Family farmers are small businessmen. They pay their workers, choose their crops carefully to appeal to their customers, work long hours, and hopefully make enough money to support themselves and their family.
With the new crackdown on immigrants by the current administration, many California farmers are concerned they won't be able to get the seasonal migrant laborers they count on to work in their fields. The workforce is expected to be much diminished as fears of immigration enforcement keeps the laborers out of work.
An article in the Los Angeles Times on Feb. 9th told the story of how one Gilroy garlic farm is ensuring a steady workforce.
Christopher Ranch is raising the wage it pays its workers from $11 an hour to $13 an hour. And it will raise that to $15 an hour in 2018. The vice-president, Ken Christopher, told the LA Times that since the increase in January, they have been flooded with applications from people wanting to work in the fields and processing plants.
I think it's great that the people who grow the food will be getting a fair wage. And if the price of garlic goes up a little because of it, in fact if the price of all real food increases a little, I'll be fine with that. Because I want to feel good about the food I eat and the way its production impacted the earth, the people who grew it and brought it to market, and my body.
Fair wages for farmworkers is a good thing.
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