10x08 - Farmworkers in the United States

[bunniefuu]

Welcome, welcome, welcome
to Last Week Tonight.

I'm John Oliver, thank you so much for
joining us. It has been a busy week!

The Justice Department charged
a 21-year-old

with leaking classified documents,

our business daddy took its content
purge up a notch

and just threw the whole HBO out,

and
the NRA held its annual convention,

at which South Dakota governor Kristi
Noem tried desperately to dispel

stereotypes about the group, only
to be undercut by a brutal cutaway.

The media would have us believe that

the NRA is only made up of old white
guys,

but theres a lot of other people,
a lot of diversity within the NRA.

Well, let me tell you something,

I may be a mom and a grandma,
but I am the NRA.

Thats an Oscar-winning edit right
there.

Nothing undermines her point better
than a cutaway

proving the diversity in that crowd
ranges somewhere between

Antiques Roadshow and Friends
reunion.

That looks like a version of Guess Who
thats just Oops All Peter.

But instead of focusing on that,

tonight, like every fight youve had
with your uncle since 2016,

were going to start with abortion.

The thing that Republican men love to
ban

almost as much as they love to secretly
pay for.

Just over a week ago, a Texas judge
suspended the FDAs approval

of mifepristone, a key component in
medication abortions.

And as many quickly pointed out, the
ruling was shaky at best.

The conservative Texas judge behind
the ruling to ban the drug

argues that the FDA improperly
approved it 23 years ago,

ignoring legitimate safety concerns.

But at the time, the FDA actually spent

triple the average amount of time
studying the drug.

Yeah. The judge in question, Matthew
Kacsmaryk,

argued that a drug thats been on the
market in the U.S. for 23 years

is somehow too dangerous.
Which is wild,

given that its been widely available
for a full Kiernan Shipka now.

And its not just the fact that
mifepristone was studied

for triple the amount of time the FDA
normally would-

its that its demonstrably safer than
many others on the market.

A CNN analysis of FDA data found that
the risk of death from another drug,

penicillin, is four times greater than
it is for this abortion medication.

The risk of death after taking another
drug, Viagra,

is nearly 10 times greater as well.

Right, and once its clear that
something is safer than both

treating strep throat and giving an old
guy a boner,

it is pretty hard to pull the public
health card.

And look, it is not that surprising
that this judge arrived at a conclusion

not supported by the evidence.

Not only does he have a face that
screams

high school football coach who follows
all the cheerleaders on Instagram,

but prior to being appointed to the
court by Tr*mp,

he was loudly anti-abortion and part of
a right-wing legal organization.

Even his confirmation hearing featured
some pretty big red flags.

You said in 2015 that

recognizing the right
to same-sex marriage

would lead this country on, quote,
a road to potential tyranny.

Do you continue to believe that?

Senator, I am, uh, I dont have
any recollection of that quote.

It was in an amicus brief that you
wrote in Obergefeld v. Hodges.

I dont remember that particular quote.

Oh! Oh, you dont, do you? You know,

its pretty telling that instead of an
outright no there, he said,

I dont remember.

Indicating that he knows its something
that he couldve said.

I dont remember everything that Ive
ever said,

but I certainly know what sounds like
me.

Have I ever said, Ya gotta give it to
the Nazis? No, I havent.

Have I ever said,

Wheres the skanks at, Johnny O. wants
to get his d*ck wet? No, I havent.

Have I ever said, The girl one from
Gremlins 2 could get it?

Senator, I dont have any recollection
of that particular quote.

So, we always knew where Kacsmaryk
would go on an abortion case.

But the way he got there was still
shockingly dishonest.

At one point, his ruling cites a
statistic that 77% of women

who had a chemical abortion reported
a negative change as a result.

But the sample for that study was based
on 98 blog posts

on an anti-abortion website.

Even the study itself pointed out how
non-representative it was, saying,

Most women reported that their
medication abortion changed them,

which is not surprising given the name
of the website: Abortion Changes You.

And that is some heavy confirmation
bias. This is that site!

And using that as your source is like
claiming that abortion makes you better

at frisbee golf, by citing a poll on
the website,

Abortion-Makes-You-Better-at-Frisbee-
Golf- dot-com.

By the way, fun fact: whenever we
mention a fake website on this show,

we actually have to buy the URL to make
sure that no one takes it.

