Thanksgiving Made Possible By Immigrant Farm Workers

By Roque Planas, Huffnigton Post Latino Voices

When giving thanks for a Thanksgiving meal, there’s one group who deserves a disproportionate amount of gratitude: the farm workers of the United States.

The roughly 1.8 million people who spend their days harvesting the crops and raising the livestock that wind up on American plates rarely get treated with the admiration they deserve. They work long hours in harsh conditions, often without steady salaries, paid vacation or sick leave. The median pay for farm workers in 2010 was $18,970, according to the Bureau of Labor Statistics.

It’s not a new issue. CBS News drew national attention to the poor treatment of farm workers more than 50 years ago in a broadcast called “Harvest of Shame” on the eve of Thanksgiving in 1960. (Watch the classic broadcast below).

Since then, that labor force has grown increasingly Latino, composed mostly of immigrants. Some…

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This article was first published in Huffington Post Latino Voices.