I can't wait to share that story with the farmers. I hope they don't cough up their Caesar salads. It's not just that, at those wages, lettuce pickers would earn more than many cops and firefighters, nurses and teachers. Or that salads would cost as much as caviar.
What I find interesting is that the reader -- as a proud American worker -- didn't hesitate to make the demand and, in fact, he felt that earning any less would be beneath him."
CNN commentator Ruben Navarrette
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I spent a weekend with a group of farm workers one time. It was summer, and strawberry plants don't know from "weekend".
They had to be at the field, ready to work just before sunrise. They worked until dark, after sunset, more than 15 hours that day.
They were "accidentally" sprayed with pesticides when the crop dusters flew over.
I was worn out after one day of documenting their work.
I've often thought since then that there are a lot of folks who do jobs for wages that are far lower than it would take to attract me. Firefighters, lettuce pickers, chicken pluckers, all of them make it possible for me to have a relatively luxurious life-style.
How many moms and dads had to leave their kids home alone so you and I could afford fresh vegetables shipped to our local grocery store?
What would they have to pay you to pull the feathers off that chicken, work a summer day from before dawn to after dark, walk into a burning building?
