Annamaria Laudini is an anthropologist and PhD researcher at the European University Institute in Florence, Italy.
After decades working the fields in Italy, Balvir Kumar “Birra” was still paid barely five euros an hour. Killed in an accident last month, his story shows how little value Italy’s vast food industry puts on its workers’ lives.
Last Monday, Punjabi farmworker Satnam Singh suffered critical injuries in an accident on an Italian farm — and then his boss left him to die. The shocking case showed how Italian agriculture treats migrant workers’ lives as the cheapest of commodities.