After leaving Yosemite we headed to the highway system to take us north through central California. From Sacramento to Redding we were surrounded by endless acres of fruit trees, low growing crops we couldn't identify and vineyards. Thousands of acres of fruit trees......we saw signs for apricots, a Halo processing plant, peaches, pears, avocados, oranges and more. It seemed to go on forever.
We did not see many people so I assume it is not time to harvest all of the bounty growing in the area. Occasionally we saw a few people, bent at the waist, doing something off in the middle of a sundrenched field.
So it got me to wondering....again. We walk into our neighborhood grocery stores and are met with a huge variety of fruits and vegetables....just waiting for us. So when it is time to harvest the orchards and the fields it must, obviously, take thousands of hands to do the work. I don't think most of these fields are harvested by machine.
So who are the souls who bend their backs, or climb the ladders wearing straw hats to provide some shade....as hour after hour they pluck or pick the produce, bag it up and get it to a waiting truck? Seasonal work....moving from place to place....harvesting California's bounty.
Who are they? I'm pretty sure there are not too many middle class Americans willing provide the labor. I'm not saying I support illegal immigrants crossing from Mexico and Central America......but who picked that strawberry or orange or grapes that I purchase at my grocery store?
Again......I realize how fortunate I am.....and my kids and my grandkids. They are not out in the fields. Just wondering......who is?
You raise some interesting questions. The workers in the fields: Who are they, what are they paid, where do they live and under what conditions? Also, environmentally: what is the cost for irrigation, how far down are we depleting the ground water used to grow these vegetables? And finally, what is the cost in shipping these vegetables around the U.S. and the world. Can we continue to do so " because this is the way we always do it".
ReplyDeleteThanks for writing your blog. Wishing you safe travels.
Karenoleski@gmail