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I converted to vegetarianism about four months ago partly for ethical reasons. I had decided I no longer wanted to contribute to the killing of animals for food. Yesterday I read an article in an old copy of Mother Jones that made me wonder if being vegetarian was any more moral than being an omnivore: *snip*
Although the federal government oversees wages and working conditions, farmers often mistreat H-2A workers without fear of being penalized. A six-month investigation of the program by Mother Jones reveals widespread complaints that growers have threatened workers at gunpoint, refused them water in the fields, housed them in crumbling, rat-infested buildings where sewage bubbles up through the drains, and denied them medical care after exposing them to pesticides. Farmers control their visitors, their mail, even their weekly shopping trips. A study by the U.S. General Accounting Office notes that H-2A workers, knowing they can be deported at any time, "are unlikely to complain about worker protection violations, fearing they will lose their jobs or will not be hired in the future." Workers say they have adopted several unwritten rules: Don't gripe about wages and working conditions. Don't seek the benefits you're entitled to. Don't make noise, even when your health is in jeopardy. "What you see, you must remain silent," says a Jamaican H-2A worker assigned to a Massachusetts vegetable farm. "What you hear, remain silent."
*snip*
At Madrigal's camp, dozens of men jockey for bathroom and kitchen space, getting dressed, washing up, making lunch. The kitchen is dark -- illuminated by bare, low-wattage bulbs -- and the men consider the water undrinkable, relying instead on cases of spring water handed out by a local priest. At six, the supervisors show up to transport the workers to the fields. Today's task is digging sweet potatoes, and Madrigal will spend the next 10 hours on his knees, knife in hand, cutting off the roots and filling a red pail with tubers. He makes 35 cents for every pail he empties onto his grower's truck, which means he must fill and dump at least 20 pails an hour if he wants to earn more than his base wage of $6.98. He works so fast that he keeps gouging himself with the knife, and his leathery hands are a cluster of scars. His back hurts constantly. Madrigal says supervisors sometimes curse them with names like "motherfucker" and "son of a bitch" -- some of the only English words he has learned during three seasons here.
Still, cutting sweet potatoes beats working in the tobacco fields. The year before, after a wet morning cutting tobacco with no protective clothing, Madrigal's body began itching. Then his hands shook and everything started spinning. "I started to vomit, all day, all during the night," he recalls. Madrigal asked for a ride to the clinic, but his boss refused. Growers blame such symptoms on the nicotine in the plants, but Madrigal believes he was poisoned by chemicals sprayed on the crops. Whatever the cause, he has seen what happens to some of his co-workers after a day in the fields. Dizzy and delirious, they skip dinner and go to bed early -- but rest doesn't come. "Sometimes during the night they have nightmares," he says. "They wake up screaming. It's like living in hell."
*snip*
Government regulators also report that many farmers find ways to short workers on their wages. "You know how we cheat them?" a state employee recalls one North Carolina farmer boasting. "We fuck 'em on the hours." Shaving 2 hours off a 10-hour workday effectively lowers the wage rate from $6.98 to $5.58. In other cases, according to the GAO, farmers request workers for longer contract periods than necessary. When the work runs out, the men are forced to return home early -- meaning growers don't have to pay transportation costs and other guaranteed benefits. One North Carolina internal document estimates that 85 percent of all H-2A work dries up five months into the seven-month season....more at http://www.motherjones.com/news/feature/2001/01/farm.htmlAfter reading this I felt sick. People like Madrigal suffer from dawn to dusk under conditions I've never experienced (and hope I'd never have to) so I can enjoy my veggie wraps, salads and strawberries with vanilla yogurt. Men and women are being treated like slaves, being refused food, water and medical care, and I was feeling good about myself for not eating meat. I just don't know about the world. :cry: |
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