“What is a Good Job Now?” in Agriculture

New technology, declining immigration, and legislation raising the minimum wage and mandating overtime pay have profoundly changed the nature of agricultural work in California. But the work remains difficult, dangerous, and hard on the health of workers—primarily immigrants—who toil in hotter weather than they did in the past, and who lack equitable healthcare coverage and access. Undocumented farmworkers are older than ever before, but they are ineligible for retirement benefits and must contend with challenges around their immigration status. Meanwhile, employers are cutting some workers’ hours as wages rise, housing is increasingly expensive, and uncertainty is growing around automation.

Where are the best jobs in California’s agricultural sector? What changes are needed—in policy, enforcement, community, and in our health and economic systems—to improve current farm jobs, and the future prospects of those who work them? Agriculture worker and student José Anzaldo, agricultural consultant James Nakahara, Alianza Nacional de Campesinas executive director & co-founder Mily Treviño-Sauceda, and retired farmworker attorney Juan Uranga visit Zócalo in “America’s salad bowl” to discuss what it would take to make life in California sustainable for the people whose work helps sustain us all.

Introductory comments by  Don Howard , President & CEO of The James Irvine Foundation.

Before and after the conversation, we will screen clips from the documentary film East of Salinas (2016) and its upcoming sequel, Beyond Salinas , starring panelist José Anzaldo and Oscar Ramos, a teacher at Sherwood Elementary School.

Zócalo invites our in-person audience to continue the conversation with our speakers and each other at a post-event reception with a hot meal and entertainment.

Live Spanish translation of the discussion will be provided. Please email support@zocalopublicsquare.org  if you require an ASL interpreter, and we will do our best to accommodate your request.