In the book The American Way of Eating, written by Tracie McMillan it talks about her journey through the food industry. She grew up in the Midwest eating cheap meals, never buying organic or fresh foods. She wanted to explore the food industry and gain a better industry of the food justice in the American food industry (McMillan 2012).
She
decided to go undercover for a local magazine to see why these foods are so
expensive, and how they are harvested and treated in supermarkets and fast food
restaurants. She was going to use the wages she earned in each job to live and
eat off. She payed rent and bought groceries as if this job was her real life.
She started off as a laborer in California, harvesting grapes, sorting peaches,
and cutting garlic. Through her journey she
found many disturbing issues with the food system in the United States, including many shocking issues during the farmers harvesting (McMillan 2012).
In all three of her jobs, she found out that the pay was very low, the work was dangerous, and the workers had no rights. Instead of being paid hourly, they were paid by how much they picked. This equated to much less than minimum wage. On top of that the conditions were poor, it was dangerously hot and very dusty. Even if these workers wanted to fight for their rights, they could not. A lot of them came over without legal documentation, so if they tried to fight for rights they would just be deported (McMillan 2012).
McMillian
had a firsthand view of the way that workers are treated in the United States.
They work long hard days, treated poorly, and paid poorly. With the prices that
we pay in grocery stores, these workers should be getting paid more to do what
they are doing. She worked in the fields for a short time, but it felt much
longer because of how tough the work is (McMillan 2012).
The link below takes you to the Agricultural Justice Project. Their goal is to help transform the current agricultural system by empowerment, justice, and fairness for all who labor from farm to retail. They provide farms and food businesses with equipment and tools to improve work and trade practices to help the farmworkers. They work to raise awareness of the injustice occurring in the food system and want to teach people how they can help fix the problem (Agricultural Justice Project).
Refrences
Agricultural Justice Project. (n.d.). Retrieved March 12, 2018, from https://www.agriculturaljusticeproject.org/en/
McMillan, T.
(2012). The American way of eating: undercover at Wal-Mart, Applebee’s,
farm
fields,
and the dinner table. New York: Scribner.
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