Why the People Picking California's Tomatoes Can't Afford to Eat Them

[Purveyor]

A new report reveals how farmers in one of California's most bountiful counties struggle to feed themselves.

—By Sara Rathod
| Fri Apr. 29, 2016 6:00 AM EDT

Spring is upon us, which means the weather is finally nice enough to sit outside and munch on a grilled burger slathered with ketchup. Or, if you prefer, a crispy salad topped with strawberries and walnuts. Either way, chances are that at least a few of the ingredients in your meal were grown in California—the country's cornucopia. The Golden State cultivates more than a third of all vegetables and two-thirds of all fruits and nuts sold domestically. California is also home to the largest number of farmers markets and, according to the most recent USDA Organic Survey, the highest number of 100 percent organic farms of any state.

But many of the people growing and picking this food would view a fresh spring picnic as a rare luxury. A high percentage of farmworkers in California's agricultural counties struggle with hunger and diet-related health problems, according to a new report by the policy research group California Institute for Rural Studies. Nearly half of the workers interviewed in Yolo County, just east of the state's capital, have trouble putting dinner on the table, a rate nearly three times higher than national and state averages.

"Ironically, the same agricultural workers who are responsible for producing an abundance of food find themselves at serious risk of hunger, diet-related chronic diseases, unsafe living and working conditions, and inadequate access to health care," the report states.

Yolo County is just east of Sacramento and encompasses the headquarters of the Mariani Nut Company, one of the biggest privately held walnut and almond producers in the world, and Rominger Brothers Farms, subject of this profile by former New York Times columnist Mark Bittman. Yolo is the state's largest producer of safflower, used to make vegetable oil, and the state's third-largest producer of grain.

The area is best known for its tomatoes. A whopping 96 percent of the United States' processing tomatoes—which are used in pizza sauce, ketchup, and soup—are grown in California, and Yolo is the second-largest producer in the state. When asked what they would buy if money were no object, the workers surveyed listed tomatoes over all other fruits and vegetable. Yet, as the CIRS report notes, though tomatoes are a staple for many of the Latino farm workers employed there, those very same workers cannot always afford to buy them locally.

more...

http://www.motherjones.com/politics/2016/04/california-tomatoes-farm-workers-hunger-food-yolo-county

[Kip Humphrey]

1. SOLUTION: 15 bucks per hour! Vote for Bernie Sanders.

[TexasBushwhacker]

3. Pickers are usually paid by volume

Ie. they are paid by the bushel or the bag. A fast, young picker can make the equivalent of $15 an hour. The problem is that picking is seasonal. Even in California where the growing season is very long, there are still times where relatively few pickers are needed.

[HuckleB]

2. K & R.