Farmworkers: Last Week Tonight with John Oliver (HBO)

Farm workers are truly the backbone of our country. They deserve better.

John, please cover the American foster system. I work with foster kids and every new thing I learn is something that you and your team desperately need to cover. It REALLY needs a hit from the John Oliver effect.
But to give a few examples, knowing full well that this probably won't be seen:
It was recognized as early as 1912 that we shouldn't be putting children into institutions and that putting kids with foster families if their original families weren't safe for them was in their best interests.
Many times these days, children are taken from homes that are NOT actually abusive but merely "neglectful" though not because of failings of the parents - merely because the parents are poor, or frequently people of color. It is extremely difficult to get one's children back, but it is also difficult to properly *adopt* children from foster care as well, much of the time, meaning that many of the children in question wind up in legal limbo with no stable housing or stable living environment.
Many states also vary their requirements for screening foster parents - some having very little, some having requirements that are excellent but excruciatingly expensive to fulfill - and in either case the requirements to pay falls on prospective foster parents. Which means that in many cases, children are EITHER put in horrible, abusive, unstable foster homes, OR put in a backlog because many states simply do not have adequate foster homes to accept them, which has led to ANOTHER problem - which is that despite that we were supposed to begin phasing out orphanages in 1920 and the last one DID close its doors in 1973, we began bringing them back in the 1980s and calling them "group homes" - some of the kids there are those who have serious mental helath issues, trauma, etc,. others are those who simply do not have placements. Many foster children who have experienced psych wards or juvie compare group homes unfavorably to the former two.
We're still not done. Because many states are supposed to supply some kind of stipend for foster children to have money for after they leave the system or "age out" but it is *very* common for states - and frequently private agencies they hire - to straight up steal the money meant to go to those children. Alaska recently got caught up in one such scandal as it was the most brazen, but it is far from the only one.
Also children in these situations can and are frequently subject to medical abuse or unnecessary use of antipsychotics for things like running away from abusive homes or fairly common trauma responses.
Rehoming groups have also sprung up on facebook in which people essentially trade foster kids around when they are not getting along with the adoptive/foster parents' biological kids - this is technically not, strictly, illegal, though it is not strictly legal either. That, and hundreds of foster kids go straight up missing every year. Like we actually straight up do not know where they go. Texas is the most egregious in this regard, though it is, again, far from the ONLY one with this problem.
Again, this is a system in dire need of the John oliver effect.

White boy, athlete... In the summer after my Sophomore year in high school, I took a seemingly well paid job picking strawberries and tomatoes. I thought I would die after the first two days, but I stayed with it and learned the techniques of REAL hard work... and I lasted all of 2 weeks. The amazing Mexican women and children I worked next to have my everlasting admiration. If you haven't done it, you have no idea what it takes.

Most farmers actually want illegal Hispanic workers because it means they can underpay them. That farmer also knows the illegal Hispanic workers they hire can’t complain about being underpaid because they have no legal standing to complain. This type of financial abuse is very real. I personally knew people in situations like this.

If you care about this cause, I highly recommend volunteering at your local farmworkers association (especially if you speak Spanish). It was very rewarding for me. On my first day, I went to a berry farm to sign workers up for free medical and dental appointments and make sure they had transportation to get there. I witnessed the abhorrent conditions of their "housing." They were living in horse stables with bunk beds. There was no running water. There was no adequate protection from the elements. I knew then that it wouldn't be my last day volunteering.
I saw many abuses, but also so much love and humanity. The other volunteers doing their best to help. The farmworkers themselves giving everything they had to help their fellow workers. Dentists, doctors, and nurses giving their time and expertise for free. Teachers and tutors giving free English lessons with their very limited off hours. It was heartbreaking, but also amazing. Again, please consider volunteering for this very worthy cause. ❤