So, we now own the domain

Abortion-Makes-You-Better-at-Frisbee-
Golf-dot- com.

Which is currently just a page with the
words, Why are you here? on it.

Also, one more thought on Abortion
Changes You.

Not to be crass here but-you know what
else does that? A f*cking pregnancy.

Because Ive got news for you, for
weeks after giving birth,

that baby is not the only one in
diapers.

Also, theres a baby now.

And look, ending access to mifepristone
wont, in itself,

end medication abortions entirely.

It is possible to do it without
mifepristone,

but it can be more difficult and more
painful.

Also, mifepristone isnt just
used for abortions.

Its a critical tool for treating
miscarriages.

So, like most anti-abortion measures,

this ruling could also end up severely
impacting

those with medical complications from
wanted pregnancies as well.

As this doctor points out, anyone
having a miscarriage

who cant access a medication abortion

may be subject to some intense
suffering.

Theyll have to either have surgery, or
theyll have to wait, which, you know,

wait for the pregnancy to pass on its
own which could take eight weeks.

And thats brutal and thats, I mean,

t*rture for people who are going
through a miscarriage.

Exactly. Can you imagine getting some
of the worst news of your life

and then having to carry it around
painfully with you for eight weeks,

all because some Disney Channel
vice principal from Texas

decided to play doctor for the entire
f*cking country?

Now, there have already been a lot of
appeals on this,

and the Supreme Court just stepped in
and put Kacsmaryks order on hold

until at least this coming Wednesday.
So, there is a lot up in the air here.

But it is not ideal that the dream team
who overturned Roe v. Wade

may soon decide whether to greenlight
the sequel.

Because overturning Roe was clearly
never about

returning it to the states.

It was always a step towards banning
abortion entirely.

And its frankly both absurd and
infuriating

that such vital healthcare
can be thrown into chaos for everyone,

all because of the badly-reasoned
decisions of this f*cking guy.

It seems like abortion has become a
Schrodingers right in this country,

that people simultaneously do and dont
have,

depending on where they live,
whos in the White House,

and what the shittiest judge in America
feels like doing.

That is why it is so important
for it to be protected by law-

ideally in the Constitution- and for it
to be recognized for what is:

a basic right, a human necessity, and
something that I hear-

and I got this from a completely
reputable website-

could actually make you better at
frisbee golf.

And now, this.

And Now:

Did You Know Action News Robert Grant
Has a f*cking Dairy Allergy?

I have a fun fact, Robert.
I've never had Nutella.

I have a fun fact, too.

Oh, here we go!
I know what hes gonna say.

I can't have Nutella because I have a
dairy allergy.

- Mashed potatoes?
- They look good.

What do you mean?
Why are you looking at me like that?

I guess it's-am I gonna have to bring
up the dairy thing?

- We know thats coming.
- We know that it's-that you can't have-

So, I cant have that.

We're recognizing the organization that
gave us Do-si-dos-T-

how do you say this, Meghan?

- Tagalongs.
- Tagalongs?

I have my dairy allergy,
so I don't-I don't ever eat them.

- Robert, can you eat Snickers?
- You know, I can't eat either of those.

- Anything with dairy.
- It has dairy and I have dairy allergy.

Fun fact, I always overshare, but I'm
allergic to dairy.

Robert, that looks really good, but I'm
pretty sure you can't eat it.

I can't eat it. The dairy allergy
always gets in the way.

I know. Ill have two.

You can get that hot cup of coffee,
maybe some hot chocolate.

Not for you though, because you can't
have dairy.

Why, Meghan?

I like popcorn with Buncha
Crunch on top.

Which I did-I don't know
what Buncha Crunch is.

It's it because it has dairy in it.
You can't eat it.

- Lot of buffalo chicken dip, though.
- Yes.

Sorry, Robert. You can't-can't partake
in that.

He has a dairy allergy,
if you didn't know.

Robert can't have it.
Cause dairy.

The Choco Taco may make a return.

Robert calls it the Choke-o Taco,

so you can tell who actually eats ice
cream in this studio.

I have a dairy allergy!

Moving on. Our main story tonight
concerns farming.

Farms are where we get our food, our
metaphors about fascism,

and are the subject of surprisingly
popular video games like this.

I played Farming Simulator.

