Ever Wonder Where Your Tomatoes Come From?
Reflect on the push-pull factors of immigration that we discussed a few weeks ago when you watch this. Thoughtful comments are welcome as they can enhance your participation grade.
Lupe Gonzalo: Episode 96 of The Perennial Plate from Daniel Klein on Vimeo.
posted by Mr. Carlisle at 3:22 PM
11 Comments:
$0.50 a BUCKET?! In stores, we pay like $0.98 a pound (that's around 5-8 small tomatoes), and these poor people have to haul a 32 lb. bucket just to make $0.50?! What about minimum wage?! I understand why people have to immigrate here (like Lupe said, Guatemalans suffer through poverty), but if there making the effort to come here, the least that employers can do is to at least make their new lives here a little easier. No American would ever want to work under those conditions, so just under those pretenses, workers who do tolerate those harsh conditions should be treated a lot better than they are. I understand that if they were paid minimum wage, food prices would skyrocket, but why do these people have to live in a trailer with 8 other people (reminds me of tenements) and struggle to pay the rent just so we can have our $0.98 a pound tomatoes?
6:43 PM
*they're* making the effort
6:44 PM
I wonder why the employees get paid so little... oh, maybe the fact that they aren't CITIZENS? But then again our immigration laws suck as to how to get safe, legal, honest citizens into the US... so sad :(
8:53 PM
Yeah, it's true. Most of them probably aren't citizens and are probably scared to go to the law for fear of deportation. Especially when the law excludes them anyways. Not too many people are willing to give up what they have in order to benefit the whole, in order to bring awareness.
At least there's a union.
7:36 PM
I think it's really hard to watch videos such as the one on your blog, because living in America, it's hard to imagine that some living conditions could be so unjust. The pull and push factors are very similar to the ones Mr.Carlisle discussed in class. They leave because of poverty, and they stay because they want to rise from their current position and give an opportunity for their children to have an education and use that education to have a better future.
5:59 PM
I saw a movie in spanish class called "El Norte" and the story is similar to the video you showed us. It is too bad that corrupt people are able to exploit and abuse people that can't defend themselves. Illegal immigrants are in tough situations because they can't get help from the law to better their working conditions but they also need to work or else they wont be able to afford the rent or food.
8:42 PM
This is so sad, seeing how the children do not actually get a good life in the US with cramped living conditions, and their mother making less than $50 a day :( Maybe the pay is better, but are the consequences worth it? It is easy to imagine the life of poverty continuing, as the children grow older and have to drop school to pay off the debts of the family. Is there any possible way that these people can win?!
5:21 PM
This inspired a weekend of watching behind the scenes documentaries of food companies,they even mentioned Teddy Roosevelt and Upton Sinclair!! It also made me think about how the food corporations pretty much control everything and the people who work for their companies, for instance the people who grow the seeds for the tomatoes could be sued if they keep some of them for themselves. There are some pretty messed up and sad things going on in the food business that we have no clue about!
7:22 PM
Immigrants always get looked down upon because they "take the jobs away from American born people", or because they are "lazy". I've met an illegal mexican woman and I must say; she is one of the hardest working and unselfish person I've ever known. She cleans houses to earn money to send her daughter to college. I don't understand why people look down upon immigrants if they are taking the jobs other people do not want. Also, if American- born people want to call immigrants lazy then they should take a good look at themselves because plenty of American-born people choose to not have a job. AND ALSO... food businesses seriously need to focus less on the "less is more" idea, I mean only giving workers $.50 per bucket to keep high profits is rediculous. I'm all for making money but if it is ruining the living conditions of people then that's just selfish, not "good business". Okay my ranting about this topic is over haha.
9:50 PM
think of all the frivolous things people paid for to advance yet are food is low tech.? Something is fishy with food development. The only thing (besides genetic) to improve food is in China I believe where a root is being breed to have almost all the nutrients a person needs in a few ounces, it is ongoing. Food that is one day over the expiration date go's into the trash, there is a whole group Freeganism(ers?)that eat it. Food just bothers me because it is necessarily for survival.
7:26 PM
This video is so sad, mostly because it is only a small taste of what these underpaid workers have to go through. My mom knows of some hispanic immigrants where there are 4 or 5 families living in a cheap 3-bedroom apartment. It seems as if these immigrants are just better off staying in their homelands because either way they are still faced with poverty and struggling to survive. At least if they stayed in their home country, them and their families would not have to deal with racism or be taken advantage of their ignorance, and they would know the language. All they do once in America is to survive and almost no benefits to actually living in the United States. It's amazing what we Americans take for granted. The opportunities that attract immigrants to America are not as reachable and realistic as they seem.
6:42 PM
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