As a Caucasian (ancestors from the Caucuses) person who worked picking cherries in central washington alongside my numerous mexican/latino friends before and throughout high school, from personal experience everything he’s said is super, SUPER accurate. From families bringing their young children to help pick faster and support themselves to watching 4 people hospitalised and one die from heat exhaustion, to people suffocating in a fruit shed at a different orchard not too far away from us, and not to mention all the kids/young adults who were sent to America by their parents at like 12-13 just to find these really tough jobs in order to provide for their family and escape even worse conditions. It’s a messed up industry with back breaking conditions, not to mention there wasn’t a single other white person working the fields I was in, so if y’all wanna say stop stealing our jobs then go out and take a job in a field, which I guarantee most white people couldn’t handle for more than a week. I will say being labelled as the resident snow/albino mexican by the other workers was pretty funny (since i quickly adopted the jeans and long sleeve shirt/sweatshirt outfit everyone else had on in the 100 degree heat), “hey, HEY you… albino lookin’ mexican! Get over here you gringo cosplayer!” Literally a sentence I heard once from a random guy my Sophomore year I didn’t know lol.

This story brought tears to my eyes. My 72 year old father is still out there to this day picking lettuce. I was once one of those underage kids picking at 14 in order to have clothes for school. Seeing the legitimate anger, outrage, and heartbreak in John's eyes during this segment hit close to home. It is way too normalized amongst the Mexicans in my community that these conditions are just part of the way things are. I'm glad a light is being shed to finally correct conditions for those still out there. My family worked hard so that I wouldn't have to, and I'm grateful I was able to do better for myself.

Nick Offerman always makes every skit better

John Oliver consistently presents solutions that can at least help with the issues he reports on. Do any of them ever get taken up and implemented? I've never understood how he, Jon Stewart or even Jordan Klepper don't just end up miserably frustrated and dejected with what they see and hear.

As a Hispanic made me tear up when the little girl spoke about her experience working on the field. They are heroes

As a descendant of Mexican farmers from both side of my family (who only had 3rd 4th & 5th grade education this is a great segment. 🇲🇽
🍊 🍅🍇 🐴 🐄
I am the first and youngest member in my family to get a Masters degree. At the age of 22 yrs old. 🧑🏻‍🎓
For you abuelos. 👴🏼👵🏽 👴🏽👵🏼

I worked in potato farms as a teenager. Where I’m from, in Idaho, they let us out of school for two weeks to do it. Brakes were scarce, it was hot af, and I almost got my fingers stuck in the conveyer belt pushing the potatoes into the cellar a few times. At the time, cit seemed normal because everyone in school did it, but now it pisses me off. Pay was also out of wack. They kept track of your hours, but they paid you based on how much they liked you and family members earned more.

For six years, prior to my retirement after many years managing operations for public transportation systems, I hired H2B Visa workers - most from Haiti and Mexico - to fill our needs for seasonal drivers during the busy summer months on Cape Cod. Some local residents complained about "all those foreigners" driving our buses so I went to one meeting with a group of them and after hearing their complaints I handed out - - job applications. I told them that we would even provide paid training so they could get CDL licenses. Surprise! Not one person in the complaining group submitted an application. Want a bus to be on time on Cape Cod in the summer? Be thankful for these H2B Visa drivers - - or walk. The meeting ended more quietly than it had begun. Duh!

I was attending college in the early 90s in upstate New York when I heard a story about migrant farm workers that made me lose what little faith I had in people. I was a foreign student and had a job on campus as part of my work study grant. I worked with college staff from the local area. One day some of us were talking about going fruit picking at a nearby strawberry farm that had great deals on pick-your-own fruit. One of the regular staff, let's call him Joe, laughed and started telling us a story from when he was a kid in the late 1960s. Joe's best friend was from a farming family that owned a medium sized fruit farm and some dairy cows. Every year they had migrant farmers come to pick the fruit at their, and their neighbor's, farms. The workers would live in a rundown barn on a defunct farm that none of the families owned thus saving rent money. A lot of times the workers were illegal migrants. Joe was laughing as he detailed that occasionally, once every three or four years, when most of the fruit was picked, someone, read one of the farmers, would call the local police to raid the barn before the workers were paid in full. So much for the whole an honest day's work for an honest day's wages.

