Immigrant Labor, Food Politics: A Dialogue between the Authors of Four Recent Books about the Food System

Abstract

This dialogue serves as a forum for four authors of recent books on food politics to discuss their different approaches to analyzing immigrant workers' contested and changing roles in the U.S. food system. Bridging disciplines such as anthropology, sociology, and political science—and sites in the food industry ranging from poultry processing plants, slaughterhouses, and industrial agribusiness to organic farms—the authors address a consistent set of questions: What does the increase in immigrant workers in the food industry tell us about our food system, and how do immigration and labor policies facilitate employers' exploitation of all workers' vulnerabilities? What are viable models for change, and what role can scholars play in creating an ethic of responsible consumption that incorporates labor concerns? By contributing fresh perspectives on immigrants' hidden work in plants, slaughterhouses, and farms, the authors illuminate the factors that divide workers and obscure the human costs of how we make our food.