Migrant Farmworkers: A Broken Relationship with the Land
By Jason Koon
In early June, around 150 seasonal migrant farmworkers arrived at Knob Creek Orchards in Lawndale, NC. For the next four to five months, these migrant farmworkers will live in the dormitories and work the fields in the smothering North Carolina summer heat and humidity before returning to their homes in Mexico and Central America this autumn.
From early morning until dusk, they will fend off exhaustion and pain, along with the scorching sun and intermittent afternoon downpours common in this part of the country, to pick, sort, and inspect the fruit that shows up in our grocery stores.
“My body gets tired, mainly my feet, running around with the baskets and standing up all day long,” said Lidia Valencia Jaracuaro, who works at Knob Creek. “But mainly, it is a stand-up job, so I do not consider this to be hard, hard work.”
Those not accustomed to her work, however, might see things differently.
Losing Touch with the Land
It’s an issue humanity has faced since we first began organizing ourselves into tribes and villages, then cities, then globe-spanning societal economic machines. Now, it is probably more pronounced than ever before. We have lost touch with the life-giving land we depend on, shielded from its harsh realities by a thin layer of tech, supply chains, and economic infrastructure…
Jason Koon (he/him)