Seasonal Workers in Mediterranean Agriculture

Jörg Gertel is Professor of Economic Geography at the University of Leipzig, Germany. Sarah Ruth Sippel is a geographer and Senior Researcher at the Centre for Area Studies, University of Leipzig, Germany.

"Seasonal Workers in Mediterranean Agriculture looks behind the façade of a modern agro-food industry that links not just producing regions in France, Spain and Morocco but sources of migratory labor from North Africa, Eastern Europe and Latin America without which the entire system would yield neither fresh produce nor profit. This excellent monograph, based on exceptionally rich historical and ethnographic case studies, exposures the ugly underbelly and the radical precarity of a contemporary industrial agriculture operating in the long shadow of economic and social crisis. The authors provide a path-breaking and yet unsettling account of the social life of what passes as fresh and sustainable produce. A tour de force." – Michael Watts, Professor of Geography, Class of 1963 Chair, University of California, Berkeley, USA, author of Silent Violence: Food, Famine and Peasantry in Northern Nigeria and co-editor of books such as Globalizing Food: Agrarian Questions and Global Restructuring, Liberation Ecologies, Violent Environments, and Living under Contract. "Proof yet again there is no such thing as a free, or even cheap, lunch! Seasonal Workers in Mediterranean Agriculture reminds us that what appear as externalized costs for consumers are deeply and literally internalized for the millions who toil so we can eat fresh. It is a sophisticated book with many important take-home messages, one of which being that we can’t afford to keep eating this way." – Michael Carolan, Professor and Chair of Sociology at Colorado State University, USA and author of such books as The Real Cost of Cheap Food, Reclaiming Food Security, and Cheaponomics: The High Cost of Low Prices. "Focusing upon Mediterranean agriculture, but drawing upon case studies from throughout the world, this collection offers a fascinating and detailed account of contemporary agrarian change. Contributors provide extensive evidence about how the burgeoning trade in fresh fruit and vegetables has produced a number of hidden costs – including the exploitation of foreign workers as companies seek ways of reducing labor costs, and environmental degradation as a more industrial form of agriculture takes hold. The book demonstrates that while ‘eating fresh’ might engender visions of happy and healthy consumers, a more nuanced examination of the spatio-temporal dynamics of agri-food globalization reveals an underside of social disadvantage and ecological destruction. In presenting an up-to-date and vivid account of social relations in the fresh fruit and vegetable trade, this book is a ‘must read’ for all scholars desiring a critical understanding of current global food provisioning." – Geoffrey Lawrence, Professor of Sociology, University of Queensland, Australia and President, International Rural Sociology Association.

• Part 1: Introduction 1. Seasonality and Temporality in Intensive Agriculture 2. B/ordering the Mediterranean: Free Trade, Fresh Fruits and Fluid Fixity Part 2: France: Traditional Centre of Fruit and Vegetable Production 3. Shared Insecurities? Farmers and Workers in Bouches-du-Rhône 4. Super/markets: Beyond Buyer-drivenness in Southern France 5. Fruit Production in France and Argentina: Globalizing Standards and Labour Markets 6. The Transnational Recruitment of Temporary Latino Workers in European Agriculture 7. Sans-papiers: Self-censored Social Identities of Farm Workers in Southern France Commentary: Neoliberal Market Mystifications in the Social Costs of Eating Fresh – Philippines–Canada Comparisons Part 3: Spain: Symbol and Embodiment of Industrial Agriculture 8. The Political Economy of El Ejido: Genealogy of the 2000 Conflict 9. The Industrial Agriculture: A ‘Model for Modernization’ from Almería? 10. Mobility Partnerships and Circular Migration: Managing Seasonal Migration to Spain 11. ‘Origin Matters’: Working Conditions of Moroccans and Romanians in the Greenhouses of Almería 12. ‘We Don’t have Women in Boxes’: Channelling Seasonal Mobility of Female Farmworkers between Morocco and Andalusia Commentary: From Fresh Produce to Poultry – Shifting Labour Regimes in the Global Agri-food System Part 4: Morocco: Booming Sites of Counter Seasonal Production 13. Which Agricultural Policy for which Food Security in Morocco? 14. Facilitating the Export of Fruit and Vegetables: The Role of State Institutions in Morocco 15. Disrupted Livelihoods? Intensive Agriculture and Labour Markets in the Moroccan Souss 16. Labour and Gender Relations in Moroccan Strawberry Culture 17. Between Hope and Disillusionment: The Migration of Nomadic Pastoralists to Europe 18. Border Makers: Clandestine Migration from Morocco Commentary: New Migration and New Communities – Social Changes Born from Agricultural Changes Part 5: Conclusion 19. Comparative Perspective: Insights from New Zealand’s Recognised Seasonal Employer Scheme 20. Epilogue: The Social Costs of Eating Fresh