The UK farmer protests you probably haven't heard about (article for The Conversation)
The grievances of farm workers, who milk cows, drive machinery, and pick crops, are rarely given the spotlight with the talk of farmer protests...
Just sharing a link to a new article I’ve written for The Conversation talking about a recent farm worker protest I attended in London last month. I found it a really moving and powerful protest and I really hope the Justice is Not Seasonal campaign can only grow from here and get justice for those involved and broaden into a bigger movement. Yesterday the Labour government committed to extending the seasonal worker scheme, despite a UN Special Rapporteur on human rights and modern slavery suggesting that the scheme contravenes international law.
In this short article I also try to challenge the idea that building a better food system is about what the consumer pays at the checkout (or farmer’s gate). Systemic and structural exploitation goes beyond a few bad apples, and the farm in question in this article, supplies organic box schemes. Eliding the nature of a class-based society means overlooking the fact that organic farms also engage in exploiting workers and don’t always provide good working conditions. As I’ve said in a previous article on here, we have to go beyond the idea of ethical consumerism which has plagued the political philosophy of alternative movements for too long and blunted their potential.
Link: https://theconversation.com/the-uk-farmer-protests-you-probably-havent-heard-about-249414