Yesterday, I hosted Laura-Anne Minkoff-Zern and Teresa Mares for a conversation about their new book, Will Work for Food: Labor Across the Food Chain (UC Press, Amazon). The timing feels particularly urgent as immigration enforcement escalates and threatens the workers who constitute the backbone of our food system. I’m sharing the audio recording today for those who would like to listen for the first time or share the conversation with others.
The book emerged from a desire on the part of Laura-Anne and Teresa to fill a crucial gap in scholarship that examined labor across the entire food chain—from field work through processing, transportation, and service, all the way to domestic work and food waste management.
What struck me most in our conversation was their discussion of food systems as interconnected webs of resources, infrastructure, and supply chains. Both scholars approach this work primarily as food systems thinkers, which provides a particular lens for understanding how workers fit into these broader structures.
The inclusion of domestic labor and waste management workers as integral parts of the food system was especially illuminating. I had thought of the food system ending when groceries arrive home, but the gendered labor of preparing food in households and the networks managing food waste are absolutely part of this system. This reframing expands who we recognize as food workers.
The question of immigration enforcement’s impact on food systems was unavoidable. As Teresa noted, “We wouldn’t be able to feed ourselves” without immigrants working across the food system. Laura-Anne was equally direct: “There is no U.S. food system without immigrants.”
Immigrants work everywhere in the food system—in fields, processing plants, warehouses, restaurants, and providing care work in homes. While I resist describing the current wave of enforcement as historically “unprecedented” (it isn’t exactly), Teresa emphasized the ways in which racial profiling is being legitimized and extending beyond non-citizens to affect “immigrant-adjacent” communities of color.
An important thread in our conversation concerned the limitations of consumer-driven change. During the pandemic, food workers suddenly became visible—media coverage of meat processing workers, discussions of “hero pay,” recognition of farmworkers. Yet as Laura-Anne noted, “not much has changed since the pandemic for food systems workers.”
She referenced Upton Sinclair’s exposés of food system conditions over a century ago, which led to reforms focused on sanitary conditions for consumers rather than conditions for workers. As she argued, “We’re not going to purchase our way into a better food system for so many reasons. We have to change the laws.”
Laura-Anne also complicated assumptions about local food systems: “Just because something is local, right, does not mean it’s produced with socially just labor.” Smaller farmers and businesses are often more financially constrained and less able to provide good wages and benefits. Sometimes workers prefer larger employers who can guarantee certain protections. Scale does not determine justice, and proximity does not automatically produce ethical labor practices.
Both scholars emphasized the current pressures on labor rights organizations, which are stretched thin fighting simultaneously for labor rights and advocating for immigrant constituencies facing intensified enforcement. Their call to action was straightforward: support organizations doing frontline work.
As Laura-Anne reminded us, “protests don’t pop up out of nowhere”—the organizing infrastructure exists because people have been building it for years. This moment is part of longer histories of organizing and resistance, and supporting these organizations means supporting their capacity to continue beyond the current crisis.
Will Work for Food brings together food systems analysis, labor scholarship, and close attention to organizing and activism. It does not separate analysis from action but engages directly with the work that organizers and activists are already doing while providing crucial context and frameworks. I encourage you to read the book, listen to the audio, and support the organizations doing this work.
Organizations Mentioned
Food Chain Workers Alliance
A coalition of worker-based organizations organizing across the entire food supply chain to improve wages and working conditions.
Website: https://foodchainworkers.org
Coalition of Immokalee Workers
Worker-based human rights organization that created the Fair Food Program and pioneered the Worker-driven Social Responsibility model. Known for its anti-slavery work and successful campaigns with major food retailers.
Website: https://ciw-online.org
Community to Community Development (C2C)
Women-led grassroots organization in Washington State dedicated to farmworker rights, immigrant rights, and food sovereignty. Successfully organized both H-2A and undocumented workers.
Website: https://www.foodjustice.org
Community Alliance for Global Justice
Seattle-based organization working to strengthen local economies everywhere through their “Strengthening Local Economies Everywhere (SLEE)” campaign. Focuses on food sovereignty and transforming unjust trade and agricultural policies.
Website: https://cagj.org
Familias Unidas por la Justicia
Farmworker union in Washington State that won a historic contract with Sakuma Brothers berry farm after years of organizing.
Information: https://nfwm.org/farm-workers/farmworker-partners/familias-unidas-por-la-justicia/
For Further Reading
Eating NAFTA: Trade, Food Policies, and the Destruction of Mexico
By Alyshia Gálvez (University of California Press, 2018)
Examines how NAFTA fundamentally altered Mexican food systems, driving migration and health crises. Teresa Mares called this “one of my favorite books of all time” for understanding the connections between trade policy, migration, and sustenance.
Labor and the Locavore: The Making of a Comprehensive Food Ethic
By Margaret Gray (University of California Press, 2014)
Examines how local food movements often ignore labor conditions. Shows that “just because something is local does not mean it’s produced with socially just labor.”
Next Book Event: October 28, 2:00 pm EST, Gates of the Sea with Luna Vives
If you like this event, join me next week for a conversation with Luna Vives, author of a new book called The Gates of the Sea about migrant search and rescue off the coast of Spain. More information and the registration link is available below.
Join me in celebrating over 300 Substack posts and over 10,000 readers. If you believe in keeping this work free and open to the public, join the 100 percent of surveyed paid subscribers who said this newsletter is a good steward of their investment. You can read more about the mission of this newsletter, why I finally decided to offer a paid option, and the impact of this newsletter in 2025.
