Seasonal Slavery: Working in Strawberry Fields Forever

Strawberry season: for most of us it means fresh ripe berries baked into pies and snacked on at barbecues.  But for many other men and women in the world, strawberry season is a season of slavery. 

Slavery in the strawberry harvesting industry happens around the world.  In one case in the U.S. last year, thirty Mexican workers were enslaved harvesting strawberries in Louisiana.  They were threatened with deportation and denied water and bathroom breaks.  In Germany, police raided a strawberry field to find 60 enslaved Romanian migrant workers, who were forced to work 13 hours a day for 1 Euro an hour.  The Japanese documentary Sour Strawberries recently exposed the issue of forced labor in Japan.  All over the world workers, especially poor migrant workers from developing countries, are being enslaved in the name of strawberries.

So why strawberries?  How can something so wholesome and delicious be tainted with something so evil as slavery?  Harvesting strawberries is difficult, backbreaking work.  Since the berries grow on low bushes, pickers must constantly bend to find the berries, and then remove them with care not to bruise the delicate skin.  It's also a highly profitable crop- second only to marijuana.  The people willing to do this highly difficult and unpleasant work are mostly immigrants who are already vulnerable to exploitation, and those who choose to grow strawberries are highly interested in profit.  It's a pairing which allows modern-day slavery to thrive.

So when buying strawberries this season, pay attention to where they are coming from.  A family farm that sells to a farmers market? A large company in California? A small country in Latin America?  Would you be willing to pay a few cents more to make sure your berries are untainted by slavery?  When we shop more consciously and make ethics rather than price the bottom line, we give everyone the chance of having a better strawberry season.        

Image from wcoh.ac.uk