Seasonal workers in Mediterranean agriculture: The social costs of eating fresh by Jörg Gertel and Sarah Ruth Sippel (Eds.)

Authors

  • Anelyse Margaret Weiler University of Toronto

DOI:

https://doi.org/10.15353/cfs-rcea.v2i1.61

Keywords:

Seasonal Workers, Migrant Agricultural Workers, Agri-Food Systems, Labour Migration, Mediterranean, Fruit and Vegetable Trade

Abstract

One of the most common justifications for maintaining low-paid, precarious conditions for farm workers is that while farmers are being squeezed by globalized competition, economic turmoil and increasingly unpredictable weather patterns, labour remains one of the few costs they can control. This lends a Thatcherian logic of “no alternative” to the expanding complexes of seasonal labour migration, which mobilize workers from economically marginalized regions of the world to orchards, fields, and greenhouses in wealthier nations. Seasonal Workers in Mediterranean Agriculture compellingly portrays how migrants bear the harshest costs of procuring year-round fresh fruits and vegetables for a privileged few. While giving voice to the social inequality that fuels the dominant agri-food system, the authors aim to show how the stretching of growing seasons and national borders has made room for new forms of insecurity and profitability.

Author Biography

Anelyse Margaret Weiler, University of Toronto

Anelyse Weiler is a PhD student in the University of Toronto’s Department of Sociology and an affiliate with the Global Labour Research Centre at York University. Her research explores the relationships between sustainable food movements, migration and farm workers in Canada. More broadly, her community-based scholarly and advocacy work focuses on food sovereignty and health equity. 

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Published

2015-05-15

How to Cite

Weiler, A. M. (2015). Seasonal workers in Mediterranean agriculture: The social costs of eating fresh by Jörg Gertel and Sarah Ruth Sippel (Eds.). Canadian Food Studies La Revue Canadienne Des études Sur l’alimentation, 2(1), 199–202. https://doi.org/10.15353/cfs-rcea.v2i1.61

Issue

Section

Book/Art/Event Review