More than 4 million people who work in the United States are employed in food processing ranging from tending , picking and producing crops, to slaughtering and packing meats, poultry and seafood.

A main part of sustainable eating has to do with farmworkers as well as us, the people who buy and eat the food, we simply rely on them for our food supply so that we can survive. But, the workers and farmer's jobs can affect their health drastically, as many suffer from work related fatalities and injuries.

Workers often face discrimination due to their race, ethnicity, sex, etc. The work these men and women do are some of the lowest paying jobs in the United States, and many are undocumented immigrants, who have very little say and voice due to the fear of being deported. Many do not get the privileges of certain labor laws, leaving them exposed to things such as unfair wages, healthcare, physical and sexual abuse. Workers are often put up against health dangers such as the workers that work in Dairy Farms that face the risk of being kicked by the animals or hurt because of heavy machinery.

• More than 50% of the U.S. dairy workforce is made up of immigrants and refugees

• 80% percent of farmworkers in 2014 self-identified as Hispanic (with about 2/3 reporting being born in Mexico).These workers are largely non–English speaking; nearly half are not authorized to work in the United States.

  • • • More than 75% of dairy workers are from Mexico or Guatemala ( in the top two U.S. dairy-producing states of New York and Wisconsin)

      • 34% of the workforce is Hispanic, which is more than twice the share of Hispanics in the overall workforce of meat and poultry packing

• The meatpacking and poultry industries rank among the U.S. industries with the highest rates of work-related injuries and illnesses (DART rates in these industry sectors at 7.8 per 100 workers and 4.6 per 100 workers, as compared with the national rate of 1.7.)

• The annual cost of work-related injuries, illnesses, and fatalities in the United States (including productivity losses) is estimated to be $250 billion (workers’ compensation covering less than 25% of these costs)

• Hourly wages for meat, poultry, and fish processing workers ranges from $9 to $16, with 50% of the individuals employed in these occupations. Each earning less than $25,000 per year.

• In 2013–2014, the average wage reported by farmworkers was $9.71 per hour (Thirty percent of farmworkers had family incomes below the federal poverty level)

• In 2014, only 22% of farmworkers reported having health insurance. While most workers employed by the major U.S. meat and poultry processing firms are provided health insurance, most do not have the benefit of paid sick leave

• Refugees from Somalia, Burma, Egypt, and elsewhere are also often employed at meat and poultry plants.

• More than 60% of workers involved in seafood processing, including fish trimming, crab picking, and seafood canning, are foreign-born individuals (Asian/Pacific Islanders and immigrants from Vietnam, the Philippines, and the Marshall Islands)

• • A woman named Jose Olivia, an immigrant from Guatemala co-directs Food Chain Worker Alliances, a program which gives voice to food workers ensuring that they have equal say in the discourse around a sustainable food model.

  • The FCWA helped start other organizations such as Fight for $15 and Good Food Purchasing Policy programs passed in cities across the country to use institutional purchasing to prioritize environmental sustainability, animal welfare, worker conditions, public health and buying locally.

  • The FCWA works closely with the Health Environment Agriculture and Labor (HEAL) Food Alliance, which is a multisector organization of environmentalists, agriculturalists, public health advocates and food workers to "build the next generation of leaders to influence food policy changes from the inside."

• The Los Angeles Food Policy Council (LAFPC), a community partner program has the mission of building a good food system for all of Los Angeles. Its goals include sustainable agriculture and fair working conditions for all food workers as well as ensuring access to healthy, affordable food in underserved neighborhoods

• Occupational Safety and Health Act (a US labor law governing the federal law of occupational health and safety in the private sector and federal government in the United State ) was passed in 1970. Since then, fatality rates have fallen, from 18 fatalities per 100,000 workers during that year to 3.4 per 100,000 workers in 2015.

  • More than 553,000 workers’ lives have been saved since the passage of that legislation, which promised workers in this country the right to a safe job

• Cesar Chavez was a man who raised awareness and fought for labor rights, it talks about California farmers who had to fight to keep the rights of their land.

  • He would lead marches, strikes, and protests to boycott foods such as lettuce and grapes until 1975 when the Agricultural Labor Relations Act***, was passed . He would also fast to show his support to these as well.

    • ***Establishes and protects the rights of all farmworkers to form unions and bargain for better wages and working conditions.

  • Chavez kicked off his "Grapes of Wrath" in 1986, which was a campaign to draw attention to the pesticide poisoning of farmworkers and their children.