It stinks if grown locally  – work

Water droplets feed on healthy cucumbers and tomatoes. Green landscapes with whitewashed balconies cottages. A feeling of contributing to something better. To do a bit for the local area. To do something for the climate, too. To buy locally grown.

No, delete that picture.

Undocumented workers who work six days a week. If you want a job, go talk to El Patron. Salary is paid in black. You earn 35 SEK per hour. If you try to organize yourself into a guild, you will be punished.

When Arbetet examines the conditions of those who pick vegetables on a number of farms in Scania, it turns out to be slave labor. These are the farms whose crops will later be marketed as locally grown.

The slightest protest could force them out of the country

Many people working in the fields know that the slightest protest or attempt to make an improvement can force them out of the country. Their weakness is exploited.

Many wholesalers who buy vegetables from these farms present themselves as engaged in the day-to-day work of pickers, and the working environment in member firms is important. It’s also what they want customers to think of when they make their choice at the vegetable counter. These vegetables are grown with care and are therefore worth a few extra crowns.

One would think that wholesalers would react decisively when they discovered that the conditions of the pickers did not withstand closer scrutiny. They will decide to perform the examination. They announce that they intend to make demands and tear up contracts with farmers who do not improve.

amazing reaction

But at Odlarlaget, CEO Kimberley Wintmo questions the review should ever be published, because it will affect farmers. That the leaflet can also harm those who take care of themselves.

It’s an amazing reaction. If I were one of the farmers who tried to do the right thing for themselves, I would have been very disappointed in the CEO of the Farmers Association. Both because of a reluctance to scrutinize and because one is clearly willing to see through the fingers of fraud and corrupt phrases in the cause of the good.

It’s easy to label an item with beautiful words. But to do the right thing, to really ensure that local farming also presents reasonable conditions for those who work there – that takes more.