We frequently associate fresh produce with Wegmans and forget where, how and really by whom the produce is grown. During this week’s Becker-Rose Cafe, Justine Vanden Huevel, an Associate Professor in the Department of Horiculture, and Mary Jo Dudley, the Director of the Cornell Farmworker Program, presented compelling stories about the origins of our food and discussed the future state of New York agriculture. Huevel and Dudley opened with farm safety, transitioned to immigration enforcement, focusing specifically on the work and living conditions of migrant workers in the fields, and ended on the future of the grape, wine and agriculture industry in the U.S.
As I was eating dinner after the discussion, however, I realized the significance and limiting nature of the social stigma associated with farming. While farmwork is undeniably physically demanding and oftentimes poor paying, it offers much more than just providing food for a population. As Huevel and Dudley touched upon during their discussion, farming allows people to better understand agriculture, immigrant communities and cultural inequalities. From the lens of a scientist, farming also offers innumerable opportunities for investigation and problem solving, for instance in optimizing the quality and sustainability of crop performance. Ultimately, the stories and facts that Huevel and Dudley shared forced me to reflect upon the origins of produce and the strenuous work necessary to deliver the food our society consumes daily.