Nice Twitter thread on the book, "Animal, Vegetable, Junk" by Bittman. She writes that food workers are quite underpaid, to the benefit of folks higher up the "food chain" as it were. Gratuitous picture:
- 8 of the 10 worst-paying jobs in the US involve food. Of 20 million food system jobs, almost all earn near-poverty-line wages.
- Over 1/3 of US farmworkers earn less than the official poverty wage (20K USD / yr / family).
- Food workers use food stamps at > 1.5 times the rate of the rest of the US workforce
Addressing these issues require the market price of food to be much closer to the true cost of food, including a fair price for the labor that brings it to farm to fork (and beyond) -- while ensuring low-income households can still afford nutritious foods.
Update: yes, I'm back on Twitter, but check this out: Martin Luther King Junior on government spending on agricultural workers.