A whole new world was revealed to me.

Agriculture.

Animal husbandry.

Forestry. And a lot of exciting
machinery.

Never cultivated a field before.

And, oh boy,

let me tell you about spraying a field
with a double application rate,

and dynamic working width.

Thats something else!

Believe me,
farming is easy.

Mastering it is a challenge.

And theres always time to relax.

You know,

I have great news for that guy whos
never cultivated a field before-

you still havent.
You havent grown a vegetable,

you havent sprayed anything with a
double rate of anything,

and you havent even really watched any
barnyard animals go to pound-town.

That game is to farming what Call of
Duty is to w*r.

It looks similar, but if you were ever
called on to do the real thing,

you would be categorically f*cked.

Now, that farmer looks pretty much like
the stereotypical one

in most peoples minds-a white guy in
overalls on a tractor.

Its a trope drawn straight from
childrens picture books,

where farmers always seem to be a white
man with some straw in his mouth

whos holding an adorable little piglet
that, while the book skips over it,

he does eventually k*ll and eat.

But while some farmers do indeed look
like that,

many of the people doing some of the
hardest work on farms-

hired farm laborers-do not.

There are roughly one and a half
million hired farmworkers in the U.S.,

mostly crop workers.

And government estimates indicate that
most of those are foreign-born.

And among them, the majority are
undocumented.

And this has been an open secret for
years now-

just watch this interview with a farm
owner from 2009 quickly take a turn.

How many guys do you employ?

I have 22 full-time employees.

Are most of them Latino guys,
or are they-



These guys citizens?
Residents?

They all are legal.

- How do you know that?
- Cut the camera.

We talked off-camera and a few minutes
later,

Myers allowed us to resume the
interview.

The legal documentation that they
presented to me is-they are legal.

Oh! Oh, they are, are they?
Ive gotta say,

thats not a particularly convincing
bit of misdirection there.

Cover-wise, its about as effective as
a camouflage outfit

that just says not a guy on it.

The truth is,

farms depend heavily on foreign-born
workers to do harvesting and picking,

as many crops are too delicate
to be mechanized.

That is why most fruits and vegetables
are still harvested by hand.

And by and large,

American citizens have shown very
little interest in doing that.

In fact, when Washington State spent
thousands on an advertising campaign

to find U.S. farmworkers in 2021,

it resulted in one job referral and
zero hires.

But over the past decade and a half,
changes in immigration policy

and enforcement have made it
much more difficult for farmers

to find workers-forcing some extreme
choices.



for the chance
to pick some free veggies.

The farmer whose family owns the field,
had been sleepless for days,

and getting ever more agitated on
TikTok.

I need this video to go out for people
to see it

and understand the ramifications

of whats going on at the border,

and the lack of labor that we have in
this country.

Agitated that he couldnt hire enough
people to pick the asparagus crop,

some $180,000 worth.

So, instead of throwing it away, he
gave it away.

- Do you guys like eating asparagus?
- No.

No. Yes.

Okay, that third girl is clearly torn
there

between a child's natural hatred of
asparagus

and their natural love of disagreeing
with siblings.

Also, Im a little embarrassed to
admit,

I didn't know that's what a field of
asparagus looks like.

You're telling me it doesn't grow
together in a nice little bunch?

It just sticks out of the ground
individually

like a big field of body hair?

Tell me that doesn't look like you put
the Jolly Green Giant's happy trail

under a microscope. I'm mad!

The point is, without access to labor,
crops just rot in the field.

It's probably why farmworkers were
categorized as essential

by the Department of Homeland Security
during the pandemic.

And yet, while we claim they're
essential,

we sure don't treat them like it.

Farmworkers are among our lowest-paid
workers,

making on average in the range of 20 to
$25,000 a year.

And they're often
subjected to dangerous environments.

During the California wildfire season,
you may have seen videos of

farmworkers toiling in the
foreground of a raging fire.

And even when their workplace isn't
actively burning to the ground,

they will tell you, their work can
sometimes feel pretty dehumanizing.

One of the most difficult things is
just to come to a realization,

how little you mean

to the people that-
that you are working for.

You dont officially start getting paid
until your first bucket is filled.

If you fall behind, you have to run to
try and catch up.

A lot of people cant stand it because
its so hot.