So glad you did a deep dive on this topic. It is such an oversight. It blows you away when you think about how much dissonance is created when you consider the constitution and what is allowed. Id happily pay more for every grocery to know that our people, the ones who live and work here in any capacity, are taken care of and have human rights.
I remember hearing about tomato land back in 2012. Glad you also highlighted there work.
Please support all union efforts and system change that increases the valuation of human beings who make the least annual income

I come from farm workers. Thank you for your using your platform to shine a light on us.

My parents where farm workers and I've worked picking onions. All of this is true, and the work it's self is very hard on your body.

For the record, Animal Farm isn't about fascism but about how the leaders of revolutions often use those revolutions to make themselves the elite. The main pig is called Napoleon, not Adolf or Benito

As a family member that comes from Mexican migrant parents who have worked in farming their whole life, thank you for this segment.

I was a Deputy Sheriff in Hillsborough County Florida and I worked zones in Ruskin, Gibsonton and Plant City in 1987 -1991. I was in several migrant farm workers camps, and all of this is very true. 😢

I'm from Iowa, and my first job was at 12 for Pioneer. You really should call out the companies supplying this labor. I am now 41 years old and used to watch full Spanish families, with children as young as 7 years old, detassle corn.
It was known to our fellow school friends that our hands would usually remain greenish yellow until about Thanksgiving

My dad grew up on a WI farm and worked on various family members farms from childhood on, until he and my mother moved to Philly where I grew up. My dad has fond farm-y memories, so I had NO clue any of this was going on, this is truly awful. Thank you for exposing the reality of so many farm workers.

Last Week Tonight thank you for covering the topics no one else will.

I've worked with hundreds of working holiday'ers in Australia for that past few decades, the horror stories I've heard everything from farm, cafe or restaurant work were utterly disgusting.

As a first generation Mexican-American whose father worked in strawberry fields, thank you so much for this piece

This is heartbreaking. How can we stop being complicit in all of this? What can we do? Please, please tell us something so as to not continue to contribute to this travesty!

I’m a farm worker in Washington state, working full time. I enjoy it, despite the hard work. But I’ll only make about $24k this year, and my employer has made it clear that that is all they will ever pay. The owner even complained about having to pay *that* much the first time I spoke to her (she then immediately took a 2-week vacation to Vegas in a camper larger than my childhood home.) I can’t afford to use the health insurance that I had to buy myself, can barely afford bills and groceries. So I won’t be sticking around. It’s just an incredibly unsustainable system that refuses to support the people who keep our country running, despite the fact that we need them now more than ever. And that’s my privileged experience as a white, U.S.-born citizen. I can’t imagine how these migrant workers can make a living, knowing that so many of them are paid even less than I am.

I worked as a corn detassler for Pioneer at 12 years old. Walked through cornfields for 8 hrs a day. Get soaked by the morning dew and then get scratched by the leaves once it's noon and 100 degrees out. It was the toughest work I have done and it was for minimum wage. But I did it voluntarily because I wanted money. Not everyone comes from a privileged family.

We need more legislation in farming. I hope our government listens to this segment.

a few years ago i was sitting in a park near center city Philadelphia at night. there were a few homeless people a few benches over. they seemed like they were more than anything just super down on their luck. they were talking to each other about working for some farmer under the table and how desperate you need to be to work there, because apparently if you didn't do a good job or you tried to run away from the abuse or he just felt like it, he would shoot you. probably one of the unnerving conversations I've had the displeasure of overhearing

Americans were outraged when they heard of what was happening in Qatar with workers at the stadiums but didn't even realize it was happening in their own country

I spent a summer as a landscaper in South Carolina. It was the toughest work I’ve ever done in my life. I had to quit after three months because my body was so beaten down.

As a farmer thank you so much for bringing attention to this issue 🙏

That’s my people. This is my raza. Puro padela mi gente. Los mexicanos nunca nos damos pos vencidos !!! ❤

in 1995 i met a man who was a college counselor for a local Capitola CA highschool that served mostly migrant families. It was in a town basically owned by Martinelli's, yes the applejuice people. He was placing Latino kids in good universities and the town bosses hated this. Martinelli's told him he would lose his job and pension, 2yr from retirement, if he placed another Latino student in a good college. He was crying into his beer at Balzac's Bistro bc he didn't know what to to. I wish I knew what he chose.

