Dear CSA members and Full Belly Farm supporters,
This Monday, February 3, our entire field crew of 60 amazing people did not come to work. They joined a nationwide groundswell “Day Without Immigrants” movement hoping to shed light on the economic and social contributions of our immigrant community to the entire US economy.
Our crew chose to stop work for a day protesting the fear and direct intimidation that has been thrust upon the entire immigrant and in particular the Hispanic community. The dehumanizing and inflammatory rhetoric characterizing all brown-skinned people as suspect criminals is overtly racist and destructive to an entire national community of people who work in our kitchens, clean hotels, care for elderly, milk cows, are ’dreamers’, or pick oranges and vegetables.
In construction and the trades, those who would rebuild the homes in Los Angeles, are estimated 40% less than fully documented. It is estimated that 50% of those who work in California fields are not fully documented. Nationwide, the meat packing industry estimates 30-50% of the workforce isn’t fully documented.
These workers pay employment taxes, do jobs that nonimmigrants refuse to do, and among many other tasks, pick and pack many of the fruits and vegetables that fill store shelves across the country. Their labor helps to determine the price of groceries and is labor that cannot largely be replaced with mechanization. In the covid pandemic, the work of farmworkers was deemed essential. They are always essential workers who deserve respect and support.
Acknowledging that we have a broken immigration system that pushes workers into the shadows requires civil and thoughtful conversations about how responsible legislation can address the many here who are contributing to the economic well-being of the nation. Acknowledging that hateful characterization of all refugees or those seeking a better life here- as destructive and racist rhetoric- needs to end and requires thoughtful response.
The immigration system has been broken for many years. Climate change and political instability in the south will only exacerbate the push for a more stable life from our neighbors in the south. There is a history of political instability in Central and South America moved by the hand of US foreign policy. Acknowledging the present created by past actions cannot be washed away with a sweep of executive actions and denial.
The actions of our crew and the call for help from the shadows of our economy has been heard before. In May 2006 there was a National Day without Immigrants that we supported then. At that time Judith wrote in the Beet:
“At Full Belly Farm, our crew was uncertain what they wanted to do about A Day Without Immigrants. Many of them are Mexican immigrants (all tax paying, by the way) and they wanted to express solidarity with undocumented and documented wage earners all over the country. But they were also concerned. Monday: one of the busiest days of the week. Picking and packing vegetables, weeding fields, planting crops. If the crew misses work on Monday, they will lose their wages. Crops will go unharvested and pass us by in the suddenly hot May sun. The farm will lose sales to restaurants and stores. The CSA members will not get their boxes. Farmer’s market customers will be disappointed.
Everyone relies on the work of immigrants. U.S. agriculture has historically relied on immigrant labor from China, Japan and Africa. Now, we rely on our neighbors to the south.
In the end, at Full Belly Farm, we supported the decision of our crew not to work. The crew will be back on Tuesday and our customers for the rest of the week will reap the benefits of their labor.”
On Monday, we (the farm owners) decided to pack the CSA boxes for Tuesday, using produce our crew picked on Friday. We were torn between even packing and sending the boxes, as many businesses were shut down and not doing business. We did decide to pack the boxes and hope that the recipients on Tuesday, and all CSA members, will empathize with us and our crew here. We stand in support of their decision to stop work for a day and hope that you will consider their concern and decision to forfeit a day’s work in order to support their entire community while enlightening our entire community.
Thank you for reading and supporting our farm ecosystem.
Full Belly Farm