Sometimes you could feel the breeze
from the pesticide

they were spraying over there.
It felt good.

That is pretty brutal.

Although appreciating the cooling air
from the pesticides

is some legendary glass half full
thinking.

Sure, it's hard work, but the poisoned
breeze is nice.

So, it kind of balances out.

The way our farm labor system works is
deeply exploitative.

But the thing is, that is very much by
design.

So, tonight let's talk about
farmworkers: the conditions they face,

how we've failed to protect them, and
what we can do going forward.

And let's start by acknowledging the
history of farm work in America

has always been rooted in exploitation.

From its origins in sl*very, to its
later evolution into sharecropping.

But what you might not know is that
during the New Deal,

as laws were passed to establish some
bedrock labor protections,

farmworkers were repeatedly and
specifically excluded from them.

So, for instance,

the 1935 law which protected employees'
rights to join unions,

explicitly stated that the term
employee shall not include

any individual employed as an
agricultural laborer.

And the 1938 law, which created a
federal minimum wage and overtime,

again, carved out an exception

so those provisions shall not apply
to anyone employed in agriculture.

Which is pretty insulting, isnt it?

It's like announcing your company's new
anti-sexual-harassment policy

but clarifying that none of it protects
Jeff.

Jeff is exempt, so, slap his ass, twist
his nips, we don't care.

It is open season on Jeff.

And make no mistake-the reasons for
that were explicitly r*cist.

One representative even warned during
debate on the minimum wage bill that,

You cannot put the n*gro and the white
man on the same basis

and get away with it.

That representative?

It was actually Tucker Carlson.
It turns out he's a highlander.

Now, since then, the labor force has
changed.

Black Am-Americans left the
sharecropping system

during the Great Migration,

and farmers increasingly came to rely
on laborers from Mexico

and other Central American nations.
And over the years,

leaders like Cesar Chavez and Dolores
Huerta formed the United Farm Workers

and won some significant gains.

The federal minimum wage was expanded
to include farmworkers in 1978.

And some states do now provide at least
some access to overtime pay

and collective bargaining.
But the fact is,

farmworkers are still excluded
from a lot of basic labor protections-

including this major one.

The child labor law in the U.S. is
pretty good,

except when it comes to agriculture.
And then it has a big gaping hole.

U.S. law allows children to work in
agriculture at far younger ages

for unlimited hours outside of school

in much more dangerous conditions than
any other sector.

So, a child can work perfectly legally
for any farmer at age 12.

That child couldn't work serving the
food that

he can work 10, 12, 14 hours picking.

Yeah, and that is absurd.

And look, I'm not saying working in a
restaurant isn't tough,

anyone who thinks otherwise should be
forced to serve an imperfect omelet

to James Corden. But it's clearly not
the same thing, is it?

And this exception isn't just to let
kids work on their own families' farms.

There are hired children working fields
all across America, picking our food.

Because while most jobs are off-limits
to kids under 14,

agricultural employers may even hire
children younger than 12

to work on small farms with written
parental consent.

And it should probably go without
saying,

but this work can be dangerous for
kids-just listen to this girl,

who started working in tobacco fields
when she was only 12,

describe her first day on the job.

I felt really lightheaded and dizzy,

and I wanted to go get a cup of water

and I could not see to where the truck
was that contained the water.

And I was looking for my mom and I
couldn't find my mom.

Eventually, I just fell.

You don't really think about a
childhood, like,

Ive never really thought that a child
is really supposed to-

a 12-year-old
is supposed to have fun, exactly.

I always thought that you were supposed
to work.

That is terrible.

Although, while a 12-year- old under no
circumstances

should be fainting
in a field, I will say,

it is a bit of a stretch to say that a


Because fundamentally,
they are still 12.

This is just around the corner for
them.

You're a hormonal ticking time b*mb at
that age.

Honestly, the closest thing to fun
that's available to you at 12

is going to the mall by yourself for
the first time to kind of walk around,

I guess, since you don't really have
any money except for like

a smoothie or something if you want to
get a smoothie or whatever.

The lack of laws applying to
farmworkers

has left them facing truly dangerous
conditions.

Agricultural workers suffer fatal
on-the-job injuries

at a rate far higher than police
officers.

And more than twice the rate of
construction workers. Which is wild.

