Still serving as America's conscience, John Oliver last night pointed out that much of America’s food is still picked by hands belonging to some of the most poorly treated people in the nation: immigrant farm workers. He reminds us they were treated as "essential workers" during the pandemic. Via Yahoo News:
“And yet while we claim they’re essential, we sure don’t treat them like it,” he said, noting that they’re among the lowest-paid workers in the nation while facing dangerous conditions on the job ranging from natural disasters to pesticide exposure to horrible bosses.
That extends to when they’re not even working, as many are placed in living conditions so bad that one location Oliver found actually functioned as a haunted house on Halloween.
“That is horrific,” Oliver said after showing footage of some of those living conditions. “No one would see that and say, ‘That is a good place for people to live.’ They maybe say ‘That’s a nice spot for ghosts to throw up’ and that’s it.”
The comedian called for better conditions and a path toward citizenship for the farm workers who provide so much of the nation’s food under horrendous conditions.
“Farm workers provide this country with our most basic necessity, and in return we act like they either don’t matter or don’t exist,” he said. “The message that we have sent to them has consistently been: ‘You don’t count.’”
Much more, watch the whole thing.
