Reframing Farmworker Justice

Academic Academic Professional

Reframing Farmworker Justice: Decolonizing Land Stewardship

2020-21 | Master’s thesis | Skagit Valley, WA

My thesis was a speculative design project about rethinking the future of the U.S’s current industrialized agricultural system to one that is a community-based, reciprocal system led by the very people who are currently exploited in current paradigms, Indigenous Latinx farmworkers. Immigrants from Mexico, many embody and bring traditional ecological knowledge of tending to the land with them, which is a term I call displaced ecologies. To imagine an alternative future with full farmworker autonomy I applied methods of historical analysis, community outreach, mapping, interviews, and contemporary archival research to learn from the perspectives of different disciplines, amplify the voices of Latinx farmworkers and activists, and leverage traditional ecological knowledge from Latinx farmers. I first ground this project in a historical analysis of the U.S. agricultural complex then zoom into the Skagit Valley of Washington State to explore stories of resilience from six indigenous Latinx farmers to learn from their methods of place-making, preserving biodiversity, and protecting agroecosystems in the face of hegemonic structures as Indigenous sovereignty must be at the forefront of how we address climate crises.

HISTORY OF FARMWORK IN THE U.S.

+ NEW DEAL

+ BRACERO PROGRAM

+ THE UNITED FARMWORKERS + NAFTA + IMMIGRATION AND CUSTOMS ENFORCEMENT

+ H-2A

H-2A

FARMWORKERS ARE HIRED ON TEMPORARY WORK PERMITS AT THE BEGINNING OF THE SEASON AND SENT BACK TO THEIR HOMELANDS ONCE THEY ARE NOT NEEDED

RESPIRATORY • PHLEGM • COUGHING • WHEEZING ACUTE SYMPTOMS • STINGING EYES • DIARRHEA • NAUSEA • BLISTERS CHRONIC HEALTH EFFECTS • CANCER • INFERTILITY • BRAIN + NERVOUS SYSTEM

DAMAGE • ASTHMA These models depict the current industrialized agricultural system and its contribution to environmental crisis. It is a model that people at the top of the hierarchical business structure use to base their decisions solely on profit, leaving those at the bottom (people, land, and water) to suffer.

PESTICIDES’ HEALTH EFFECTS

CURRENT EXTRACTIVE FARMING METHODS

AIR POLLUTION

CO2 H2O

SOIL EROSION + DEPLETION

TILLING KILLS + DESTROYS CRITICAL MYCORRHIZAL

FUNGAL NETWORKS

TOXIC RUNOFF ENTERS GROUNDWATER

WILDFIRE SEASON

DESPITE HAZARDOUS AIR QUALITY,

FARMWORKERS CONTINUE TO

WORK DURING WILDFIRE SEASON,

PROVIDING US WITH OUR FOOD IN

DANGEROUS CONDITIONS

NO CROP ROTATION / COVER CROPS

MONOCULTURE

THE AGRICULTURAL PRACTICE OF PRODUCING OR

GROWING A SINGLE CROP, PLANT, OR LIVESTOCK

SPECIES IN A FARMING SYSTEM AT A TIME. LACK OF

DIVERSE CROPS REQUIRES INCREASE PESTICIDES AND

FERTILIZERS

MAXIMIZING PROFIT

ZOOMING INTO THE SKAGIT VALLEY

Zooming into the Skagit Valley, Washington which is the richest agricultural areas in the Western Hemisphere. As depicted in the maps the current geography is one of farmworker exploitation and toxicity from pesticides. Amongst these oppressive structures, however, the valley is also home to six Latinx farmers who are at the forefront of revolutionizing farming with traditional ecological methods of growing and harvesting food, stewarding the land, and non-exploitative practices of labor. These tensions are creating two realities in the valley.

N

(above) Map of the geography of the Skagit Valley, illustrating the crops that are grown there. Each crop is ranked by color according to labor intensity; the need for manual labor is ranked high, dark yellow, whereas the use of the machines that could replace people is low, dark green. Through this mapping, I am making the assumption that more labor intensive farms, with crops that require hands-on labor, have a higher possibility of exploitation.

(bottom) Closeup map of the Skagit Valley illustrating the effect of pesticides on the Skagit River.

COMMUNITY ENGAGEMENT: LEARNING FROM SIX LATINX FARMERS

The organic methods that the Latinx farmers use are essential and their farm ownership is one step closer to creating a just agricultural system and changing the geography of the Skagit Valley to improve human and ecological conditions.

LAND SOVEREIGNTY

THE RIGHT OF WORKING PEOPLES TO HAVE EFFECTIVE ACCESS TO, USE OF, AND CONTROL OVER LAND AND THE BENEFITS OF ITS USE AND OCCUPATION, WHERE LAND IS UNDERSTOOD AS RESOURCE, TERRITORY, AND LANDSCAPE

FOOD SOVEREIGNTY

THE RIGHT OF PEOPLES TO HEALTHY AND CULTURALLY APPROPRIATE FOOD PRODUCED THROUGH ECOLOGICALLY SOUND AND SUSTAINABLE METHODS, AND THEIR RIGHT TO DEFINE THEIR OWN FOOD AND AGRICULTURE SYSTEMS

SOLIDARITY ECONOMY

AN ECONOMY THAT IS IN SOLIDARITY WITH THE EARTH, MEANING WE RELEARN OUR SKILLS AND LISTEN FOR THE LOGIC, RHYTHM, REASONING, AND METHODS THAT THE EARTH COMMUNICATES TO US

ALTERNATIVE FUTURES

From what I gathered from the Skagit Valley farmers, an alternative future for a more just food system is not only possible, it is on its way. These drawings show sustainable and just ways of growing food, displaced ecologies being grounded into organic methods, and examples of how embodied knowledge can positively change the food system. These methods foster a collective community, a stronger connection to the land by elements of indigenous ecology and agrobiodiversity. These are the ways that strengthen ecological and economic resilience in the face of today’s climate, water, and energy crises, ones where the land and people are no longer oppressed, and offer a path forward for growing food for us all.

CO2

H2O

SOIL HEALTH

NO TILLING PROTECTS MYCORRIHZAL FUNGI + ENTIRE SOIL ECOSYSTEM + REDUCES EROSION

IMPROVES SOIL FERTILITY, SOIL STRUCTURE, WATER INFILTRATION, AND MODIFIES CLIMATE AROUND PLANTS

COVER CROPS

IMPROVED WATER RETENTION

SENSE OF COMMUNITY INTERGENERATIONAL KNOWLEDGE

CROP ROTATION

REDUCES WEED INFESTATION BY TAKING THE SPACE WEEDS WOULD NEED TO GROW

NO PESTICIDES

MAINTAINING A FUNCTIONAL BALANCE, AGROECOLOGICAL SYSTEMS ARE BETTER ABLE TO RESIST PEST AND DISEASE ATTACK