14 pages., via online journal., This article addresses a stated need within the food justice movement scholarship to increase the attention paid to the political socialization of hired farm hands in industrial agriculture. In Canada, tackling the problem of farm worker equity has particular social and political contours related to the Canadian horticultural industry’s reliance on a state-managed migrant agricultural labour program designed to fill the sector’s labour market demands. As Canada’s Seasonal Agricultural Worker Program (SAWP) produces relations of ‘unfree labour’, engaging migrant farm workers in social movement initiatives can be particularly challenging. Critical educational interventions designed to encourage migrant farm workers’ contribution to contemporary social movements in Canada must therefore confront the socio-cultural obstacles that constrict migrant farm workers’ opportunities to participate as full members of their communities. In this article, I argue that social justice oriented approaches to community-based arts can provide a means for increasing the social movement contributions of farm workers employed through managed labour migration schema such as Canada’s SAWP.
Tovar-Aguilar, J. Antonio (author), Monaghan, Paul F. (author), Bryant, Carol A. (author), Esposito, Andrew (author), Wade, Mark (author), Ruiz, Omar (author), and McDermott, Robert J. (author)
Format:
Journal article
Publication Date:
2014
Published:
USA
Location:
Agricultural Communications Documentation Center, Funk Library, University of Illinois Box: 140 Document Number: D05989
Morera, Maria C. (author), Monaghan Paul F. (author), Tovar-Aguilar, J. Antonio (author), Galindo-Gonzalez, Sebastian (author), Roka, Fritz M. (author), and Asuaje, Cesar (author)
Format:
Journal article
Publication Date:
2014
Published:
USA
Location:
Agricultural Communications Documentation Center, Funk Library, University of Illinois Box: 140 Document Number: D05990
USA: Oxford University Press, New York City, New York.
Location:
Agricultural Communications Documentation Center, Funk Library, University of Illinois Document Number: D06837
Notes:
Includes perspectives about reporting techniques used in the CBS documentary, "Harvest of Shame." Also refers to communications impacts of the classic book, Silent Spring, by Rachel Carson.
Sandberg, Joanne C. (author), Spears Johnson, Chaya R. (author), Nguyen, Ha T. (author), Talton, Jennifer W. (author), Quandt, Sara A. (author), Chen, Haiying (author), and Summers, Phillip (author)
13 pages, This article looks at the United States’ federal H-2A Temporary Agricultural Visa Program and reforms proposed by the Farm Workforce Modernization Act. In this policy analysis, we draw on media content analysis and qualitative interviews to compare the viewpoints of farmers, workers, grower and worker advocacy groups, intermediary agents, and politicians. We find that perspectives on the program are dependent upon actors’ level of direct interaction with workers. Moderate-sized farmers and regionally based worker advocacy groups tend to be the most concerned with day-to-day program operations and fair working conditions. In contrast, national-level advocacy groups, intermediary agents, and politicians are less critical of the program and seek to broadly expand farmer access to guestworkers, justifying proposed program reforms with discourses of national food security and immigration reform. Ultimately, we suggest that engaging a food systems lens to understand these policies provides a more nuanced perspective, addressing national food security and immigration as related issues.
