the legacy of racism and exploitation in the U.S. Agricultural industry, we need to go back to the Fair Labor Standards Act, which became law nearly a century ago, when Franklin D. Roosevelt was president.

This law fundamentally changed working conditions in the U.S., it gave us a minimum wage, a 40-hour work week, overtime pay –you know, the good stuff.

But these benefits didn’t apply to farmworkers, who at the time in the South were overwhelmingly Black.

In fact, you can draw a straight line from slavery, to the Fair Labor Standards Act, to the conditions we continue to see in agriculture today. Nearly a century later, farmworkers across the U.S., mostly Latino immigrants now, are still denied even the most basic federal protections, such as water breaks or access to shade in extreme heat. For many families, the effects of these racist exclusions are real, they’re tangible.

At the Summit of the Americas in Los Angeles last year, President Joe Biden outlined his plan to reduce the number of migrants seeking asylum at the Southern border. His administration, Biden said, would help “American farmers bring in seasonal agricultural workers from Northern Central American countries under the H-2A visa program.”

What does that mean for a program that’s already plagued with wage theft and abuse?

Since Biden took office in January of 2021, he’s turned “safe and orderly migration” into a kind of mantra. He says it all the time. And just in February of that year, 2021, the White House assembled working groups to discuss the H-2A program. The idea is to divert asylum seekers from the Southern border and into this program. Here’s Biden talking about the plan last summer:

President Biden: “And on this jobs front, our Department of Agriculture is launching a pilot program to help American farmers bring in seasonal agricultural workers from Northern Central America countries under the H-2A visa program. To improve conditions for all workers.”

Here’s the main issue with that. The Biden Administration wants to offer this temporary worker program to migrants who are seeking asylum at our Southern border. A program that is riddled with abuse and trafficking is being offered to people who are fleeing violence and trafficking. 


“They’re only gonna be able to stay in the United States for 6, 7, 8 months outta the year. What happens during those other months of the year? Uh, they have to go back to their home country and they’re gonna be going back to a country that they fled.


Maybe because they were being persecuted, somebody in their family was murdered, you know, you’re gonna send them back to that situation and you’re gonna send them back to that situation with dollars in their pockets, which I think is just gonna make them targets for extortion.”

—Latino USA, Head Down

• Part 1, https://play.stitcher.com/episode/302009156

• Part 2, https://play.stitcher.com/episode/302310113

[blueyinthebush]

strawberries - explorers

part of a series on the episode "explorers," requested by anonymous

while jack's dad and his little sister lulu try to find his school, they encounter a strawberry field, and talk to two people working there. blurban-form has an excellent overview and i'd like to dig in more, so let's talk about it. just as an fyi, this is a much more serious post than my normal fare, so if that's not your speed, feel free to skip it.

strawberries have been grown on a wide scale in australia since the 1950s, and are primarily grown using runners, horizontal stems that develop into new plants. the majority are grown in open fields like the one shown in "explorers". australian fruit-picking has been associated with foreign backpackers for decades--the seasonal worker program is the backbone of agriculture and one look at how the pandemic upended the economy can show just how big of an impact those workers have.

it's a really tough thing, though. on the one hand, the opportunity can be life changing for the thousands of seasonal immigrants who pick under the programs. but there's a high cost to leaving everything behind. the value of a better life might come at the expense of living the one you have.

and the conditions can be brutal, too. as blurban-form points out, this is not an ideal situation to be in for up to long hours in the hot australian sun. no shelter, no tools like gloves for protection, and no cell phone service. and aside from the physical labor, the industry itself has been plagued with stories of exploitation. the employers often take huge cuts from their employees' wages and there is often little or no access to health care.

industrial exploitation, particularly within the agricultural industry, is by no means unique to australia. i think showing this very real situation was well done, and i'm not surprised why disney decided to try and scrub any allusion to the seasonal program. this is a good place to tell everyone to be mindful about where your food comes from. if you want to see change in the industry, look into your political representatives' statements. you can help make people's lives better.

[survivingcapitalism]

In this singular firsthand account, a former migrant worker reveals a disturbing system of exploitation at the heart of Canada’s farm labour system.

When Gabriel Allahdua applied to the Seasonal Agricultural Worker Program in Canada, he thought he would be leaving his home in St. Lucia to work in a country with a sterling human rights reputation and commitment to multiculturalism. Instead, breakneck quotas and a culture of fear dominated his four years in a mega-greenhouse in Ontario. This deeply personal memoir takes readers behind the scenes to see what life is really like for the people who produce Canada’s food.

