When it comes to food, research has shown that inhabitants of rural areas will give different responses when asked where their food comes from. Most children living in urban areas believe that their food comes from stores and super markets, where children who grow up in rural zones would respond that food comes from farms or crops instead. Justine Vanden Heuvel and Mary Jo Dudley were kind enough to educate the Rose Scholars on what an integral part agriculture plays in the state of New York. I never knew that around three quarters of all of New York’s land is cultivated, nor that most of the workers are immigrants. On another note, it so happens that fewer and fewer families are continuing to grow crops and cultivate land because they want their children to go to college and work in different sectors of society.

Especially during this time, the issues of immigration are becoming more and more critical. It so happens that sending all illegal immigrants home would consist of around seventy percent of all farm workers in New York state alone, which makes sense if the farmers children are not the one’s working the land. Immigrant workers arrive to the United States in search of any job opportunity that they can find if it means being able to support their families and loved ones from their home country. It makes no sense to send these hard working individuals in our society back to where they originated from when they are only contributing to the manual labor that most citizens do not wish to take part in for the country.

Personally, I have never worked on a farm; the closest I have been to cultivating land was planting flowers with my mom in our garden when I was fourteen. My grandmother who lives in Peru works and owns various vegetable crops in Coyo, a small pueblo in the mountainous region of the country. She always teaches me about how she grows the fruits of the earth and reminds me that it is important to care for the land and know how to grow one’s own food even if it is difficult at times. Because most of my family has grown their own crops, I have seen first hand the strenuous effort that comes with working in agriculture. Yet, there is no doubt that food production is a necessity, and with that comes educating the public about its importance as well as supporting those that work in the industry.