Stories of the Land: Diverse Agricultural Histories in the U.S.

Work

An image of two people tending to crops that says Harvest, Labor, Movement

It’s ironic that those who till the soil, cultivate and harvest the fruits, vegetables, and other foods that fill your tables with abundance, have nothing left for themselves.

—César Chávez, speaking on farm workers ¹⁴

What do we call someone who works the land? This deceptively simple question has myriad answers that illustrate the range of agricultural work: farmer, rancher, grower, farm worker, farm manager, processor, producer, and so on. But what do these categories reveal about the material realities of farm labor? Scholar Laura-Anne Minkoff-Zern critiques the “agrarian myth” in her book The New American Farmer: Immigration, Race, and the Struggle for Sustainability. The myth can be traced back to early writers in the United States, including Thomas Jefferson, who described the farmer as the ideal model for a citizen of the republic: a mix of independence and dedication to their land that ultimately enhances social connection. This idealized agrarianism, Minkoff-Zern writes, “promotes the notion that in the United States, a country founded by hardworking individual farmers, land access has been democratically distributed” and that “all individuals who work the land diligently with their own hands (with no help from slave or hired labor) have access to upward agrarian mobility.” ¹⁵ But the economic and social barriers to farm ownership and Stewardship undermine this ideal, often at the cost of those most vulnerable to discrimination and disenfranchisement.

Public broadcasting explores some of the nuances of farm work through stories from all of the categories listed above, from fishing processors in Alaska to prison-farm workers in New Jersey. This Anchor reflects on the economic and lived realities of agricultural work from a variety of perspectives. Here, the concept of “Work” invokes ideas of Harvest, Labor, and Movement, and the featured programs demonstrate how elements of race, gender, class, and culture relate to these concepts even as they complicate conventional assumptions about what it means to work the land.

Harvest represents both objects and actions: what is gathered together as well as the process of collection. Products can be harvested—corn, tobacco, freshwater mussels—but the phrase to harvest also denotes the labor that goes into the process. This section examines the diversity of farmed products across the nation, broadening our perspectives on what might be considered agriculture.

The Labor of the harvest is both physical and emotional. But not all labor has been visible to the public; often the representative American farmer has been pictured as a stoic, white, male figure toiling in his fields. But the public radio and television programs in this section offer different stories, from the collective actions of the United Farm Workers to the reflections of farm women enduring a harsh Wisconsin winter. These programs make visible the diverse experiences of working the land, highlighting underrepresented voices and sharing dimensions of labor that often go unacknowledged.

At first, we may think of agricultural work as fixed in place—in fields or barns or brooder houses, firmly rooted in the land—but farm labor is often about Movement: the movement of products, the movement of people. This section highlights the experiences of migration in farming, navigating borders between states and nations, and the challenges faced by those on the road to new fields.

Harvest

Workers feed alligators in a temperature-controlled farm building as featured in this episode of Louisiana Conservationist Magazine (1991).

“Just a Small Fishery” (KYUK, Bethel, AK, September 20, 1984).

This television program explores commercial and subsistence aquaculture in western Alaska. The fishery featured here represents the commercial interest in herring along the coastline. In the broadcast, fishing cooperative members discuss prices and the impacts of overfishing this aquatic Resource, locals follow the herring migration runs in their small fishing boats, and larger, Industrial processing vessels collect their hauls for sale on the market. The program expands definitions of agriculture, emphasizing that harvest can occur far from the dirt and soil of conventional farm land.

Louisiana Conservationist Magazine, episode 208, “Larto Saline Complex and Alligator Farming” (Louisiana Public Broadcasting, Baton Rouge, January 3, 1991).

One of the segments in this newsmagazine examines alligator farming: an industrial approach to raising gators for leather and meat production that began to gain traction in the 1970s. The journalists tour one of the facilities in 1990 where the animals were incubated and raised with carefully managed temperature chambers to control growth and development. By employing the Rhetoric of Industry—“conversion” to describe butchering, “food intake” to describe feeding, and “renewable Resource” to describe propagation—proponents of this approach frame alligator farming as an industry worth cultivating.

WPLN News Archive, “Tennessee Mussels” (WPLN/Nashville Public Radio, July 1, 2003).

This radio segment explores how pearls are farmed and produced through a careful process of implantation and culturing: materials (called “nuclei”) are deposited into the mollusks that are then left to develop into this luxury Resource over a series of years. Though cultured pearls are a global Industry, the ideal nuclei can be found in freshwater mussels from places like the Tennessee Freshwater Pearl Farm in Benton County: the spiny mussel, rough rabbitsfoot, purple wartyback, Cumberland monkeyface, birdwing pearlymussel. Tennessee pearl farmers are interviewed in this broadcast, discussing the harvesting process and the state’s significance within the global industry. As the narrator concludes, “Tennessee mussels are the heart of the world pearl market, making Tennessee the true mother of pearl.”

Notes on Milk (dir. Ariana Gerstein and Monteith McCollom, 2010).

This short documentary, broadcast on the PBS series POV, considers the Cultural and Political entanglements of a major agricultural Industry in the United States: dairy. From the breakfast table to the Watergate investigations, milk as a product and a symbol is powerfully connected to how the country is imagined and envisioned. With interviews from former and current dairy farmers, this artful program explores how consumers, producers, and product are entangled.

Labor

Inmates of one of the New Jersey prison farms work and discuss their experiences in this feature on “Jones Farm” from the 1970s.

“Jones Farm” (New Jersey Network, Trenton, ca. 1970s).

