Co-constructing justice-focused labor standards with diversified vegetable farmworkers and farm owners in the U.S. Midwest

Farmworkers and farm owners both find themselves increasingly squeezed in the current labor landscape of Midwest agriculture, with workers facing precarious labor conditions and with owners struggling to find employees. Amidst these challenges, what could farm labor justice look like on Midwest diversified vegetable farms—according to farmworkers and farm owners themselves? Through an applied research project involving focus groups and a feedback session, we set out to improve the Real Organic Project’s Standards for Hired Labor Protections and to gain farmworker and farm owner perspectives on what constitutes and facilitates good farm working conditions. With the results, we created a draft set of farmer-centered and justice-focused farm labor standards. Our findings also show that a diversity of farmworker profiles exists—varying by citizenship and migration status, motivations for doing farm work, and minority group identification—which impact one’s experience of farm working conditions. In the draft labor standards created through this project, key themes emerged around what factors contribute to a just farm workplace: wages and benefits, health and safety, communication, stability and longevity, empowerment and mentorship, dignity and boundaries, and community and solidarity. Amidst these themes, we found that exploring and co-constructing just farm labor standards with diversified vegetable farmers—both workers and owners—in the U.S. Midwest reveals potential for common ground.