Workers in Sustainable Agricultural Systems

Agricultural systems are facing the global impacts from climate change and measures to make them resilient including the promotion of biodiversity, water management improvements, carbon storage, and soil protection amongst others.1 Sometimes missing from this discourse is how workers should also be centered in sustainability measures.This is pertinent as food security cannot be achieved without ensuring a regular supply of workers to produce the food; workers who deserve safe and secure working places.Globally, workers plant, grow, harvest and process the food that ends up on our plates.These workers are also exposed to the hazardous elements of climate change as their work is often located in outdoor environments.Agricultural workers face exposure to rising temperatures,2 have work opportunities hindered by floods,3 and breathe in air filled with the smoke of wildfires.4Integration of workers more regularly into agricultural systems to ensure sustainability means worker engagement and leadership are required.There are many methods that can be used to strengthen worker inclusion in decision-making and operations to improve agricultural sustainability.These include (amongst others): worker-driven social responsibility schemes (WSR), unionization, and worker cooperatives.