Vital Work

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Introduction
Early in 2010, the Southern Poverty Law Center interviewed 150 immigrant women from Mexico, Guatemala and other Latin American nations. All of them thought they had realized their dreams—to come to the United States, where they could find work and support their families. They landed jobs in fields and factories, where food is harvested and processed before turning up on American tables. But they also found themselves exploited in the workplace, making poverty-level wages and suffering from grim conditions and humiliating situations that were impossible to report because of their undocumented status. Their stories are featured in the SPLC report, Injustice on Our Plates: Immigrant Women In the U.S. Food Industry.

Many Americans take for granted that they can get the food they want just about any time and anywhere. They can buy tomatoes in the dead of winter, oranges even when they live in a place too cold for oranges to grow, and grape juice in big bottles even if they’ve never seen a grapevine. Theme 6, Vital Work, will help students make connections between the foods they eat every day and the harsh experiences of the undocumented female workers who play an essential role in bringing that food to them.

This is the sixth of seven lessons from the teacher's guide by Teaching Tolerance, also available as a PDF.

Objectives

Students will be able to:

• Connect the food they eat with the experiences of women who work in the food industry
• Understand how some people’s privileges depend on the exploitation of others
• Develop empathy for the circumstances of undocumented workers

Essential Questions

• How is the food you eat connected to women who enter the country without authorization so they can work in agriculture and the food industry?
• How and why can many Americans get fresh fruits and vegetables all year, even when they are out of season?
• How does the exploitation of some people make possible the privilege of others? 

Glossary

exploitation [eks-ploy-tay-shun]
(noun) the act of using something in an unjust or cruel manner

harassment [huh-rass-mehnt]
(noun) behavior meant to be disturbing or threatening

itinerant [eye-tin-uh-reht]
(adjective) going from place to place, especially in a regular circuit 

fumigant [fyoo-muh-guhnt]
(noun) a chemical compound used as a pesticide or deodorizer

cog [kawg]
(noun) a person who plays a minor part in a large organization

minimum wage [min-uh-muh m weyj]
(noun) the lowest wage that an employer is allowed by law to pay workers

Materials

• Grapes
• Tomatoes
• Chickens
• Oranges

Making the Connections
1. Very few Americans grow their own food. Instead, we rely on a vast food production industry. The process starts on huge farms, some covering thousands of acres. From those huge farms, crops and livestock are often sent to factories for processing before being shipped to supermarkets for consumers to buy. Begin your work on this lesson by keeping track of what you eat for a day. Write it down so that you can look at it in class. (You don’t need to keep track of how much you eat—just what you eat.)

2. The immigrants you will read about work with tomatoes, grapes, oranges and chicken. But keep in mind that many other crops and livestock rely on the labor of undocumented farmworkers, too. Check your food list. Did you eat any tomatoes, grapes, oranges or chicken yesterday? At first, you may think that none of them are on your list. But think again. You may not have eaten any fresh tomatoes but, if you ate pizza, you ate tomato sauce. You may not have eaten any grapes, but there might have been raisins in your breakfast cereal or wine vinegar in your salad dressing. You get the idea. As a class, brainstorm the different forms in which each of these items might appear in your food. Record your answers on four lists—one for each food—on chart paper.

3. Divide into four groups. Within your group, choose one of the four food items that you want to know more about. (Note: Make sure that each food type is covered by at least one group.) Then read the handout on that food: Grapes, Tomatoes, Chickens or Oranges. Highlight the quotations from the workers. With your group, discuss the following questions: What do the women have to say about their work experiences? What makes the work difficult? What do they get paid for their work? About how much does the product cost consumers like you?

4. Working with your group, make a storyboard that shows your product’s journey from the farm to your plate. Include the following in your storyboard: illustrated frames that show the working women’s experiences, the amount of money they make, where the product goes once it leaves the farm or processing plant and what you paid for it. The final image on your storyboard should be the food on your plate or your happy face after you eat the food.

5. Now change one of the steps on your storyboard. For example, if one frame of your story shows that the farm workers earn less than minimum wage, change it so that they earn minimum wage. Would the subsequent steps change because that step changed? If so, change them and talk with your group about the effects of farmworkers being paid minimum wage. Try changing a different step in the process and see what does or doesn’t change as a result. With your group, make some notes to answer these questions: What would change if farmworkers could not be exploited so easily? For example, what would change if farmworkers were American citizens? If they had to be paid minimum wage? If they could fight for better conditions without fear of facing possible jail time or deportation? Would food be more expensive? Do consumers benefit when farm owners hire undocumented workers? As a consumer, how do you feel about that? Have a class discussion on the subject.

6. If time permits, find out about farm work in your own state. What crops and/or livestock are raised there? Who owns the farms? Who works on the farms? Do farm owners have difficulty finding workers? Under what circumstances do farmworkers toil? What laws, if any, protect them? Are those laws adhered to in your state? If possible, gather data by having class members interview one or more farmworkers, farm owners and state policy makers.

In Their Own Words
Take the role of one of the women you have read about. In her voice, write a letter to the students in your class. In the letter, describe your situation and what you go through to help bring food to American consumers. Trade your letter with another student. Then, in your own voice, answer the other student’s letter.

Past to Present
The exploitation of farmworkers has been going on for a long time. In this activity, you can get a sense of that history. In 1960, CBS aired a documentary called “Harvest of Shame.” Reported by renowned journalist Edward R. Murrow, the hour-long show revealed to American viewers the deplorable conditions under which migrant farmworkers lived and labored. Watch a brief segment of “Harvest of Shame.” (It’s about 15 minutes long.) Discuss the segment with your class, using these questions as a guide. What did you notice in the report? What surprised you? What in these workers’ experiences is similar to the experiences of the women you have read about? What is different? What might account for the similarities and differences? What effect does seeing the experiences have on you that reading the women’s experiences did not have?

Standards
Activities and embedded assessments address the following standards (McREL 4^th edition)

Behavioral Studies
Standard 4.Understands conflict, cooperation, and interdependence among individuals, groups, and institutions

Civics
Standard 14. Understands issues concerning the disparities between ideals and reality in American political and social life

Economics
Standard 3. Understands the concept of prices and the interaction of supply and demand in a market economy

Standard 5. Understands unemployment, income, and income distribution in a market economy

Language Arts
Standard 3. Uses grammatical and mechanical conventions in written compositions  

Standard 4. Gathers and uses information for research purposes

United States History
Standard 28. Understands domestic policies in the post-World War II period

Standard 31. Understands economic, social, and cultural developments in the contemporary United States