Now, as a leading activist in the migrant justice movement in Canada, Allahdua is fighting back against the Canadian government to demand rights and respect for temporary foreign labourers. Harvesting Freedom shows Canada’s place in the long history of slavery, colonialism, and inequality that has linked the Caribbean to the wider world for half a millennium—but also the tireless determination of Caribbean people to fight for their freedom.

[chaoticpiglinwitch]

Terran

Pronouns: Any, She/they works but also seen used he/they

Domains: Agriculture, Nature, Pentiful crops, Protector of Farms/earth, Abundance, Knowledge, Flowers, Water/Rainfall, Farm Animals, Child Birth/Protector of children, Herbalism, Protector of small settlements, homes and wanderers. Baking, small parties/gatherings. Morning sunrises

Depictions: Has 2 different forms, more Bull/Cow form and more human. Has mid-dark brown curly long hair in a flowy long dress with off the shoulder sleeves (made with flower petals). Taller in height, wearing some jewellery (ring, bangles, and simple necklace. Cow bull ring in cow form). Holding a basket of flowers, has flowers blooming her hair, and it changes with the seasons.

Consorts: has spouse

Family Members: Syren (raised not birth)

Attendants: Syren, Prime,

Epithets: "Mother Herd" She would help farmers in flocks and farming. Being a protective mothering figure, she would be followed by herds of animals and children.

"Hearty Hearth" Terran would help bake and cook food and offerings would be left in kitchen or at the doorways of farm houses.

"Lady Horn with tea leaves" She would have tea parties and small gatherings with other gods and spirits, they would be offered a cup of tea at tea parties of villagers or morning tea drinkers. Leaving them tea is said to be good luck, allowing you to have more abundant community living and having their protection.

"Iron Bull", "Bull of the Home" and "Ringing Bell of Lady Bull" These are her titles for she was invoked for protection of the home and settlements. It was believed that ringing bells at sunset would inshore that Terran would stand guard of doorways, barns. Sometimes it was believed that she helped Iron golems protect towns and helped them heal.

Mobs/Symbols: Sunflowers, Fish, Cows, dogs, short haired cats, sunrise,

Colors: Brown, Green, Yellow, Pale pink

Herbs/Incense: Sunflower, Cinnamon, any floral, tulips, roses, earthy scents, rosemary, lily of valley, thyme, frankincense, lavender, garden sage, Basil,

Offerings:

Bread

Fish

Tea/tea parties. love fruit and floral tea

Cow imagery

Flowers, vases with flowers , sunflowers, and tulips are her favourites.

Any music or piece of art

Honey

Children's books, toys, stuffies, educational studies

Baking goods

Reading books

Honouring her wife, syren, prime

Spending time outside

Collect rain water

Watching the sunrise

Pressed or dried flowers

Devotions:

Animal and Earth activism, earth education, learning about recycling. Spending with animals or pets.

Watching movies and documentaries with them

Doing your homework, studying anything lol, learning herbalism.

Teaching, going to class, and supporting your local teachers and schools.

Baking cookies, bread, and more.

Supporting your physical and mental health

Supporting children and their rights. Working in childcare, child programs, or child protection

Going to tea shops, hosting tea parties, and small gatherings with friends and family.

Joining your local community farm/gardens or school gardens. Looking after bees

Dancing in the rain, drink water

Making playlists, playing music with her, and singing songs.

Looking after a plant or garden

Playing minecraft, farming for her. Farming simulators in general

Volunteering at shelters

Wearing sun screen, sun glasses, picking up trash outside.

Favours: Herbalists, adventurers/explorers, Nature lovers, Herdpeople, dog lovers, teachers, students, gardeners, farmers, child workers, bakers, librarians.

Rules/Guidelines:

Don't eat cows or honor/give thanks to animal after eating.

Pick up trash/rubbish outside pls

Be helpful with animals (if you can and are financially able to do so)

Take care of the earth

[queenofcandynsoda]

Sol Fertilis History: The First Parliamentary Elections

The Rise of Youth Crime <- The First Parliamentary Elections -> The Assassination of Lillemore and The Rosario Crisis

Election season had started with nine political parties trying to get the majority. They are the liberal-conservative Progressive Natalist Party, the far-right populist Sovereign Defiance Coalition, the center-right Free Conservative Party, the green liberal Global Honesty Party, the progressive-left People's Progress Coalition, the right-wing Christian fundamentalist proselytism Religious Renovation Movement, the center-left Constitutional Civic Party, the pro-temperance First Prohibition Movement, and the communist Industrial Motherland Union.

Before the election, the Free Conservative Party, known as FCP, had a coalition with the Sovereign Defiance Coalition, known as SDC, and the First Prohibition Movement, known as FPM. While the FCP had control within the inner government, the SDC and FPM caused severe damage to the nation. The SDC dismantled several welfare programs that many citizens heavily relied on, such as pensions, child benefits, universal health coverage, workers' compensation, work leave, disability benefits, unemployment benefits, public education, public housing, and infrastructure maintenance. They also removed many labor protections, such as legalizing child labor, removal of OHS regulations, repealing minimum wage laws, and banning labor unions. 

These changes further exacerbated the Great Economic in a misguided belief that this would help the economy. Instead, people were driven into poverty and homelessness as they no longer have a safety net. Workers were suffering illnesses and injuries on a constant basis, leading to less production and slower growth. Education was made worse as teachers did not get paid, schools got fewer resources, and the education from the SDC failed the basics. Older citizens were forced back to work since they lost their pensions, retirement benefits, and elder care. The SDC believes that private funding would resolve this but failed to consider that it would not be enough to cover millions of people.

The FPM did not help much as they enacted policies in certain areas, primarily middle and lower-class areas. First, they completely banned the sale, production, storage, possession, transportation, and consumption of alcohol. Many drinking establishments, breweries, wineries, distilleries, and liquor stores were either forced to shut down or went underground. Many restaurants and stores had to get rid of their alcohol. Also, bartenders, cocktail waitresses, wine stewards, beer sommeliers, and bouncers were suddenly left without work. This led to even further damage to the economy. The court system was overflowed with prohibition arrests, made with the SDC making unnecessary legal challenges.

Because of letting SDC and FPM have control in certain government ministries, the FCP lost their support, and the citizens demanded change. The PNP was already in control of several local governments and managed to create safety nets for their citizens. Other citizens took notice of how the party had created banks, local welfare programs, education opportunities, better healthcare, good family services, and improve labor rights. Most of the PNP members, such as Cezar Rosario, Concetta Angelone, Athaulf Yale, Srečko Horvat, Fiammetta Berardi, Mason Gleeson, Nico Venner, and Joline Pilkvist ran for Parliament under the party’s name. They ran on their economic and social plans, along with agricultural and educational plans. 

Despite FCP, SDC, and FPM’s unpopularity, the PNP still faced heavy competition with the Global Honesty Party (GHP), People's Progress Coalition (PPC), Religious Renovation Movement (RRM), Constitutional Civic Party (CCP), and Industrial Motherland Union (IMU). To curb it, Rosario made a deal with the RRM and the IMU to have a coalition. The two parties agreed and campaigned with the PNP. The SDC launched a massive campaign to discredit their opponents, using conspiracy theories, claiming voter fraud, using voter suppression tactics, etc. This further led to bad press towards themselves and the FCP.

In the end, PNP won about 236 seats out of the 500, with the IMU winning 102 seats and the RRM winning 86. The remaining 76 seats were filled by the other parties with only one seat for the SDC. The three parties celebrated their win as the Alpha PNP members wearing only black and their Omega spouses wearing red. The FCP and FPM agreed to have a peaceful transition of power. However, the SDC heavily resisted this, saying that they will use legal challenges to prevent the PNP from taking office. However, all attempts remained unsuccessful. 

When SDC exhausted all of their attempts and Rosario is about to sit on the “Head Chair”, one man would take it a step further.

[businessesindelaware]

How Delaware’s Agriculture Sector Boosts the State’s Economy

Despite being one of the smallest states in the U.S., Delaware's agriculture sector stands tall in bolstering its economy. Famed for its fertile soils, strategic location, and farming legacy, Delaware boasts a robust agriculture industry that sustains jobs and food production and fuels economic growth. From poultry farming to crop production, Delaware's agriculture is a fundamental part of the state's identity and a robust economic engine, showcasing its resilience and stability.

Let's look into the importance of Delaware's agriculture sector and how it contributes to the state's economic success.

1. The Poultry Industry: A Cornerstone of Delaware Agriculture

The poultry industry is one of the most significant contributors to Delaware's agriculture sector. The state is one of the top producers of broiler chickens in the U.S., and the poultry industry accounts for a significant portion of the state's agricultural revenue.

