My Little Strawberry

I ate my little strawberry yesterday. it was bright red with a sweet, tangy flavor. Granted I'm a bit biased, but it was much tastier than any berries I've had this season. I carried on so much about my first ever grown little strawberry that you'd have thought I'd been out in the fields picking strawberries for hours and days.

Reflecting on my over the top, ridiculous behavior, I thought why not find out something about a strawberry picking job. We're promoting plant-based eating for healthier, more sustainable living BUT do we ask ourselves how does this produce magically appear at our farmers' markets, or at the grocery store, and on our tables.

I did a search and found that strawberry picking is a social justice issue. While there were lots of happy go lucky pick-your-own photos, the more poignant photos depicted workers bending over picking strawberries in fields. The work is hard, backbreaking repetitous, tedious, dangerous work performed primarily by undocumented migrant farmworkers. My search came across articles about strawberry pickers fighting for better pay and safe working conditions, which led me to Working in these times, a blog covering the labor movement and the struggles of workers to obtain safe, healthy, and just workplaces. Their Jan. 13, 2011 blog was about CA farmworkers suing to prevent the use of methyl iodide (a cancer causing pesticide) on strawberries.

While I'm still proud of my foray into the world of gardening, I want to educate myself more on the relationship between plant-based food consumption and the social justice of picking produce. I want my social responsibility to reflect not "just-them" but all of "just-us." Hope that makes sense.