In this news segment, journalists visit one of the fourteen prison farms in New Jersey in the 1970s, which supplied a significant percentage of the food for other prisons around the state. Those serving their sentences at Jones Farm worked with hogs and dairy cattle and received reduced sentences, though they saw very little monetary payment for what was very profitable labor, as outlined in the program. Difficult working conditions and cuts to work-release and furlough programs also take their toll. “Well, it’s nice for the visits,” says inmate Ken Carter of the prison farm. “You know, when your people come—your grandkids, your wife, friends—it’s nice, that’s all. Other than that, it’s just a work camp.”

Friends on the Road, “Three Farmers” (Wisconsin Public Television, WHA-TV, Madison, February 23, 1979).

This episode of the television series Friends on the Road visits three farmers in their homes. They discuss their daily chores while raising hogs and sheep, dealing with the realities of harsh Wisconsin winter Weather, and working as women in a male-dominated industry. “I believe that in the future you may see more women operating farms,” says Alice Carroll, “because after one or two have pioneered out and done it, there may be others that will follow and not feel out of place doing it.” The three featured farmers emphasize the amount of labor required in the industry but also the rewards that go along with good planning and recordkeeping.

“What the Future Holds for Farm Workers and Hispanics” (Commonwealth Club of California, Hoover Institution Library & Archives, Stanford, CA, November 9, 1984).

This radio broadcast covers a meeting of the Commonwealth Club of California. At this meeting, César Chávez—a labor leader and civil rights activist—speaks to attendees about coordinating boycotts, the “savage conditions” under which farm workers must toil, his work through the United Farm Workers labor union, and Collective action in farming. “All my life I have been driven by one dream, one goal, one vision,” says Chávez, “to overthrow a farm labor system in this nation that treats farm workers as if they were not important human beings. Farm workers are not agricultural implements. They are not beasts of burden to be used and discarded.”

Crisis in Agriculture, “Farm Rally in Ames” (Iowa Public Television, Johnston, IA, February 27, 1985).

This is the second in a two-part series covering a 1985 rally in Ames, Iowa, where speakers discuss the devastating effects of the farm crisis on the physical and mental health of farmers. Joan Blundall is among those who share stories about farmer depression, violence, and suicide, broaching topics that do not often receive attention in political and economic discussions about agriculture. In a 2022 article from The Journal of Rural Health, researchers found that “other countries have discovered that farmers have higher rates of suicide than individuals in other occupations.” Australian researchers, for example, identified the Environmental impacts of climate change as potential stressors, while Indian studies identified “government apathy” as a contributing factor.¹⁶ The speakers featured in the program utilize impassioned Rhetorical appeals to push for Policy changes, demonstrating the emotional labor of farming that can go unacknowledged.

Movement

Featured Item

Jose Ramirez Delgado reflects on how family’s his farming background impacted his experience in the 2006 program "Los Braceros: Strong Arms to Aid the USA” (item below).

NET Journal, episode 172, “What Harvest for the Reaper?” (dir. Morton Silverstein, National Educational Television and Radio Center, January 29, 1968).

Nearly ten years after Edward R. Murrow’s investigative coverage of migrant agricultural workers in Harvest of Shame (1960), this documentary from National Educational Television highlights the cruel and exploitative conditions of a farm labor camp in Long Island, as well as the vitriol and racism that Black workers faced from farm owners and processors. The program follows the laborers as they are bussed from Arkansas to New York to harvest strawberries, string beans, cauliflower, and potatoes under a Labor system deeply entrenched in the “economics of exploitation.”

The Oregon Story, “Agricultural Workers” (Oregon Public Broadcasting, July 12, 2001).

“Agriculture is very, very important to who we are as a country,” says Erasmo Gamboa, historian at the University of Washington. “Unfortunately, the public understands the importance of the farmer but not the farm worker.” Through commentary and interviews, this broadcast aims to center the stories of forgotten workers like Richard Salinas of Hubbard, Oregon, who began as a farm worker in Texas before moving with his family for the agricultural opportunities in the northwest. Ultimately, the broadcast considers how the migration of Latino farm workers has shaped the Cultural landscape of Oregon even as workers reflect on how communities in different states have reacted to their presence with varying degrees of prejudice and welcome.

“Hippie Jack and Friends” (WCTE, Cookeville, Tennessee, 2005)

This television program follows Jack and Lynne Stoddart as they recount their history in the Upper Cumberland region of Tennessee. The Stoddarts were a part of the Back to the Land countercultural movement of the 1970s and moved to the area from Miami, Florida. “It was a time when moving to the country, living off the land, and pursuing an alternate lifestyle was a reality,” says Jack. “It wasn’t something that people just dreamed about or, you know, thought about when they were tired.” The couple reflects on their experiences integrating into the neighborhood, the labor required after their move, and the locals who offered mentorship and knowledge about subsistence farming.

ViewFinder, “Los Braceros: Strong Arms to Aid the USA” (KVIE, Sacramento, CA, July 26, 2006).

This television documentary features interviews with workers who participated in the Bracero Program, a work agreement between the United States and Mexico that permitted laborers to migrate across the border to fulfill short-term labor contracts on farms, ranches, canneries, and railroads in the wake of a workforce shortage during World War II. Braceros were required to return to Mexico after their work permits expired, and the program lasted from 1942 to 1964. This documentary calls attention to the labor of the braceros, which has been downplayed in historical accounts of the period, as well as the discrimination and harsh living conditions they were subjected to. By focusing on individual braceros—interviewing them, giving them space to tell their Stories—this program seeks to emphasize the human dimension of this government Policy