Buying Local Won’t Help Exploited Farmworkers
On New York's dairy farms and in fields around the country, farmworkers are intensely exploited. They need support for their organizing efforts — not liberal appeals to “buy ethically” or “local.”
Farmworkers in New York State marched from Long Island to Albany in 2016 to demand the right to organize like workers in other industries. Sonia Singh / Labor Notes
In late August 2015, state and local police descended on Marks Farm in Lowville, New York, where workers were meeting with labor organizers. The police separately interrogated each group about the alleged crime they had committed: discussing a possible English-language tutor and better protective gloves for the workers.
“I felt a lot of anxiety, stress, and pressure,” one farmworker, twenty-four-year-old Crispin Hernandez, said of the raid. “I have never felt such upsetting feelings.”
Rebecca Fuentes, the lead organizer from the Workers Center of Central New York (WCCNY), was also there when the police arrived. Fuentes had been bullied by the police and farm owners for her organizing work before, but she described this incident as different. “It was dark outside and [the police] had the power, the guns, the cars,” Fuentes said. “It was intimidating.”
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