Lalo Alcaraz for September 12, 2020

Bloviating politicians are not.

Bees are essential. Farmworkers are essential. Transport (at least locally) is essential. Mega-farm mega-profits? Not essential. Though I’m okay with “okay-profits”.

If the government rules that you must risk your life to provide an essential service to society, then you should be compensated at a higher rate while you’re working in these conditions… And if the President signs an executive order that says the company you’re working for will not be held accountable for any physical or medical harm that may befall you while working under these conditions, then the federal government will take responsibility for all medical bills and if the worker dies, will compensate the family of the deceased…

What a masterpiece! This cartoon incorporates so many complex themes (environmental policy, immigration policy, climate change, racism, the basis of society, society undercutting itself) into a single, elegant, identifiable image. Orange sky from wildfires, orange president fanning them.

Don’t bite the hands that feed you.

Farm workers are becoming less necessary. Round balers, harvesters for things like tomatoes, all are designed to reduce the number of labor man-hours. It used to take loads of people to pick tomatoes. They are now harvested by machine. I used to bail hay and straw for my grandparents on their farm. Now there are round bale balers. They make a large round bail and it can be picked up and moved by tractor. Before, you required a tractor, to which was hooked the baling machine, and a wagon behind it with two people to stack the bales. Those days are pretty much gone. One person with one tractor and one machine does the work it took four people at least to perform. The most expensive part of a farm is labor. That’s why farm hands are so few these days. A farmer alone can do most of the things him or herself on a modest size farm of less than a thousand acres. Machines are cheaper than labor with the associated costs of unemployment taxes, social security taxes, withholding income taxes, medical care, minimum wage, etc, etc. Farmers were forced to find cheaper alternatives and they found it in machines. Sure, a big combine is pricey, but it does the work of many men, who are prohibitively expensive these days. Ever more complex and reliable machines, and robotics, are changing the labor market faster all the time.

https://youtu.be/ewPburLEZyY

https://youtu.be/umhJrfCkE3o

And let’s see just HOW MANY teenagers and millennials today will put down their phones and iPads to go out into the fields and pick strawberries, or tomatoes, or watermelons, or cabbage, or lettuce…for minimum wage.

Americans are so far out of touch that every time I go to the grocery store I continuously hear “Why can’t I find…?” We’ll skip the shortages of metal for cans and home canning supplies and even paper and sanitizing supplies but how to you think your food gets to your table? It ain’t beamed there by Scotty. It’s human beings. “Essentials” who might have been paid an extra very few bucks for a few months (but almost all of that is over with now) to have to work. A lot of that work is with little, poor, or no PPE now. It’s also working with and around other people who can’t and/or won’t follow simple guidelines to stop the spread. Stop for a second and think of how many people sacrifice for your food, your healthcare, your well being. It ain’t the CEO’s, it’s regular schmucks you pass by and ignore every stinkin’ day. Vote after you think about them for a second or two. And for the vast majority of Americans who make everything for you and get it to you, and who don’t have seven, eight, or even ten digit incomes. Vote for their sakes.

The sky is Trump orange.

I used to be stationed on Fort Ord, which is in Steinbeck Country and not too far from Salinas.

Back in the old days going to Salinas meant a trip through farm country. Miles and miles of green. Lettuce, mostly.

It always struck me, at harvest time. The rows and rows of migrant workers, going up one row and back again. Little kids running up and down, fetching drinks, running errands. And then they’d be gone the next day, off somewhere else.

It was something for this city boy to see. Most of us don’t even know that they’re there. Salad just shows up on the plate.

Ever since then I can’t eat a salad without thinking of the PERSON who picked it, and the conditions that they live in. And I say a prayer for them.

Essential, yes, indeed. And unthanked, unappreciated. God bless them all.

Like chmsam says above, vote for their sake. Because it will save us all.

I spent years as an over-the-road trucker, sometimes hauling produce from California and South Florida to locations all over the country. Watching some of the migrant farm workers doing stoop labor was almost painful, but almost without exception, they were the hardest working people I have ever seen. Hours in the sun, low wages, and they would do it with virtually no complaints. Just imagine a bunch of spoiled American teenagers doing that work today…

Noting like communing with nature under a Trump colored sky.

NOT.. to many Americans.. Those “necessities” just show up on the the grocery store shelves during the night.. ready to use in the morning.. Pure magic… or something.

Except Trump takes no responsibility for anything… Nor do his enablers in the Senate

Yes, they are. And if we can create a system in which non-citizen workers can come here legally, they will get paid more, treated better and be able to have a better life.

I would love to see a decent guest worker program to go with that wall. I really don’t mind paying more for produce if it means we can reduce the presence of illegals in our country.

Funny, farm workers are essential BUT only if you’re American, right?