Big farm benefits?

I’m back!  Did you miss me? …Did you know I was gone?  It’s been a crazy few weeks with not much time for me to blog, but life has calmed down now, and I’m trying to get back into the swing of things.  You can expect a whole slew of posts around Thanksgiving.

A friend recently shared with me Tracie McMillan’s article Better Off On Big Farms, where she argues that large farms are better for workers than small farms, and it rubbed me the wrong way.  My first instinct was to reject her claims out of hand, because, of course small farms are better than big ones.  We’ve all learned that big farms are pure evil, right?  How could they be better for labor?  I didn’t want to reject her ideas simply because they seemed strange, because she made some interesting points.

The gist of McMillan’s claim is that small farms have less stability and less capacity for employment.  Being small, they have few employees, tight margins, and might not be able to give workers regular work in all seasons, never mind benefits like health care.  A large farm or company can keep their employees year-round, moving to a new area as the seasons change.

Sounds plausible, to some extent.  But she also talks about how small farms are less well regulated than large farms – which is the opposite of anything I’ve ever heard from a small farmer.  If anything, the anecdotes I hear are usually about small farms being held to ludicrous standards designed for large farms, while large farms lobby their way out of regulations they don’t like.  And just because large farms have more revenue, does that mean they will, or are even likely to, treat their workers well?  (We know they treat their animals horribly, in pursuit of profit – I’m skeptical that they would, at the same time, go out of their way to treat their workers well.)

McMillan cites a story from one worker on a large farm.  What about large-scale protests of agricultural workers like the Coalition of Immokalee Workers, who have been a huge voice for workers’ rights and cited terrible conditions for workers on farms, standing up to companies like McDonalds and Burger King?  Should we believe that they are an anomaly, that most agricultural workers are treated well and fairly?

I do agree with McMillan on one point – labor rights is an issue that’s far too often left out of the debate when we talk about sustainable food.  To have truly responsible food, it should be good for workers as well as the environment.

But if you want to make sure the people who produced your food are being treated well, don’t buy from big companies – buy Fair Trade instead.  And if you’re concerned about the labor practices on your local farms, go to the farmer’s market and ask the farmers.  The best way to know where your food comes from is to look for transparency – and when it comes to transparency, small farms definitely do it best.

I will admit, I don’t know much about labor practices on farms large or small.  Has anyone out there worked on a farm, and have a story to share?