‘We need ’em worse than they need us’: how Haitian workers feed the US
by Ayanna J Legros from on (#6R6Y4)
Laborers from the Caribbean nation pick berries and process Thanksgiving turkeys across rural America
On a foggy morning in June 2021, I left my Durham, North Carolina, home to travel two and a half hours to rural Whiteville, North Carolina, population 5,000-ish. I headed there to meet some of the town's newest, albeit temporary, residents: 200 Haitian migrants employed as blueberry pickers.
These farm workers put food on our tables - and on family tables back in Haiti. But they're a less visible work force in our food supply chain, toiling largely out of sight on farms in places like Columbus county, with its miles of fields. They are doubly invisible among US guest workers, who overwhelmingly hail from Mexico.
Continue reading...