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Is it the immigrants harvesting corn you are thinking about: https://www.crushpixel.com/stock-photo/harvesting-machine-field-harvesting-corn-812011.html https:/

by hrktb 6y ago

Is it the immigrants harvesting corn you are thinking about: https://www.crushpixel.com/stock-photo/harvesting-machine-field-harvesting-corn-812011.html https://www.crushpixel.com/stock-photo/harvesting-machine-fi...

bambax 6y ago
Maybe corn is the wrong example. But most harvesting in still done manually, by immigrants. https://www.nytimes.com/2020/04/02/us/coronavirus-undocumented-immigrant-farmworkers-agriculture.html https://www.nytimes.com/2020/04/02/us/coronavirus-undocument... > "Farmworkers, Mostly Undocumented, Become ‘Essential’ During Pandemic" > "Immigrant field workers have been told to keep working despite stay-at-home directives, and given letters attesting to their “critical” role in feeding the country."
- hrktb 6y ago
  That’s still a lot to unpack. Seasonal workers coming in for harvest have a tough job, but it has nothing to do with kids occupation. For a comparison point, french wineyards use a flock of workers coming from everywhere around europe (including french students and unemployed) to harvest grapes for a few weeks and go back to whatever they were doing. It doesn’t need to be some tangled mess of undocumented immigrants with no rights, no contracts etc., that part is more to me a reflection of US politics than anything.
  - SuoDuanDao 6y ago
    US politics, and probably the history of farming in the country. Megascale farms with labour being a commodity have been the standard since before the country was founded.
    - JoeAltmaier 6y ago
      Average farm size, in America, is around 450 acres. Not even a square mile. Maybe 'megafarm' is an exaggeration.
      - SuoDuanDao 6y ago
        Average farms in low and middle income countries are under 5 acres, in other rich countries they're around 75 [1]. Plantations are like nation-states - inefficient, but powerful enough to bankrupt smaller competitors in the same market. [1] https://www.sciencedirect.com/science/article/pii/S0305750X15002703#s0025 https://www.sciencedirect.com/science/article/pii/S0305750X1...

by hrktb 6y ago

bambax 6y ago

Maybe corn is the wrong example. But most harvesting in still done manually, by immigrants. https://www.nytimes.com/2020/04/02/us/coronavirus-undocumented-immigrant-farmworkers-agriculture.html https://www.nytimes.com/2020/04/02/us/coronavirus-undocument... > "Farmworkers, Mostly Undocumented, Become ‘Essential’ During Pandemic" > "Immigrant field workers have been told to keep working despite stay-at-home directives, and given letters attesting to their “critical” role in feeding the country."

hrktb 6y ago
That’s still a lot to unpack. Seasonal workers coming in for harvest have a tough job, but it has nothing to do with kids occupation. For a comparison point, french wineyards use a flock of workers coming from everywhere around europe (including french students and unemployed) to harvest grapes for a few weeks and go back to whatever they were doing. It doesn’t need to be some tangled mess of undocumented immigrants with no rights, no contracts etc., that part is more to me a reflection of US politics than anything.
- SuoDuanDao 6y ago
  US politics, and probably the history of farming in the country. Megascale farms with labour being a commodity have been the standard since before the country was founded.
  - JoeAltmaier 6y ago
    Average farm size, in America, is around 450 acres. Not even a square mile. Maybe 'megafarm' is an exaggeration.
    - SuoDuanDao 6y ago
      Average farms in low and middle income countries are under 5 acres, in other rich countries they're around 75 [1]. Plantations are like nation-states - inefficient, but powerful enough to bankrupt smaller competitors in the same market. [1] https://www.sciencedirect.com/science/article/pii/S0305750X15002703#s0025 https://www.sciencedirect.com/science/article/pii/S0305750X1...