Because it's one thing to look up at a
tall building and shudder

thinking about the physical risk it
must have taken

to put a pane of glass up that high.

But it feels ridiculous to feel the
same way

about a beet and goat cheese salad.

Farmworkers face exposure to extreme
heat, dangerous machinery,

unsafe air quality, and impromptu
pesticide showers.

And some farm owners can be abusive
employers.

Just take this story from a few years
ago.

It's quiet but cloudy at EDS Schoenborn
Orchard today.

A loudmouth…

But not on this day.

A punk mother…

It was hot.

If a coward…

The voice on tape, Travis Schoenborn,

the son of farm owners David and
Valerie Schoenborn.

He was angry at one of the workers
and let it be known in front of others.

Tell him to pack his god…

and get the… out of here
while he still can.

He is not… with me
or my mother at all.

Holy sh*t, that was about 95% bleeps.

And trust local news to always find a
diplomatic way to describe things.

He was angry and let it be known in
front of others.

Sure, thats not technically untrue.

But Id have gone with the more
accurate description,

He lost his f*cking sh*t at an apple
farm.

A farm, remember, that his parents
owned-

and they had a truly special response
when confronted with that video.

They blame the migrant worker alleged
victim in this case

and accuse him of threatening Valerie
and being obscene.

What did he do to thr*aten you?

He called me a name in Spanish,
I'm not repeating it.

There was no outright apology.
Instead, this.

First of all, they werent Black,
they were Mexicans,

so I don't know why
he called them the N-word.

I just want to give you a chance
to be clear and respond.

Did you hear him referring
to people as…?

We dont have-we dont have no work
here that I know of.

Oh, okay, okay, okay, okay, here's the
thing.

Well, clearly, there are 9,000 things
there, but here is just one of them:

I bet you heard her say,

They were Mexican so I'm not sure why
he called them the N-word and thought,

Wow, that is the wildest sh*t anybody
in this marriage

is going to say in the next 15
seconds, and then you were dead wrong.

Also, I just want to point out the
inconsistency between

having a problem with saying a vague,
unknown word in Spanish

and having no problem at all saying an
extremely specific one in English.

I won't repeat this Spanish word
because it's offensive,

but if you talk to my husband he'll say
the N-word in about four seconds.

Anyway, I raised my son better than to
use slurs incorrectly.

Now, in that particular case,

a worker caught that tirade on video
and gave it to migrant legal aid.

And the son later pled guilty to, of
all things, disturbing the peace.

But even that pathetic level of
accountability is extremely rare.

And look, clearly, not all farmers are
abusive employers.

But to the extent that any want to be,

there can be shockingly little to stop
them.

Because even when labor laws do apply
to agricultural workers,

there is almost no way to enforce them.

Take California, the most productive
agricultural state in the nation.

The agency responsible for monitoring
workplace safety there

is so understaffed that it currently
has roughly

one field inspector available for every


with only a handful of those inspectors

speaking any language other than
English.

And even when there are consequences,
they can be laughable.

After two farmworkers in Idaho

drowned in pits of cow manure
at dairy operations,

OSHA imposed fines of just $5,000 for
each of the mens deaths.

Which is nothing.

If an employee drowns in the
universally-agreed-upon

worst thing to drown in,

that should cost their employer a lot
more than a fifth of a Hyundai Sonata.

And that's not even getting into the
fact that some farms

limit their liability by using so-
called farm labor contractors,

who hire workers and then contract them
out,

and who've been found to be the worst
violators of employment law

in agriculture.

Some of them have confiscated workers'
passports, charged them

if they wanted to quit their jobs, or
threatened them with deportation.

So, at every turn, this is an
environment where vulnerable workers

can understandably feel reluctant
to come forward.

Take sexual harassment and as*ault,
which farmworkers say is a big problem,

and yet, just watch how this head of a
farm owners trade group

responds when asked about it.

You know Dolores Huerta, you know who
she is.

Yes.

- Can I read you something she said?
- Oh, please.

I'd like to hear her comment.

Okay. She says that this sexual
harassment that we're talking about

is an epidemic in the fields.

Dolores Huerta, bring me those cases.

Dolores Huerta, go have your UFW
go picket the grower

if all these cases have been going on.

If our growers know theres a problem,
were gonna deal with it.

