Produce Industry Promises to Improve Mexican Farmworker Conditions Richard Marosi - The Los Angeles Times
go to original December 23, 2014

Behind the Series: Los Angeles Times reporter Richard Marosi and photojournalist Don Bartletti explain what it took to get access to places that have long escaped outside scrutiny. (Los Angeles Times)

Produce industry officials on both sides of the border say they are launching an effort to ensure that workers at thousands of Mexican farms that export fruit and vegetables to the United States have safe and sanitary housing, decent wages and access to healthcare and day care.

The new initiative, tentatively called the International Fresh Produce Social Responsibility Alliance, was announced after a Los Angeles Times investigation this month detailed harsh treatment of laborers at mega-farms across Mexico, especially in the produce-rich coastal state of Sinaloa.

The Times' series, called "Product of Mexico," found that thousands of farmworkers lived in rat-infested labor camps, often without beds or reliable water supplies, and had their pay illegally withheld, which essentially prevented them from leaving during peak harvest periods.

The produce from these farms was sold by some of the leading grocery and restaurant chains in the U.S., including Wal-Mart, Safeway and Olive Garden.

The new initiative will take aim at some of those issues, said Mario Robles, director of the Confederation of Agribusiness Assns. in Sinaloa, a trade group that represents some of Mexico's largest exporters.

Read the rest at The Los Angeles Times

See the whole series at The Los Angeles Times:

Part 1: Farm exports to the U.S. from Mexico have tripled to $7.6 billion in the last decade, enriching agribusinesses, distributors and retailers. But for thousands of farm laborers south of the border, the boom is a story of exploitation and extreme hardship.

Part 2: A raid exposes brutal conditions at Bioparques, one of Mexico's biggest tomato exporters, which was a Wal-Mart supplier. But the effort to hold the grower accountable is looking more like a tale of impunity.

Part 3: The company store is supposed to be a lifeline for migrant farm laborers. But inflated prices drive people deep into debt. Many go home penniless, obliged to work off their debts at the next harvest.

Part 4: About 100,000 children under 14 pick crops for pay at small- and mid-size farms across Mexico, where child labor is illegal. Some of the produce they harvest reaches American consumers, helping to power an export boom.

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