The poultry industry supports thousands of jobs, from farmworkers to processing plant employees. Additionally, it stimulates demand for feed grains and other supporting industries such as transportation and packaging. Delaware's poultry industry's success has ripple effects throughout the state's economy, bolstering local businesses and contributing to community development.

2. Crop Production: Supporting Food and Livestock

Alongside poultry, Delaware hosts a robust crop production sector encompassing corn, soybeans, wheat, and vegetables. Corn and soybeans are significant because they are used as feed for the poultry industry, underscoring the deep interconnection between crop and livestock production that fortifies Delaware's comprehensive agricultural ecosystem.

Delaware's crop production contributes to the state's economy by providing raw materials for human consumption and livestock feed. The sale of these crops generates income for farmers, and processing facilities create additional employment opportunities. Farmers in Delaware also play a vital role in national food production, ensuring that grocery shelves and restaurants remain stocked with locally grown goods.

3. Dairy and Livestock: Smaller but Significant Players

While Delaware is primarily known for poultry and crop farming, dairy farming and other livestock operations contribute to the state's agricultural output. Delaware dairy farms produce milk, cheese, and other dairy products sold locally and regionally. Additionally, beef and pork production is on a smaller scale than poultry.

The dairy and livestock sectors add diversity to Delaware's agriculture, making the industry more resilient to market fluctuations. These farms support local economies by providing jobs and contributing to Delaware's food supply chain. Although smaller than poultry, the dairy and livestock sectors provide essential goods to consumers in and out of the state.

4. Employment Opportunities: Agriculture as a Job Creator

The agriculture sector is a significant employer in Delaware, providing thousands of jobs across various fields. Agriculture supports employment at every level, from farmworkers and equipment operators to scientists and agribusiness professionals. The industry also offers opportunities for seasonal workers and young people through farm internships and training programs.

Agriculture's contribution to Delaware's employment is critical for rural areas where job opportunities may be limited. In addition to direct employment, agriculture creates jobs in related industries, including transportation, logistics, manufacturing, and retail. This ripple effect ensures that agriculture's economic impact extends beyond the farm.

5. Local and Sustainable Agriculture: Supporting Delaware's Communities

Delaware is witnessing a burgeoning movement towards local and sustainable agriculture. The popularity of farmers' markets, community-supported agriculture (CSA) programs, and organic farming practices is not just a trend but a testament to the shared values of many Delaware residents. This demand for locally grown food is economic and a way to support small and mid-sized farms, fostering a sense of community and shared values.

The rise of local agriculture allows Delaware farmers to sell directly to consumers, keeping money within the community. This form of agriculture also promotes sustainable farming practices that reduce environmental impact, conserve water, and preserve soil health. As a result, Delaware's local agriculture contributes to economic stability and long-term sustainability.

6. The Role of Technology in Delaware's Agriculture

Modern technology is vital in increasing productivity and efficiency in Delaware's agriculture sector. Technological advancements have transformed agriculture, from precision farming techniques that optimize crop yields to automation in poultry processing plants. Delaware farmers increasingly adopt intelligent farming technologies, such as drones, GPS-guided equipment, and data analytics, to improve decision-making.

Technology enables Delaware's agriculture industry to stay competitive globally. By increasing efficiency and reducing waste, technology helps farmers save on labor and resources while improving output. This increases profitability for farmers and ensures that Delaware can meet the growing demand for food locally and nationally.

7. Export Markets: Extending Delaware Agriculture's Reach

Delaware's strategic location along the East Coast gives it easy access to major transportation routes, ports, and international markets. The state exports a significant portion of its agricultural products, particularly poultry and grains, to other states and countries. This access to global markets is critical for the long-term success of Delaware's agriculture industry.

Exporting agricultural products brings additional revenue to Delaware's economy. It allows farmers to tap into international demand and diversify their income streams. This global reach strengthens Delaware's agriculture sector and positions the state as a critical global food supply chain player.

Agriculture's Crucial Role in Delaware's Economy

Delaware's agriculture sector is a cornerstone of the state's economy, contributing billions of dollars in economic output and supporting thousands of jobs. From the thriving poultry industry to the diverse crop production and increasing focus on local agriculture, Delaware's farmers play a vital role in feeding the nation and driving economic growth.

For Delaware residents, supporting local agriculture by purchasing from farmers' markets, participating in CSA programs, and choosing locally grown products is a way to contribute to the success of the state's agriculture industry. Additionally, continued investment in technology and sustainable practices will ensure that Delaware's agriculture remains competitive and resilient in the future. As the state evolves, agriculture will remain a key pillar of the Delaware economy.