From the farm to your door: How our global food system exploits workers
Colonialism and land dispossession created a system based on exploitation. Climate change is making it worse.
New York City is home to numerous delivery workers who bring food and other items to residents using their smartphones. These workers often lack job security, health insurance, and safe restrooms. Many are Indigenous people from Guatemala and Mexico who left their homes due to violence and climate change impacts. The Global food system, as highlighted by the International Panel of Experts on Sustainable Food Systems (IPES-Food), exploits these workers, paying them poorly, offering inadequate protection, and leaving them vulnerable to abuse.
Indigenous peoples, in particular, face displacement and exploitation due to industrial agriculture and climate change, which undermines their traditional livelihoods. They are often subjected to discriminatory treatment, such as being compared to animals and denied basic necessities like utensils while working. The report calls for formally recognizing and valuing Indigenous agricultural knowledge and improving worker rights and protections.
Despite being crucial to the global food system, food workers, who are mostly informally employed, earn significantly less than their counterparts in conventional employment. About 30% of food system workers earn less than a living wage, and approximately 2.1 million people in agriculture work under forced labor conditions. The report emphasizes the need to build worker power, establish workplace protections, ensure equal rights for migrant workers, and curb corporate power to create a more just food system.
Written by urgent.news from Grist's reporting — not their text. Machine-written — may contain errors; check the original before relying on it.
