This is a great example of how low farm wages lead straight into dysfunctional food systems.
On what planet is the most effective way to load multiple tons of goods on a truck "Have someone chuck it in the air 5 gallons at a time"? https://t.co/KMLWOugWSx
— Dr Sarah Taber (@SarahTaber_bww) October 18, 2022
Dr. Sarah Taber is always a worthwhile read, if you’re curious about where our food comes from:
Obviously this wrecks people’s bodies.
But it also takes so long to move the goods that the only way to make it pencil out is pay people nothing.
Hence the myth, “Oh farm jobs just can’t pay well.” 🙄
Nope. That’s from underinvestment, not “farming’s just like that.”
But there are other problems with relying this much on manual labor.
Getting thrown around like this bruises & crushes the product. Crushed, leaky produce makes everything else around it mold too.
Bad handling is a direct cause of food waste!
I appreciate a job well done as much as the next person. People do manual labor jobs with the same skill and precision as professional athletes, and they should get the same recognition for that skill.
But “ooh nice job” recognition doesn’t pay the rent. Manual workers shouldn’t just get oohed and ahhed over when their tiktoks go viral.
They should get paid enough to save and send their kids to school.
And if they were, most of the jobs they have wouldn’t exist anymore.
Jobs like this exist because both the goods and the people throwing them around are disposable. That’s what jobs like this are about.
It’s just weird how fast “respect for workers” bleeds into look-how-much-I-support-the-common-man performances that ignore what those jobs really mean for human lives or supply chains. that is all.
(also this isn’t about OP [original poster], which is a crop physics appreciation post that I support 100%)
Excellent Read: Not-“Unskilled” Labor & Our Dysfunctional Food SystemPost + Comments (38)