The bracero programs of the 1942-1964 period have been the subject of a large amount of controversy. One side insists that foreign workers are necessary to the production of the nation's food and fiber while the other is just as certain that native workers will do the work required when paid a reasonable wage. This thesis will attempt to explore the principal issues involved in the controversy.

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This dissertation analyzes the changes introduced in the U.S.-Mexico food-chain, and the ways in which the multinational corporations that control the food industrial complex from seed to shelves have altered the labor dynamics of farm-workers. Over the past two decades, U.S. agribusiness and big retail-chains such as Wal-Mart have reached the top of the food pyramid and have come to control the process of production, supply, and distribution of agricultural inputs and perishable food. My study analyzes the impact of U.S. agribusiness on growers and farm-workers, focusing on how the integration of agriculture into a “free-trade” world economy has affected the working conditions of farm-labor. It explores how migrant farm-workers have responded to their deteriorating labor conditions with a campaign led by the Farm-Labor Organizing Committee (FLOC) that involved innovative cross-border grassroots tactics and strategy. It traces how this campaign culminated in the achievement of the first labor contract for guest-workers in U.S. history. Based on participant observation, interviews with the workers and their union leaders, and the analysis of workers’ grievances, I conclude that such a reorganization of the farm-labor movement at the grassroots level is crucial to the creation of a food-chain that is capable of satisfying the needs of production and consumption for the global population.

On-farm apprenticeships are gaining momentum as an important strategy for beginning farmer training. They are also a space for identity work and rehearsal of alternative agrifood movement practice (AAMs; MacAuley and Niewolny, 2016; Pilgeram, 2011). AAMs embody and recursively construct values of biophysical sustainability, food quality, egalitarianism, and agrarianism (Constance, Renard, and Rivera-Ferre; 2014). However, AAMs have been critiqued for disproportionately representing upper- to middle-class white cultural norms (Allen, 2004; Guthman, 2008a; Slocum, 2007), for romanticized agrarian ideology (Carlisle, 2013), and for mechanisms reproductive of neoliberalism, which buttresses the dominant agrifood system (Guthman, 2008b). These AAM discourse elements are expressed in on-farm apprenticeships. On-farm apprenticeships are variably understood as beginning farmer training (Hamilton, 2011), as inexpensive farm labor (MacAuley and Niewolny, 2016; Pilgeram, 2011), and as sites of tension between economic and non-economic attributes (Ekers, Levkoe, Walker, and Dale, 2016). I illuminate these dynamics within on-farm apprenticeships through the complementary theoretical lenses of cultural historical activity theory (Engeström, 1999), cognitive praxis (Eyerman and Jamison, 1991), and cultural identity theory (Hall, 1996). I employ critical ethnographic case study methodology to explore issues of power, social reproduction, and equity. I conducted 53 days of participant observation, worked alongside 19 apprentices on six farms for 37 days, conducted interviews (n=25), and completed a document analysis (n=407). I observed white spaces and class-based work values re/produced, mediated by AAM discourse. Furthermore, I observed three distinct objectives within the activity system: beginning farmer training, inexpensive labor for farms, and an authentic farm lifestyle experience. In contrast to the first two, this third objective, the authentic lifestyle, resists market-based logics. Instead, logics that did govern behavior include membership in a movement; an ascetic bent; the valorization of farmers and the authentic farm lifestyle; alignment with clean, healthy, and dirty parts of the job; and communitarianism. These logics point towards the creation of a third type of nonmarket/quasimarket space (Gibson-Graham, Cameron, and Healy, 2013). I describe several considerations for on-farm apprenticeship to lead to greater equity, reproduction of viable small farm labor models, and stabilized and legitimate nonmarket understandings of what makes on-farm apprenticeship function. / Ph. D. / On-farm apprenticeships are gaining momentum as an important strategy for beginning farmer training. They are also a space where people express and craft their identities as members of the alternative agrifood movement. Alternative agrifood movements promote the environment, food quality, egalitarianism, and agrarianism, but may be more culturally relevant for upper- to middle-class white social groups. They also promote romanticized notions of farming and agrarianism, while supporting neoliberal dogmatic approaches to social change. On-farm apprenticeships are treated as beginning farmer training, or cheap/free labor, and as sites of tension between economic and non-economic attributes. I examined this scenario using cultural historical activity theory, cognitive praxis, and cultural identity theory. With critical ethnographic case study methods, I conducted 53 days of participant observation, worked alongside 19 apprentices on six farms for 37 days, conducted 25 interviews, and examined 407 documents. I observed how whiteness and class-based work practices are being mediated by AAM discourses. Furthermore, I observed three distinct objectives for participants’ involvement in on-farm apprenticeships: (1) beginning farmer training, (2) cheap labor for farms, and (3) having an authentic farm lifestyle experience. In contrast to the first two, this third objective, the authentic lifestyle, defies the rules of economics/neoliberalism. Instead, behavior appeared to be governed by: membership in a movement; an ascetic bent; the valorization of farmers and the authentic farm lifestyle; alignment with clean, healthy, and dirty parts of the job; and communitarian values. These rules point towards the creation of a nonmarket/quasimarket space. This study highlights how on-farm apprenticeship can be tweaked to promote greater equity, reproduce viable small farm labor practices, and stabilize and legitimize a nonmarket understanding of the ins and outs of on-farm apprenticeships.

