Sunday, December 7, 2014

Fields of abuse

Today's must-read piece about Mexico in English comes courtesy of Los Angeles Times reporter Richard Morosi, who visited some 30 farm labor camps across nine Mexican states and found horrific conditions throughout.
     Farmworkers, mostly indigenous, are trapped for months in rat-infested camps, with guards and barbed wire, sleeping on concrete floors, and piling up debt from the company store as their wages are illegally withheld.
    You should be able to read this superb and disturbing work of investigative reporting  here.
    The comments appendix can be revealing in articles like this, and usually disheartening, But so far (it's early still and three more parts are coming) the posts have been encouraging. Most praise the Times for publishing such a piece, and a good percentage seem to understand that pressure on Wal-Mart, Whole Foods and other major U.S. importers of Mexican produce — who profit from the exploitation and theoretically follow guidelines that don't tolerate it — would be a helpful response.

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