Why didn't you go to the grower?
And tell me that,

Because, well, we were fearful for
their jobs and their lives.

No, that's a poor excuse.

Yeah, is it, though? Is it?
Cause Ive got to say,

I can believe people aren't bringing
harassment cases to growers,

if they're acting anything like he just
did. After all,

merely hearing the name Dolores Huerta
sent him into a visible rage,

so I have to imagine that off-camera
he's even more of a teddy bear.

And at this point, you might be
thinking,

Perhaps one way to help workers would
be to remove their fear of deportation

and create a system where
they can come into this country legally.

Well, we actually did that.
But unfortunately,

the way we did it left massive gaps for
bad actors to operate in.

Back in 1986, we created what's known
as the H-2A visa program.

It allows migrant workers to

legally enter the country temporarily
for agricultural work.

For years, employers shied away from
using it,

because it was cheaper and easier to
simply hire undocumented workers.

But as it's become harder to find them,

the use of H-2A has been ramped up
considerably.

In fact, the number of H-2A positions

has increased more than sevenfold in
the past 17 years.

Basically, the program's been around
since the 80s,

was on the backburner until a few years
ago, and now it's extremely popular.

Think of it as the Kieran Culkin of the
agricultural world.

And, in principle, H-2A does sound
good.

More farmworkers get temporary legal
status, which, you'd assume,

would make them feel safer. But sadly,
that just hasn't been the case.

For one thing, like many work visas,
these are tied to your employer,

so if you lose your job, you also lose
your right to be in the country,

causing a massive power imbalance.
And given that imbalance,

it is no surprise that many employers
feel comfortable

skirting the protections that workers
are supposed to receive. For instance,

under the law, employers must provide
housing for their H-2A workers.

But in practice, the conditions can be
far below what the program requires,

as this man quickly found out.

The house where we lived, where Manuel
brought us to, was very old.

It had spiders, cockroaches, and
the bathrooms didnt work.

The house was gross. It was very dirty.

You could clearly tell that the house
was abandoned for a long time

and Manuel brought us there.

The house didnt have heat, and the
temperature hit six degrees Celsius.

And four of my co-workers and I had to
sleep outside.

We felt like we were on the border of
death.

That is horrific.

No one would see that and say, That is
a good place for people to live.

They'd maybe say, That's a nice spot
for ghosts to throw up," but that's it.

And that's not a one-off.

A DOL investigation a few years back
found that one labor contractor

housed H-2A workers
in an old county jail

that had recently served as the
community's Halloween haunted house.

This is the kitchen, which,
you can see,

still had fake blood on
the refrigerators and the floor.

And workers clearly

shouldn't be forced to sleep around a
bunch of spooky decorations.

Even people who work at Spirit
Halloween don't sleep in the store.

Except, of course, for Dennis,

but he's made it very clear that that
is a sex thing.

But poor living accommodations are just
the tip of the iceberg here.

In 2021, the DOJ launched a massive
indictment

involving the treatment
of H-2A workers on Georgia farms,

and the details are appalling.

Prosecutors calling it
modern-day sl*very.

In the fields of southern Georgia,

years' worth of damning, horrific
allegations.

Victims allegedly forced to live in
cramped, dirty trailers

with raw sewage
leaking into the trailers,

threatened them with deportation,

and detained them in a work camp
surrounded by an electric fence.

And in 2018, 30 individuals allegedly
sold

to another man in Indiana
for $21,481 dollars.

Wow. You know, at times, some people
can be quick to play the

this is sl*very card, whether you're
a teenager asked to mow the lawn,

or an office worker who has to come in
on Sunday.

But as frustrating as those situations
can be,

neither involves being sold in bulk to
a man in Indiana.

Because that is actual f*cking sl*very.

This case is ongoing, but the
indictment asserts that

this was a massive operation, which
sought visas for

over 71,000 foreign workers to
harvest onions and other crops.

And the government says that at least
two d*ed

as a result of the workplace conditions
there.

And while I am glad that action was
eventually taken, I will say,

for a list of charges this sinister,

the name they chose could have used
some work.

A new 54-page indictment by the U.S.
Department of Justice

charging 24 individuals as part of what
it calls Operation Blooming Onion.