Thesis (Ph. D.)--Georgia State University, 2007. / Title from file title page. Charles Gallagher, committee chair; Lesley Reid, Ian C. Fletcher, Robert Adelman, committee members. Electronic text (245 p.) : digital, PDF file. Description based on contents viewed June 6, 2008. Includes bibliographical references (p. 220-245).

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The United States is facing a rising average age of principal farm operators and a decline in number of beginning farmers. With numerous barriers and challenges resulting in many farm failures, a majority of beginning farmers are relying on off-farm income to support their households. Decision-making and farm business planning are difficult skills to develop and improve, and the ability to develop a plan to balance on- and off-farm labor could allow farmers to make more profitable decisions. In this study, a General Algebraic Modeling System (GAMS) is used to develop a labor management planning framework for use by Virginia's beginning vegetable farmers or service providers, such as extension agents, with the goal of improving total (on- and off-farm) profitability and farm viability. Study findings suggest that a willingness to work of 12 hours per day, 365 days per year and hired labor costs of $9.30 per hour, which is the national average for agricultural workers encourage a farmer to maintain an off-farm job, while a relatively lower off-farm wage or salary may encourage a farmer to work on the farm only. Lastly, higher hired labor costs may encourage a farmer to pursue his or her most profitable work opportunity, be it on- or off-farm, without hiring labor to maintain the farm. The model developed in this study may be used to plan multiple years of farm management to include anticipated changes in off-farm employment opportunities, land availability, product mix, and access to farm labor. The author suggests that beginning farmers who use this planning tool are able to make more informed decisions related to allocation of labor time and resources, resulting in lower failure rates for beginning farmers in Virginia. A user-friendly interface may be developed based on the study framework, to strengthen the results and increase the practicality of the tool. / Master of Science

The general subject of this thesis is about farm labor intermediaries who are important not only because they are transferring and organizing seasonal agricultural work but also they have social relations and interactions with other actors of seasonal agricultural work. This analysis elaborates multi dimensional relations of farm labor intermediaries and construction and reproduction of these relations. These social relations which can be accepted also as social capital and their nature are important for both understanding farm labor intermediaries and seasonal agricultural work in Turkey. Adana is determined as research field because of its long history about seasonal agricultural work. Moreover, changes and transformations in terms of social and agricultural structure taking place in Adana for 20 years are very important factors with regard to understand how farm labour intermediaries reproduce social relations. Labor intermediaries are the people who are providing and organizing seasonal labor force demanded by employers in labor intense agricultural production in different regions of Turkey. Delegate, backer, or sarge is the some local names of intermediaries using in Turkey. As it can be understood from the function of labor intermediary, it is arbiter between employer and worker. Family, relatives, friends and neighbors are seen as the labor force resources of intermediaries. From the eyes of the seasonal agricultural workers, intermediaries are not only the people who are finding job for them but also they are the people who meet their basic needs. This is very crucial point, since seasonal agricultural labor force is supplied from very poor regions in Turkey. At the same time intermediaries are important actors for employers due to their controlling functions of agricultural work process. However, the relationship between intermediary and employer is simply defined as business where mutual interests are important. In this context labor intermediation in Turkey has lots of meaning other than finding job for workers and worker for employers. Labor intermediation is a legal job which is controlled and regulated by law. However, both pervious researches and this study demonstrate that this job is mostly executed as informal. The main determinant factor for this informal execution of the job can be related with working style of intermediaries, namely, face to face social relations that has been institutionalized within time.