Let me tell you, picking stuff like cucumber, strawberries or pumkins is the hardest. I´ve done some flowerpicking during my workin' holiday year in australia (I´m german). The scenery was stunning, butterflies flying through the fields, gorgerous mountains. I got an old school basket, it looked so romantic. The flowers were the height of my knees. After 30 minutes I couldn´t work anymore. The half bending position DESTROYED my back. I tried to kneel on my knees the best I could but I had a knee injury and couldn´t sdo it ince it was still inflamed. I rather dug dandelion roots up the whole day with a showel than picking flowers again. It was THE WORST AND PAINFUL job I had ever done. I also worked in cherrypicking 8 - 11 hours in the tasmanian sun and rain but at least I could keep my back straight and got paid extremly well. The bosses were also great. Heard plenty of horror stories of other backpackers though. I don´t know how these workes bend the whole day just thinking about it freaks me out.

I was a child farm worker. While my friends were on summer break, I was waking up at 3am to get ready for work. I hated going back to school and getting asked, "what did you do for summer break?" My dad is still out there working the fields. Super grateful my parents taught me the value of earning a dollar.
I was hesitant to watch this, but you did us justice. Thanks, John 😊

I feel so badly for the children forced into these scenarios. in my early 20s I spent a couple years doing unpaid work exchanges on farms, since I grew up outside of any guidance for a stable future. On 1 I slept in a bathroom less tree house without insulation or window panes (just cut plastic roll stapled up) for months during the winter. And when I left, the farm owner refused to give me a job reference because she had wanted me to live with her after her daughter went to college and I didn't want to. This is minor compared to what many people endure. On 1 farm were guatemalan immigrants who barely spoke English and had no vehicle out in the country. They were basically stranded indentured servants, and gaslighted into being told they were valued equals, when the farm owners just wanted to exploit them. That scarred me to see. The world is rife with imbalances of power, people who have never been regarded as a valued community member, and lack of opportunities for financial independence and mobility.

The disconnect from what we eat and how it gets to us is just as bloody at the farm as it is at the meat packing plant and we deserve a reckoning for it.

Farm workers are truly the backbone of our country. They deserve better.. Nick Offerman always makes every skit better.

I worked the fields when I was young cause my dad said it would make me tougher. It did but it also has given a special appreciation for the work it takes to get food on the table

If ever, I need a good cry, I watch this show. I do get to be informed and I am reminded to be thankful for what I have. 😢

If it looks like slavery, swims like slavery, and quacks like a slavery, then it's probably slavery.

So grateful you covered this. I've been teaching my 3-6th grade after-students about CIW's boycott campaign targeting Wendy's (since we don't have Publix or Kroeger in our region), and about how to effectively organize to support them.

Tucker Carlson being a Highlander is truly a nightmare scenario. That man has done enough damage in one lifetime, giving him unlimited lifetimes would be my definition of hell.

Also, important to note that major supermarket chains have now become so big that they can dictate they’re buying price to farmers, meaning farmers may not be able to afford to hire a local at a living wage, which leads to this kind of exploitation. All because giant supermarkets can’t take a bit smaller of a profit margin.

I had a roommate whose family owned an apple farm in Eastern Washington. She was so racist, I had to call a friend on a regular basis to ask exactly which group she was insulting. I always wondered how her family treated their workers if this was the child they raised.
The mother in the news report reminded me of her mother.

This hits close to home for me. I grew up as farm laborer from age 15 to 22 with my family. It was the greatest motivator to earn an education. I am now typing this from my cushy desk job as an aerospace engineer. Never forget where you come from.