Okay, okay, just pour one out for the
social media person at

Outback Steakhouse who saw Blooming
Onion trending on Twitter

and thought their job got easier for
two seconds

before realizing it actually just got a
lot f*cking harder.

And at this point, Ive told you about
everything from child labor

to workers drowning in manure to the
sale of human beings,

so you're hopefully wondering, how do
we fix this?

Well, farmworkers have been organizing
to address some of these issues

for years now.

Take what happened in Immokalee,
Florida. As recently as a decade ago,

the tomato fields there were being
called

ground zero for modern-day sl*very.

But a group called the Coalition of
Immokalee Workers launched

a campaign to improve conditions,
pressuring not just farmers,

but the big name businesses that relied
on their produce.

In 2005,

Taco Bell became the first big buyer to
sign on to the CIWs Fair Food Program.

Buyers agree to pay an extra penny per
pound for tomato,

money that goes to workers,

and buyers only do business with
participating Florida farmers.

More than a dozen restaurant chains and
retailers have signed on,

including McDonalds, Chipotle,
Trader Joes,

and last year Walmart,
which sells 20% of Americas tomatoes.

Wow, those are some massive brands
that you can now, surprisingly,

feel kind of okay about in this one
very narrow way.

Is Walmart a good company overall?

It's not up for me to say, but let's
say, no, it's absolutely terrible.

But is it a good company regarding
the tomatoes

it sells from Florida specifically?
Sure.

On that one issue, they have my full,
Florida-tomato-specific support.

Which is frankly more than I can say
for Wendys, Kroger and Publix,

who, amazingly, have yet to sign on.
So f*ck them.

- f*ck them!
- Exactly.

Under-under the Fair Food Program,

signatories agreed to purchase only
from growers

who implemented a human rights-based
code of conduct on their farms.

It also covers a 24/7 complaint line
for workers, and,

perhaps most importantly,
an independent regulatory body

that conducts audits in which they
interview at least half the workforce.

And it's been a success.

The vast majority of tomato harvesters
in Florida have joined the program,

raising wages for tens of thousands of
workers.

And the program is now expanding into
other crops and other states.

But it clearly shouldn't just be on
farmworkers to fight for a decent life.

We need to make sure that they are at
least protected

by the same labor laws
that the rest of us enjoy,

and make sure that those laws are
actually enforced.

And I would argue that we also need to
retool the H-2A program

and ensure that its participants,
and ideally all farmworkers,

have a potential path to citizenship.

Because after working so hard to feed
this country,

frankly,
they deserve one.

After all, you made me a citizen and
I haven't fed you once.

I know-I know that you think I have,

but that's Jamie Oliver, and we are
different people.

Look, farmworkers provide this country
with our most basic necessity,

and in return, we act like they either
don't matter or don't exist.

The message that we've sent to them
has consistently been you don't count.

And until we fix our broken system,
the very least we can do

is fix our farming simulator games
so that everyone is forced to have

a much more accurate sense of what the
people who grow their food

are actually up against.

Welcome to the new Farming Simulator


All your favorite features are back.

Beautiful vistas,

tough working tractors,
and, of course,

animal husbandry.

But this year,
we're also expanding

to include the parts of farming most
people don't like to think about:

hired farmworkers.

We're bringing cutting-edge graphics
and gameplay

to the most ignored aspect
of agriculture.

You'll be able to choose between
hiring undocumented workers

with no protections against abuse,

or the legal version of that.

You can customize their hair,
their clothes-

even choose from a surprising range of
ages,

from older to younger to dear god,
how on earth is this legal?

We've also got a brand-new assortment
of maps,

from Midwestern fields to vast
asparagus taints,

to literally the middle of a raging
wildfire.

And if your workers need a pep talk,

you can help them out with our new
motivational mini-game.

You little [censored]!

I will… you in every

if you say one more word against
my sister,

my dad, or my mother!

Now get back to work!

Your odds of getting caught are
practically zero.

Oh, sh*t.

You can also use our new housing tool

to design H-2A compliant-ish housing
for your workers.

The less you spend, the more you save.

And all of this is to put food on the
table of people

who will never once think about how it
got there.

Just remember,

the real secret to mastering farming

is being the master of other people.

Wait, not that.

I guess kind of that.

Farming Simulator 2023.

Rated Not Okay for Anyone.

That's our show,
thanks so much for watching.

Well see you next week, good night!