Pennies Per Pound: How the Agricultural Sector Keeps Food Cheap and Farmworkers Exploited

Abstract

Agribusiness implements this strategy of myth disguised as Enlightenment in order to keep migrant farmworkers marginalized and exploited. Agribusiness plays a central role in spreading myths about the agricultural system that have since become regarded as truths and have resulted in the invisibility of migrant laborers. The history of governmental programs, such as the infamous Bracero and H-2A programs, outlines how the government has also contributed to this absence of migrant farmworkers in public discourse. The agricultural system, mainly composed of agribusiness and the government, has lead to strong cases of structural violence against agricultural laborers.