When I was in middle school, the most popular summer job was picking corn. Kids would go and do that for the summer, and although I didn't, the "knowledge" they gained and gave to me, whether watching a movie where people run through a corn field (if they did that, they would be cut and bloody after about 6rows, you cant run through corn like that) or show off scars they had, or etc. But it's the jobs they could get at that age.
The girls a lot of times would also warn each other about different farm places not to go work at because of sexual harassment... For girls under 16!
About how this farm or that farm would keep them in certain jobs cos they were "too pretty" to be doing the harder work, or to "protect" them from being out there with all those guys
...

Thank you John for my weekly dose of man-made horrors beyond my comprehension

"You shalt not mistreat your hired worker".
As someome that values social justice and am a person of faith, it important to stand up for workers, not only companies. Thanks, Mr. Oliver for bringing up the rampant abuse and so forth of those workers in the ag industry that feed this nation! They deserve justice and better H2-A visa protections.
Shabbat Shalom.

I live in a place where farm work is the main employment. People take their kids with them all the time because they need the extra money kids can bring in, and still the rate of poverty is very high. If you bring child labor laws up to standard, you have to pay the adults enough that they can get by without the paychecks of their children. Those protections have to come together.

I worked on a blueberry farm from around 12-14 years old every season- that was under what I would consider the BEST possible conditions and we still had kids fainting and getting hurt from falling or pushing themselves too hard. And that was with a kind boss and lunch/water breaks.

It would be nice to have this segment translated into Spanish. I bet they would appreciate it. Thank you John!

Thanks for the episode. More information on the Bracero Program and all the health inequities that exist because of it would save lives.

Ironically, Mexico is growing fast and turning into an economic powerhouse in tech and manufacturing, they highly educate their kids to solve problems and not just memorize, and tons of businesses are moving there, some say that in 15 years Mexico will catch up to the USA in many industries and the flow of workers will be in the other direction.

While the situation in agriculture is WAY better in the country I live in, I'm very thankful that you highlighted this issue in your show. Farming is dangerous and strenuous enough without adding horrible worker conditions into the mix - I personally was acquainted with more than ten farmers, that died while either working in the forest or on their farm...

Finally, somebody opened their mouth. I thought abuse of farmworkers is only in the country where I reside now. And it is everywhere. One of the greatest episodes I watched.

This show has been keeping me sane by telling me how insane the world is. Thanks haha

"And while we claim them as essential, we sure don't treat them like it" I feel like we learnt that about all essential workers during the pandemic.

This was a powerful show. Thank you.
But I also second a previous comment - please do a show on the foster care system.

I once worked 6 hours moving chickens with large talons only to realize I’d made like a dollar an hour.

Mass respect to the poor workers

Not doubting for a second there will just be unscrupulous people out there to work for anyway, but supermarkets/retaillers relentless focus on driving down costs and not passing onto farmers/producers a proper price that allows them to provide employees better wages and conditions is a huge factor driving this. Our food systems are so fragile and as the old saying goes "you only miss the well once its dry"

When I was 14 years old in the early 70's, I had a summer job, working with farmworkers' right organization! It was a humbling and shocking experience. I learned that these farmer workers were/are nothing more than "legal slave camps"!

To the "Dey Took Our Jerbs" crowd: if you can withstand the inhumane working conditions that these immigrants have to put up with, then please, by all means get to working!

Don't forget the many "farm workers" who have been condemned to slavery due to a felony. My first job, instead of sacking groceries at Kroger, was hoe squad, "14 Hoe" - the prison I was in had "22 Hoes" with 20 to 40 slaves assigned to each hoe. It was ALL FARM WORK. I was not privy to the contracts the State had that determined where those crops and foodstuffs would end up but it all has to go somewhere. I can never forget the sight of slaves from horizon to horizon performing "hard labor" under threat of the gun.

I think we need to convert old big box stores and dying malls into indoor indoor growing centers. A lot of the process could be automated. It might be interesting to see how this works in states that legalized cannabis first. A lot of cannabis comes from indoor grow ops.

Thank you John for all you do. The work and living conditions are just awful. We need this constant reminder in 2023 that this shit still is happening and needs to be changed.

They should make John Oliver's version of the farm simulator and use it for social experiments and testing society's morals and values. It seems like it would be pretty accurate.

