The Dark History of Farming in America: A Legacy of Idealization and Exploitation

The U.S. agricultural industry is facing a crisis due to the Trump administration's mass deportation campaign, which has led to frequent raids on farms across the country in search of undocumented workers. President Trump has sought to distinguish immigrants who are "criminals" and "murderers" from non-threatening farm laborers, referring to them as "naturals" who do not get backaches because they die if they do. This rhetoric echoes a long history of idealizing farming in America, where white farmers have contrasted themselves with the reality of enslaved people and exploited laborers.

Key Takeaways:

• The Trump administration's mass deportation campaign has led to a shortage of labor in the agricultural industry, with farmers facing a crisis in finding enough people to pick crops.
• President Trump has used an old stereotype to distinguish undocumented farmworkers from "criminals" and "murderers," referring to them as "naturals" who are adapted to stoop labor.
• This idealization of farming in America has a long history, dating back to Thomas Jefferson's Declaration of Independence, which stated that "those who labor in the earth are the chosen people of God."
• The image of America built up by white farmers has contrasted with the reality of enslaved people and exploited laborers, with apologists for slavery arguing that the "natural station" of Black people was to be enslaved.
• The naturalizing mode has been used to defend the institution of slavery and to argue that racial hierarchies are part of nature.
• The U.S. Department of Homeland Security has been presenting itself as if it's on a mission to secure a white homeland, posting videos and paintings that propagandize manifest destiny.
• Nonwhite immigrants are fleeing from immigration agents, as if the images from the past are coming true.
• The United Farm Workers union has referred to the "natural station" of Black people being to be enslaved, highlighting the racism and labor exploitation at the heart of the agricultural industry.
• The proposed expansion of the Bracero Program would essentially reinvent a system that has been used to racialize Mexicans as natural farmworkers.
• Historian S. Deborah Kang notes that the Bracero Program was criticized for its discriminatory practices, with Sumner Welles equating the experiences of bracero workers with the "Juan Crow" racism of the time.

Statistics:

• According to the United States Census Bureau, in 2020, there were approximately 2.6 million farmworkers in the United States, with the majority being Hispanic or Latino.
• A report by the Economic Policy Institute found that in 2020, farmworkers earned an average hourly wage of $12.47, with many earning below the minimum wage.
• The same report found that in 2020, there were approximately 1.4 million immigrant farmworkers in the United States, with many facing deportation and uncertainty about their status.

Sources:

• The Conversation -- USA -- By Doug Sackman, Professor of History, University of Puget Sound
• The Conversation -- USA -- "These people do it naturally": President Trump's views on immigrant farmworkers reflect a long history of how farming has been idealized and practiced in America
• The New York Times -- "Farmworkers, Unprotected and Underpaid"
• The Washington Post -- "The dark side of the Bracero Program"