Produce Update-April 3 2015
Hey, are you coming to town for the CHFA show? Let us know if you want to come by. Or come visit us at the Fairtrade Canada booth (1820). Or join us at the independent grocery tradeshow on the 13th and 14th!Note pragor grapefruit and limes on list won’t arrive until Tuesday because of long weekend border congestion in Mexico.
Fair trade is slowly creeping into mainstream agriculture in the most lovely grass-roots way. Hundreds of thousands of people from south and central Mexico, mostly indigenous peoples, from towns where unemployment is very high migrate north for 8 months of the year to the winter growing regions south of the US border in Sonora, Sinaloa and Baja. The majority don’t speak English.We have visited many, farms in northern Mexico and seen some of the most deplorable living conditions for these migrant workers – even one large corporate farm that housed 1500 workers in an abandoned jail. They are paid poorly – ranging from $5 to $10 for a 10 hour day, basic human services including showers, bedding and even drinking water are withheld. Workers can be as young as 10, while working 60 hours a week.However, there are some great farms and farmers out there. We have visited operations like Rico Farm, Grupo Alta (heaven’s best), Agrofresco, Wholesum, los rancheros, Bioespacio (Del Cabo’s fair trade supplier in Sonora) etc., and we focus our purchasing from Mexico this time of year on farm operations that treat their workers fairly. Many of these farms are now certified fair trade operations. so imagine a town in Chiapas in the far south of Mexico, when migrant workers return to their hometown, and they talk to their friends, neighbours, and cousins about how things were for them in the north during the winter, and word spreads that some farms are providing meals, air-conditioned housing and triple the wages compared to others.What has happened this past six months in Mexico is truly remarkable. First, a story broke in the la times late in the fall about mis-treatment of Mexican farm workers. That sparked a media storm. Names have been named! trade associations in Mexico who have been working for years to eliminate child labour and improve rights and pay, were quick to jump into the fray - stating that abuse of workers was not universal, and in some areas conditions are far better, but this a small piece of the pie. Quickly, trade organizations already established to promote social responsibility united as the international produce alliance to promote social responsibility, and its interim leader is Alan Aguirre, president of Grupo Alta. having met Alan several times, including two visits by four people from discovery to his farm operations, we universally agree that it is the best we have ever seen when it comes to workers’ rights, pay, living conditions and services in Mexican agriculture, and he is an ideal candidate to lead this group in efforts to quicken the pace of reform. Alan’s company carries two fair trade certifications and has told us he wants to be the best farm, a model in fact.Industry change will, however, never come quickly enough, but the most important activity is not happening in the media, or around board room tables – workers are walking away from their meagre wages to demonstrate, March, even set up roadblocks. Last week, 5,000 farm workers walked off their jobs in San Quintin, Baja, bringing harvests to a standstill and leaving millions of dollars of strawberries and tomatoes to rot in the field. They set up barricades, and littered highways with large rocks and burning tires – the tried and true way to stop semi-trailers in their tracks. Hundreds have been arrested. That strike has now spread to 50,000 in just three days, and buses are travelling throughout other growing areas to incite more workers to walk off the job. There is a very concise article in Wednesday’s globe and mail about this. http://www.theglobeandmail.com/news/world/north-americas-fruit-industry-feeling-effect-of-farm-workers-strike-in-mexico/article23700928/two days ago, a thousand field workers in San Luis south of Yuma, left for a 2 day march to government offices in downtown Mexicali walking away from green onion and broccoli fields – they have already been on strike for 3 weeks, and have no money or food, with outside temperatures reaching 40c during the day.So why is this happening? Simply corporate greed. Major retailers and distributors in the US continually hammer for lower pricing from their Mexican producers and suppliers, and the trickle-down effect is aimed directly at reducing production costs. Fuel prices, water taxes, inputs and infrastructure aren’t dropping in price. The Mexican peso is also worth 25% less than it was just two years ago against the US$. The only way to meet the price demands of major chains is to suppress workers’ wages and lower living conditions for these migrant farm workers. We can only hope that these strikes, the first in decades, will lead to fairer conditions, better pay, and increased awareness of social responsibility – the goals the fair trade movement has been striving for.