Tough days ahead for California Central Coast farmworkers.
** News of the world environment
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NEWSLETTER | MARCH 17, 2023
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** Helping Hands that Feed
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Berries have been on my mind a lot lately. It started with a feature story I edited for our spring magazine about how Europe’s demand for year-round berries is fueling an ecological disaster in the arid southern reaches of Spain and Portugal as farmers suck aquifers dry. (Keep your eye out for the online version of the article, which we’ll be publishing ([link removed]) later this month.) The story got me thinking about my own berry consumption, and what environmental footprint it might have, particularly in the off season. It even got me attempting to explain seasonality to my berry-loving toddler during a recent grocery store trip — albeit not successfully.
Soon after, a press release landed in my inbox announcing the Environmental Working Group’s annual Dirty Dozen list ([link removed]) of produce most contaminated with pesticides. As has been the case for several years now, strawberries top the list of conventional fruits and vegetables with the highest pesticide load. This year, blueberries also joined them in the top 12. The list serves as a reminder that the chemicals we put on our crops impact not only the soil and water, but also our health.
And then, last weekend, the California farmworker community of Parajo suffered massive flooding when the Pajaro River levee broke following yet another heavy storm. The unincorporated area in Monterey County is known especially for its strawberry crops and is home to some 2,000, mostly low-income, farmworkers who had to evacuate in a hurry. The majority remain displaced, and many have lost their jobs since local fields are too waterlogged for growing. While aid and emergency supplies are flowing into the area, many of the farmworkers are undocumented, meaning they are not eligible for the same type of aid as US citizens.
This tragedy could have been avoided: Officials have known since as far back as the 1960s that the Pajaro levee was vulnerable, but chose not to act because they determined the costs of upgrading the levee outweighed the benefits ([link removed]) of protecting a low-income farming community. (To learn more about the farmworkers' plight in Pajaro, tune into Journal Editor Maureen Nandini Mitra’s Terra Verde podcast ([link removed]) .)
The through line here may be berries, but the takeaway for me is much deeper: It’s time to reckon with our broken food system. Where we grow our food matters. How we grow it matters. And how we treat those growing it matters most of all.
Zoe Loftus-Farren
Managing Editor, Earth Island Journal
Photo by Harold Litwiler ([link removed])
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