Who Picked Your Produce?
Apple picking in Berkely County, West Virginia, 1910, Courtesy of the Library of Congress
June is National Fresh Fruit and Vegetables Month. Workers who hand pick produce have in part determined the long term viability of the US agricultural industry. Historically farmers have recruited foreign workers including indentured servants from Europe, enslaved Indigenous people from the Americas, enslaved Africans in early American history, and in the late 19th and early 20th century European immigrants. This is because farmers have not been able to get locals to take the jobs or stay on the job even during periods of high unemployment. As a result they have turned to immigrants many of them undocumented workers to pick their crops.