Wednesday after the farm to fork house dinner, (which I must say was delicious!!) I had the opportunity to attend the Becker/Rose cafe which was themed around who’s growing our food. As a plant science major, most things about plants intrigue me, and so I simply had to attend this event. The first speaker, Mary Jo Dudley, introduced a program she helps run at Cornell to help farmworkers across America. I was unaware this program existed but I think they have a great cause. Many farmworkers around the United States are undocumented and live a life of migration. Their kids go from one school to another and often end up behind in their education. These people live under the radar from fears deportation. The other speaker was Justine Vanden Heuvel who works in the field of the science of grape growing. She talked about how even locally, there are a lot of migrant workers in the vineyards. She also mentioned how many employers keep them away from the roads during busy periods.

Hearing about the way these people live their lives was very saddening. I cannot imagine going through life in constant fear of being deported back to a country I fled from. No one should have to live their lives that way and it is cruel to force these people into lives of fear. We should do more for these workers who take the hard labor intensive jobs we don’t want. They are an essential part of our economy and without them there would be a huge demand for farm work, and few people willing to put in labor. Regardless, living your life in fear, is no way to live.

So what can we do to help?

We can help them learn English as our speaker mentioned, or perhaps we could provide other goods or services they need. I hope that each one of us can find some way to help those in need across our country. Even the smallest gesture would mean so much to these people.