#171 Antonio Tovar

So much goes into bringing fruits and vegetable to our tables. It starts with farmers who because of rising costs are increasingly selling off their land, often family legacies, to corporations and international investors. It relies on farmworkers brought to the United States on H-2A temporary visas who once here, migrate across states to harvest crops requiring a specialized workforce. In Florida, the nation's second largest agricultural producer, farmworkers, are subjected to environmental hazards, heat stress and pay based on piecework. As medical anthropologist and farmworker advocate Dr. Antonio Tovar explains, the agricultural industry is complex, risky and historically discriminatory. He wants Congress to listen to farmworkers and small owners for policy solutions, not just industry lobbyists, in the run-up to the 2022 Farm Bill. The Florida Association of Farmworkers has researched the impacts of heat stress on workers and the National Family Farmworker Coalition is modeling how small family farms can become major providers in their region. As consumers, we can leverage our collective power too. Listen and find out how.