Labor in Industrial Agriculture. The USA case

Abstract

The production of fruits, nut and berries, vegetables and melons and horticultural specialties that range from nursery and greenhouse crops to Christmas trees, mushrooms, and sod (FVH agriculture) exemplifies US industrial agriculture, in the sense that sales per production unit are larger than average, hired workers do most of the work, and most of the hired workers are immigrants. Historically, industrial agriculture was associated with particular regions, not particular commodities. The southwestern states in which agriculture developed after 1870 after irrigation and transportation infrastructure were available developed the basic features of the labor market in industrial in agriculture, viz., bilingual middlemen farm labor contractors (FLCs) to organize workers into crews and deploy them to seasonal farm jobs, (im)migrant workers who had no other US job options who accepted the fact that they would be paid only when work was available, and farm employers who organized themselves to deal with government on labor and immigration issues.