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503Worked
to the Bone: COVID-19, the Agrifood Labour Force , and the Need for More…
forced to leave crops to rot in the field and cull herds as both domestic
and international markets collapse, the UN World Food Programme is
warning that 130 million people will go hungry due to COVID-19.1
This chapter discusses the impact of the coronavirus on the agri-
food labour force. Despite the industrialization of agricultural prac-
tices around the world, food production remains a labour-intensive
industry. While public health directives instruct people to stay home
to protect themselves and others from the virus, food production and
distribution have been declared an essential service. Fears of food
shortages have rendered visible the previously invisible labour that
gets our food from farm to fork. These include, but are not limited to,
the temporary foreign workers who harvest our crops, the employees
at processing facilities who prepare and package our food, the truck-
ers who transport it, the grocery store clerks who run the cash and
stock shelves, and the couriers who deliver takeout meals.
Labour, Lockdowns, and Economic Lifelines
While people around the world bang on pots and applaud health care
providers during the pandemic, employees in the agricultural sector
are also being praised for their essential work ensuring that people
have access to healthy and nutritious food. In recognition of the risks
associated with frontline work, some grocery stores have been install-
ing plexiglass screens and limiting store hours to protect their employ-
ees, and even raising salaries.2 Protective measures and compensation
are not, however, universal. In a powerful editorial published in The
Atlantic, a grocery store clerk resists the label of “hero” that has been
used to describe frontline workers in the food industry.3 “Cashiers
and shelf-stockers and delivery-truck drivers aren’t heroes,” she
1. World Food Programme, News Release, “WFP Chief Warns of Hunger Pandemic
as COVID-19 Spreads (Statement to UN Security Council)” (21 April 2020), online:
World Food Programme <https://www.wfp.org/news/wfp-chief-warns-hunger-
pandemic-covid-19-spreads-statement-un-security-council>; David Yaffe-Bellany
& Michael Corkery, “Dumped Milk, Smashed Eggs, Plowed Vegetables: Food
Waste of the Pandemic”, New York Times (11 April 2020), online: <https://www.
nytimes.com/2020/04/11/business/coronavirus-destroying-food.html>.
2. Hayley Ryan, “4 Major Canadian Grocers Give Front-Line Workers a Raise During
COVID-19 Pandemic”, CBC News (23 March 2020), online: <cbc.ca/news/canada/
nova-scotia/sobeys-grocery-loblaw-metro-wages-pay-raise-covid-19-1.5506935>.
3. Karleigh Frisbie Brogan, “Calling Me a Hero Only Makes You Feel Better”, The Atlantic
(18 April 2020), online: <theatlantic.com/ideas/archive/2020/04/i-work-grocery-
store-dont-call-me-hero/610147/>.
VULNERABLE
The Law, Policy and Ethics of COVID-19
- Titel
- VULNERABLE
- Untertitel
- The Law, Policy and Ethics of COVID-19
- Autoren
- Vanessa MacDonnell
- Jane Philpott
- Sophie Thériault
- Sridhar Venkatapuram
- Verlag
- Ottawa Press
- Datum
- 2020
- Sprache
- englisch
- Lizenz
- CC BY-NC-ND 4.0
- ISBN
- 9780776636429
- Abmessungen
- 15.2 x 22.8 cm
- Seiten
- 648
- Kategorien
- Coronavirus
- International