Way to go interviewing Gerardo and CIW/CFA! Coalition of Imokolee Workers are such an awesome group! The Student Farm Worker Alliance started when students on US Campuses coordinated with CIW to raise public awareness about labor exploitation of the workers and publicly shame the brands by picketing their restaurants across the US. I picketed with CIW and SFA in Florida, Chicago and NYC. We made the pickets fun, making cardboard puppets and making up songs. Then the progressive churches and others joined on and it became the Community Farm Worker Alliance. I've volunteered for many human rights campaigns as an activist, and CIW/ CFA is one of my all time favorite campaigns. Love these Peeps so much.

As a young child living in a rural community, I recall hearing the farmers in the area speaking of transporting “them Mexican’s” to their farms to “pick them crops”. In later years I met some of those farmer workers children and asked them about their experiences. They expressed the abuse their parents endured. Thank you for bringing up that topic, which is ignored by labor laws and will not change as long as you have big money buying politicians.

I recall the fallout from the grape boycott, where the US government bought the bulk of the grape crop to prevent loss. For those who ate C-rations into the 1980's, which had been packed and stored for over 10 years, it was almost impossible to find an apple jelly module. Almost every fruit spread module was grape jam.

I love this show! 😂
It is well put together 🏆

I grew up on a farm.
I absolutely loved it, but it is definitely NOT easy😂

This is true of tree, shrub and flower farms also. In Canada, the harder working season starts in February (which is actually nice -- when you're working that hard, you don't overheat in the winter) and runs through May. Your day starts at 8:30 and ends at 4:30. When you first start, you leave work exhausted at the end of the day but, after the first couple of weeks, you've become acclimated enough that you're able to do things other than just sleep and work in the span of a day -- but I can say that I wouldn't want to try and do that job in warmer weather. As far as verbal abuse on the job, you learn that hell really is other people.

I work in the fields on early 2000's in California, it was horrible, my people deserve better.

When I was a child (8 or so), we made friends with the migrant children working in the fields. We were aghast at how hard they had to work, even the littlest of about 5. One girl told us they were lucky because they got a place to live and didn't have to sleep in their broken down truck. We went over there one day after school (these migrant kids didn't go to school), and the place they "lived"? nothing but one room tiny shacks with an outhouse for all for a bathroom and a cistern water pump outside for water. no electricity, of course. We went home and told our dad about their deplorable conditions, and my dad's response? You can't play with those children anymore. 😢🥺 No surprise that I fought a lot for worker's rights during my management career.

I admire John Oliver and his team immensely

this is straight out of a dystopian nightmare for anyone who isn't rich enough or living close to a city. Raising their wages needs to happen more and in every farm. Policing their conditions and how they're treated is absolutely vital.

This makes me want to start a farm and make it awesome to work there. Now I just need to win the lotto so I can afford to start a farm.

I laughed so hard when Alabama had to backtrack on their self deport law q decade because it backfired on them. A German Mercedes executive got arrested and a whole bunch of Latino farm workers quit. The farm owners had to beg the people to come back.

I know these days we throw the term slavery around loosely, but everything John described here is slavery core. Like this is literally slavery except we pay you a little bit and we don’t physically beat you. And to think that me and millions of Americans have no clue what goes on to get the food we buy to the store. Thanks John for enlightening us on yet another serious issue in this country.

I used to work in a used furniture store in Southeastern Ohio. One time, we got a bunch of metal chairs and tables in, like just a ridiculous amount of them. People would buy one or two chairs, a table every now and again, but eventually one guy came in and bought our whole stock. He owned an orchard nearby and said that, thanks to a new law, he "had to give them chairs now" and openly talked about how he employed illegal immigrants and paid them well below minimal wage and was allowed to for various reasons but he found them annoying cause they kept "asking for stuff". Dude was literally dressed in khaki army pants and boots and looked like General MacArthur, he had the vibe of a drill sergeant or prison guard. He scared the shit out of me and the other employees, we just tried to load his furniture in his truck as fast as possible. Nothing behind his eyes. After he left we talked about it and everyone in the store agreed we just met a functional psychopath who was participating in legal slavery. Sometimes I literally lie awake at night to this day thinking about what kind of hell it would be working under a guy like that. I would tell anybody who lives in the Southeastern Ohio area to not buy from Yeary's Orchard in Adamsville, OH, but given the bits I've seen from some other farms I doubt they're much better. It's disgusting. I'm glad John is bringing some light to this, and I encourage others to do the same. If you see people being taken advantage of, tell people. Don't be quiet about it.

