Where Does My Money Go: Protect Agricultural Workers
Out of sight, out of mind. It can be easy not to think about the people who work so hard to produce things we buy every day when we don't see them. The reality is that in the United States, farm workers do the work that all of us depend on daily because we all need to eat, but they are too often employed for a painfully low wage.
A recent California survey found that 80% of female farmworkers have been sexually harassed or assaulted. 100 farmworkers suffer a serious injury at work every day in the U.S., and 183 farmworkers died of work-related injuries in 2019. Farmworkers are 20 times more likely to die of heat-stress-related illnesses than other workers. 94% of labor trafficking victims on H2-A visas have experienced fraud in their recruitment or work, and 99% have experienced coercion.
Many agricultural workers face physical abuse, sexual violence, or trafficking while completing the backbreaking labor necessary to feed the country.
That is where the Dressember Network's efforts to protect agricultural workers come in.
Preventing Labor Trafficking of Agricultural Workers
Dressember resources a farmworker-founded Fair Food Program (FFP) to protect the industry's most vulnerable members. No one is better equipped to understand and assert the needs of a vulnerable population than its own members. Our partner helps prevent human trafficking, sexual assault, sexual wage theft, and other human rights abuses of agricultural workers.
The Fair Food Program is uniquely effective at preventing human trafficking and exploitation because it was designed by workers, for workers to address some of the most destructive problems in the industry. The FFP is built on an interdependent set of mechanisms that combine to create "wall-to-wall" human rights protections for workers. Workers continue to have the opportunity to evaluate updates to the Fair Food Code of Conduct, ensuring that the code remains relevant to workers' experiences and needs.
The Network's Fair Food Program asks that companies at the top of the agricultural supply chain use their market power to effect change. Requests include a premium of one penny per pound paid for produce, to be passed to workers as a bonus in their regular paychecks, and an agreement to purchase only from growers that have implemented a Human Rights Code of Conduct. The worker-to-worker education program at the Program's core empowers workers to look for signs of human trafficking and speak up when they see signs. Direct hire requirements also eliminate one source of power imbalance by ensuring that workers will directly receive compensation.
Fourteen major food buyers, including McDonald's, Subway, Whole Foods, and Walmart, have joined our partner program since its inception in the early 2000s. The program's success in providing farmworkers with unprecedented human rights shows that we can see remarkable results when we address the power imbalances at the root of human trafficking.
As advocates, we can protect agricultural workers from poor working conditions and vulnerability to labor trafficking by supporting the work of the Dressember Network. We can also intentionally and thoughtfully consider the source of our food. Find a complete list of the food buyers involved in our Network Partner's FFP here. With intentional purchasing decisions and widespread education, we can cut the power imbalances associated with agricultural labor at the source and further the fight for a world without human trafficking.
The Dressember Network is made up of 20 organizations that support programs in the following impact areas: advocacy, prevention, intervention, and survivor empowerment. Through partnership with the Coalition of Immokalee Workers' (CIW) Fair Food Program, local leaders provide education and legal services to prevent human trafficking, sexual assault, sexual wage theft, and other human rights abuses. When you support Dressember, you help dismantle trafficking holistically and in a way that prioritizes survivor needs and voices. Ready to join us? Register to become an advocate or make a donation today.
About the Author
Sarah Koller is a long-time advocate for the dignity of all people, from fair trade practices to body autonomy to fighting against human trafficking. She is currently a copywriter intern for Dressember while she pursues her master's degree in Mental Health Counseling at Denver Seminary in Littleton, Colorado. Sarah is a mom, wife, and writer who loves to hike, practice yoga, dance in the kitchen, and share extended meals around the dining table. You can find her at @sarahmariekoller on Instagram or email her at sarah@healthyandwhole.us.