Farmworkers & SDG 2

I’m Tessa Salzman from California in the United States. For me preparing and sharing food for others is central to life, culture, politics, pleasure, and learning about the global food production and distribution system. I’m in the SDG 2 group — what we’re calling FOOD at UNLEASH, which aims to end hunger, achieve food security and improved nutrition and promote sustainable agriculture.

My work centers on farmworker health, safety and justice in the United States as an essential element of sustainable agriculture. Currently I’m doing research on the federal policy called the Worker Protection Standard (WPS), which aims to protect farmworkers from pesticides. I’m proposing ways to better achieve the intent of this policy through increased compliance enforcement, creative public private partnerships, and of course, phasing pesticides out of food production altogether. So many environmental regulations are compliance based, which means that the achieving the intended outcome depends on the good will of all actors to follow the rule, or strict and frequent inspections with tangible, timely consequences for bad actors. With over 300,000 farm operations that fall under the WPS, workers lack the strong protections they deserve.

And what makes it worse is the way the agricultural industry and many policy makers characterize the labor force simply as an economic input — instead of as human being, working hard to survive. Agricultural workers in the US — just like in many countries around the world — are abused, exploited and exist in some of the harshest conditions, which are exacerbated by immigration status, economic pressures and conventional and industrial growing practices.

I work so that policy makers and every day consumers alike will 1) acknowledge that domestic farm labor is laden with abuse and injustice, and 2) prioritize and demand higher standards for farm working conditions in the U.S. so that workers are free of assault, wage theft, pesticide poisoning and the uncertainty due to immigration status.

The consumption end of the food supply chain ultimately begins with thousands of farmers, producers, harvesters, and laborers. And when we think about feeding the global population — no matter how rich, poor, hungry, tired, desperate, capable, etc. — we must first think about who grows and picks our food. These workers must be the center of the discussion around FOOD. What do these people eat? Are they safe, healthy and fed? Are they empowered; do they have free will to work; and are they able to support themselves through agricultural production? These are the questions I hope to address at UNLEASH.