Great episode. What's less talked about is the reality of exploitation. Reality is just what I needed, we hear too much from the wrong people.

Up here in Alberta, our government passed a law that basically gave farm workers OSHA and workers comp protection, and it was received so poorly that it was immediately repealed by the next government.

John talks about issues that far too often fall under the radar. That's why he's my favorite comedian.

I use to work as a field inspector for a company that had a someone with a few buses of H2A workers do the detassling. Surprisingly the the guy who is in charge of them paid them considerably better, like at $15/hr with overtime and their housing a half a hotel. The only thing I think he was being bad at was his temper towards them. Makes me gain a little respect for the guy now that he was not like the worst.

I have this memory of hearing a story by my middle school teacher when he was a kid. I don’t remember exactly how he got to the point-in-question or who he was with, but I am quite sure he wasn’t the only child there: Basically, when he was a kid, he and his family, I believe, met a farmer who had cotton fields. The farmer asked them if they wanted to pick the cotton for them, which is exactly what they did. I may be paraphrasing this first part, however, I know for sure that while they were picking the cotton, he looked at his hands and realized they were all cut and bloody. He felt no pain. Apparently cotton has tiny razor blades on them, probably so animals or bugs don’t do any harm. The fact that the farmer even ask other people to do this is appalling enough, but children, without protective gear? It’s a glimpse into how unsafe agriculture can be.
I know my description of things is spotty at best but it was a while ago when I heard this. I promise I’m not making it up. The worst is that I could be mistaken of a couple of things…

I cried watching this. I was that kid picking cherries over 40hrs a week getting $100 cause the boss said that’s all I need. Thank you John for giving the people a glimpse of what it’s like for a lot of us.

To any farm workers that might see this. I DO appreciate you! Thank you. May not be worth a lot to see this comment... but I mean it.

I grew up in the suburbs of the midwest but right near farmland. This is anecdotal so take it with a grain of salt, but everyone knew a locally famous farming family because they had a reputation for hiring migrants for harvest time and then reporting them to immigration to have them deported before they paid the workers.

I'm an White American and I did this for multiple summers while I was in college. Did it with my buddy whose family owned a small farm in TX. It was hard work and not great pay. But I enjoyed it because I got to hang out with my buddy who I didn't get to see that often because we went to different colleges.

I love you and your show, and i love when you do things for the charities but i usually end up feeling unfulfilled because for 1 the big overall "system" is pretty much designed to make it so really not many people at all ever can get treated like a human let alone get ahead, which is by design im sure, and 2, i think most people who watch this feel outraged but with all the specifically placed humor and stuff (also by design, but not malicious) theyre able to not feel FULLY outraged, or at least enough to make it stick so that actual change could be made!! Iknow thats not your responsibility either and you dont have enough time or ability to make a big deal about EVERY problem you come up against either!! Im just always sad watching these!

As an orphan born in the 60s I narrowly escaped the life of an indentured farmhelp. Things are worse than you think, Olivier

My dad worked as a farm worker for about 20 years and I actually have vague memories from when I was a kid of going to the fields with him and helping trim grape vines. Field work seems like the only job where “take your child to work day” quite literally involves your child working

I would just love it if the developers of Farming Simulator would really add the suggested features if they want to be closer to reality. Even half of that would be great already.

John I Love you for to letting it be known how things really go down. Thank you for telling the world the truth!!

I see a lot of folks here in the comments discussing their experiences as child laborers. If any one needs an ear or a kind word, this internet stranger is happy to listen to you. I love you all very much my friends

The horror I felt when I realized that there are people in this country that would love to play this version of the game is palatable.