The myth of the protected worker: Southeast Asian micro-farmers in California agriculture

In this paper we highlight the racialized effects of agricultural labor laws on Southeast Asian family farmers in California’s Central Valley. We show how agricultural labor laws intended to protect farmworkers on industrial farms discriminate against and challenge small Southeast Asian refugee farm...

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Bibliographic Details
Published in:Agriculture and human values 2015-12, Vol.32 (4), p.579-595
Main Authors: Sowerwine, Jennifer, Getz, Christy, Peluso, Nancy
Format: Article
Language:English
Subjects:
Agricultural cooperatives
Agricultural Economics
Agricultural practices
Agricultural production
Agriculture
Asian people
Education
Employment
Enforcement
Ethics
Evolutionary Biology
Family farms
Farmers
Farmworkers
History
Hmong people
Households
Injury prevention
Labor law
Labor standards
Manual workers
Migrant workers
Nuclear family
Occupational safety
Overtime pay
Philosophy
Refugees
Sharing economy
Small business
Small farms
State laws
Studies
Veterinary Medicine/Veterinary Science
Wages & salaries
Workers compensation
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Summary:In this paper we highlight the racialized effects of agricultural labor laws on Southeast Asian family farmers in California’s Central Valley. We show how agricultural labor laws intended to protect farmworkers on industrial farms discriminate against and challenge small Southeast Asian refugee farmers. Hmong, Iu-Mien and Lao family farmers rely on cultural practices of labor reciprocity and unpaid help from extended family and clan networks to sustain the economic viability of their farms. This kind of labor sharing, a central tenet of their customary farming practices, and a cornerstone of the American family farm ideal, is illegal in California agriculture. We examine the historical context that gave rise to agricultural labor regulations in California and the ways in which these regulations are both under-enforced and unevenly enforced, differentially impacting immigrant family farms, while failing to protect those for whom the laws were originally intended. In highlighting how employment and labor laws and their enforcement or lack thereof discriminate against Southeast Asia farms, this study illustrates how other “small family farms” reliant on volunteerism or labor-sharing arrangements, part of the emergent “sharing economy,” may be confronting similar legal conundrums to those faced by Southeast Asian farms.
ISSN:0889-048X
1572-8366
DOI:10.1007/s10460-014-9578-3