1. Strawberry supply chain
Seed
Producers/
Sellers &
Workers
Strawberry supply chain
Pesticide
Companies
& Workers

2. Strawberry supply chain
Fertilizer
Companies
& Workers
Strawberry supply chain
Trucking
Companies
& Truck
Drivers

3. Strawberry supply chain
Farmworkers
Strawberry supply chain
Farm Labor
Contractors

4. Strawberry supply chain
Growers
Strawberry supply chain
Cooler/
Shipper
Companies
& Workers

5. Strawberry supply chain
Retailers & Workers
Strawberry supply chain
Restaurants,
Food
Service, &
Workers

6. Strawberry supply chain
Farmworkers
There are about 20,000 strawberry workers in California. Their pay is about $8,500 a year
and most have not received a significant raise in 10 years. Many are paid less than
minimum wage. Strawberry workers earn about 10 cents per pint. Increasing that to 15
cents, or by 50 percent, would hike the cost of a pint of berries by 5 cents.
Strawberry pickers work as many as 12 hours a day. To pick the fruit, they must bend and
stoop, resulting in chronic back injuries. The work is too hard for older pickers. Four out of
five are under 30. Chronic back injuries are common. Workers labor in fields treated with
pesticides such as methyl bromide, one of the most toxic chemicals in use. Yet, health
insurance for the workers is a rarity.
Child labor is not unusual. Women workers face sexual harassment in the fields.
Bathrooms are often far from the workers or in disrepair and sometimes there is no clean
drinking water. Job security does not exist. Approximately 300,000 farmworkers in the
U.S. are poisoned by pesticides annually. (info from ufw.org)
Strawberry supply chain
Farm Labor Contractors
Farm labor contractors recruit, transport, pay, and supervise farmworkers, which allows
for notorious abuse. Contractors now hire 20 percent of farmworkers nationwide and 40
percent in California. According to one California contractor, “Farm-labor contracting
exists for the grower’s benefit..... By using a contractor, a grower avoids... labor laws.”
(from foodfirst.org)
In April 2011, the federal government filed a human-trafficking lawsuit against a
California-based farm labor contractor and eight farms in the largest case of alleged
forced labor of farm workers - 200 workers from Thailand - in the United States. The men
were brought to the United States under a federal H2-A visa program, which places
foreign workers on U.S. farms. But once the men arrived, their passports were confiscated
and they were not paid for their work. Many of the workers were barred from leaving the
farms and were forced to live in cramped, dirty conditions. In many cases, the workers
were threatened with deportation if they complained about the conditions.

7. Strawberry supply chain
Retailers & Workers
Grocery stores make up one of the largest industries in the United States, providing 2.5
million jobs in 2008. Young workers age 16 to 24 hold nearly one-third of grocery store
jobs. Thirty percent of grocery-store workers are part-time, with the average workweek
for nonsupervisory workers at 29.4 hours, compared to 33.4 hours for all industries. In
2008, nonsupervisory workers in grocery stores nationwide averaged $340 a week,
compared with $608 a week for all workers in the private sector. Twenty-two percent of
grocery store employees belong to a union or are covered by a union contract. (info from
Bureau of Labor Statistics)
A recent report based on worker surveys in New York City, Chicago, and Los Angeles
found that 23.5 percent grocery workers were paid less than the minimum wage, and 65
percent were not paid overtime. (info from nelp.org)
Strawberry supply chain
Restaurants, Food
Service, & Workers
The restaurant industry, the largest fully-private sector employer in the U.S., employs
more than 10 million people. In 2009, the restaurant industry earned over $566 billion in
revenue. The national median hourly wage for food preparation and service workers in
2009 was only $8.59, including tips. Restaurant workers on average made only $15,092
in 2009 compared to $45,155 for the total private sector. The median hourly wage of all
white workers surveyed in eight U.S. localities was $13.25, while that of workers of color
was $9.54. Over 90 percent of restaurant workers surveyed reported that they do not
have health insurance through their employers. (info from rocunited.org)
On average overall, non-union food service workers earn just $7.80 per hour, while union
workers make an average of $10.32 per hour. In 2008 about 2 percent of workers
belonged to a union or were covered by a union contract.

8. Strawberry supply chain
Growers
There are about 270 strawberry growers on California's central coast, producing about
65 percent of the strawberries grown in California. U.S. growers make more money from
fresh strawberries than any other crop except fresh apples. (info from ufw.org)
Swanton Berry Farms is one of the few unionized strawberry growers in the country. The
farmworkers and other employees are represented by the United Farm Workers union.
This grower also uses organic farming methods. You can read a copy of the union contract
on the website http://www.swantonberryfarm.com/.
Strawberry supply chain
Cooler/Shipper
Companies & Workers
The strawberry industry is a $650-million-a year business. The cooler companies, also
known as shippers, are the brands of strawberries that we see in the grocery store. Cooler
companies usually do not directly employ the workers, and most do not grow the
strawberries themselves. Yet, this handful of large corporations dominate the strawberry
growers. They cool strawberries after they are picked. They control prices, shipping and
marketing, plus how much workers are paid, whether they get benefits and how they are
treated. (info from ufw.org)

9. Strawberry supply chain
Strawberry Nurseries
& Workers
Strawberry supply chain
Sharecroppers

10. Strawberry supply chain
Sharecroppers
The goal of the sharecropping system is to shift the risk and regulatory burden from the
landholders and shippers to the workers. Under a typical scheme the grower will assign
or rent an area of his acreage to a worker and their family for them to farm. It is then the
responsibility of the sharecropper to cover all expenses including the hiring and payment
of field workers. In many contracts the sharecropper is required to sell when and to whom
the grower appoints. This can lead to abuse if the grower has a contract with a particular
shipper, which will profit the grower but may force the sharecropper to sell for less than
the current market value of the berries. Further, if the sharecropper cannot meet their
bills then they are liable for the debt. In prior systems the sharecropper would simply not
be paid or receive any portion of the profits, now however, they must assume the debt
even if it is to the grower from which they leased the land. This can lead to a spiraling
cycle of debt. It has been estimated that up to half of the acreage in the Salinas-
Watsonville area of California is being sharecropped. [Info from Eric Schlosser, REEFER MADNESS:
SEX, DRUGS, AND CHEAP LABOR IN THE AMERICAN BLACK MARKET 80 (2003)]