Series: The Hands that Feed Us
Exploring Job Quality Challenges in the US Food Supply Chain
Workers in the US food supply chain perform some of the most essential work in our country: producing and processing the food on our tables. The people keeping farms, food and meat processing facilities, restaurants, grocery stores, and delivery and trucking running are a lifeline for us all. Despite the importance of this work, conditions in these industries are marred by low pay, dangerous conditions, and other job quality challenges, including a lack of paid time off and restrictions on the right to organize. Despite working around food all day, workers in our food supply chain, who are disproportionately immigrants, people of color, and women, often struggle with hunger and food security. But there is momentum for change.
Some states are enacting new policies to support farmworkers, and workers across the food supply chain are organizing to demand better working conditions. New business models that promote higher job quality in the food sector are becoming more common. Consumers and actors throughout the food supply chain are increasingly engaged in promoting a more fair and just food system. Join the Aspen Institute’s Food & Society Program and the Economic Opportunities Program for “The Hands that Feed Us: Job Quality Challenges in the US Food Supply Chain,” a new three-part discussion series. In this series, we’ll explore the challenges food workers face and opportunities to create a sustainable food system where workers, businesses, and consumers can grow together.
Event #1 – Job Quality in the Fields: Improving Farm Work in the US
Farm workers play an essential role in feeding our nation’s families. Despite their key role in our food system, these workers are largely underpaid, receive little time off, and have little recourse when subjected to dangerous working conditions. Half of the households in this majority-Latino workforce of more than two million earn less than $30,000 a year – and many struggle to put food on their own tables. In addition, workers’ immigration statuses and language abilities can be used against them, putting their safety at risk and sometimes resulting in conditions of forced labor and human trafficking. Better jobs for farm workers are possible and within reach. Multiple states have led the way in legislating better pay and protections, including the right to organize, a right these essential workers have long been excluded from. New high-road business models are showing ways workers and owners can succeed together, and new technologies are being developed to make farm work safer. But poor pay, dangerous working conditions, and inadequate labor and immigration laws persist for the vast majority of farm workers.
On Wednesday, February 28, 2024, the Aspen Institute’s Food & Society Program and the Economic Opportunities Program co-hosted a hybrid event at the Aspen Institute in Washington, DC, “Job Quality in the Fields: Improving Farm Work in the US.” A panel of experts discussed the long-standing challenges in this essential sector and how to build good jobs for farm workers. This event was the first in a new three-part discussion series, “The Hands that Feed Us: Job Quality Challenges in the US Food Chain.”
Watch the event here:
Event #2 – Workers On the Line: Improving Jobs in Meat and Poultry Processing
Meat and poultry processing are core to our food supply chain. According to the US Department of Agriculture, the average American consumes about 100 pounds of chicken, 57 pounds of pork, and 50 pounds of beef per year. Meanwhile, health and safety hazards are pervasive, and workers in these sectors face some of the harshest conditions in the US. They endure long hours on their feet, with few breaks, working with sharp tools at fast speeds. And they do so in cold, damp environments where exposure to various chemicals is common.Not surprisingly, severe injuries and even fatalities occur frequently. Adding insult to (literal) injury, many don’t receive the pay or benefits needed to be economically secure. These conditions affect some of our most vulnerable compatriots, including undocumented workers and even children who have been found to be working in these facilities. These challenges are not new — Upton Sinclair famously described them in “The Jungle” over 100 years ago — but they can be solved.
Join the Aspen Institute’s Food & Society and Economic Opportunities Program for a virtual conversation, “Workers on the Line: Improving Jobs in Meat and Poultry Processing,” on March 19 at 2 p.m. EST. Panelists will discuss the challenges workers face, ideas for improving their jobs and well-being, and the policies and practices to reshape this industry and build a sustainable system where workers, consumers, and businesses thrive together. This event is the second in a new three-part discussion series, “The Hands that Feed Us: Job Quality Challenges in the US Food Supply Chain.”
Watch the event here:
Event #3 – The Workers Behind Our Groceries: A Book Talk with Benjamin Lorr
People in the US spend more than 10 percent of their disposable income on food each year. About a trillion dollars of this spending goes towards purchasing food to eat at home, much of it spent at grocery stores and supermarkets. Yet, very few people understand or know about how food makes it to this last step of the food supply chain and ends up on the shelves of their local store. In The Secret Life of Groceries: The Dark Miracle of the American Supermarket, author Benjamin Lorr traces the history and evolution of the modern-day supermarket, exposes the grocery supply chain, and reveals the often exploited and underpaid labor that goes into making sure shelves are stocked. Lorr paints a vivid picture of how agricultural and meat processing workers, fisherman, truck drivers, and grocery store workers, among others, often endure poverty and sometimes worse as they work to feed our country.
This is the third and final event in our series, “The Hands that Feed Us: Job Quality Challenges in the US Food Supply Chain,” in which we explore the challenges food workers face and opportunities to create a sustainable food system where workers, businesses, and consumers can thrive together.
Watch the event here: