sixty-nine cents for twenty-four years

Alberto holds a Masters Degree in social work and is a migrant health coordinator, building health clinics for migrant workers across Oregon.  One day Alberto wanted some comfort food and decided to make papas fritas con queso, a snack that his grandmother used to make him as a child.  Alberto was at the grocery store gathering ingredients when he had a startling realization about what he was paying for. He bought a block of cheese, a gallon of milk, an onion, and a ten pound bag of potatoes.  Alberto was going through the check out stand and the checker started scanning the items.  The cheese rang up at $4.39, the milk was $2.99, the onions were $.99 and ten pounds of potatoes cost $.69. Upon seeing the price for the potatoes Alberto knew something was not right and he felt ill.  He realized that what had happened that year. There had been a surplus of potatoes, causing the price to plummet.  The corporation that owned the potato farms had to cut costs somewhere, and there was only one area where they would choose to cut costs: farm worker pay.  The company would pay for machinery and fertilizer, lease land, and pay shareholders before they would pay the farm workers a living wage.  Alberto realized that he was getting his potatoes for $.69 at the cost of the farm worker.  The average farm worker lives 24 years less than the average person in the United States.  This is what we are paying for when we buy a ten pound bag of potatoes for $.69 - twenty four years for $.69.