Agriculture Reference
In-Depth Information
In addition to payment for ecosystems services
designed to provide additional income to farm-
ers, there is also a rise in conservation ease-
ments and land trusts to preserve agricultural
land. Conservation or farm easements are a
way for landowners to protect their land and
preserve open space. An easement on a farm
or ranch limits the ability of the land to be
developed or subdivided, but maintains own-
ership with the individual who applied for the
easement. Conservation easements can be
implemented by government and non-govern-
ment organizations (land trusts), which upon
acceptance of the easement agree to monitor
it forever to ensure compliance (Maryland
Department of Natural Resources, 2012). In
the USA, there are more than 1700 land trusts
that have so far conserved 37 million acres,
roughly the size of New England. One reason
for the curtailing of pasture and rangeland
loss in the USA may be the rise in conservation
easements and land trusts, which can be an
effective way for private lands to be protected
for sustainability (Land Trust Alliance, 2012).
family incomes below the poverty level in the
early 2000s (US DOL, 2002).
Farm-worker wages in food production
are also not equally distributed. According to
data from a 3-year survey among food indus-
try workers, people of colour consistently
make less in food and agriculture production
jobs. For example, among agricultural work-
ers (including jobs like animal breeding, deliv-
ering animals, planting and harvesting crops)
people of colour represent more than 65% of
the work force, but earn on average 22% less
per year than white individuals. For agricul-
tural inspectors, people of colour, also repre-
senting about 65% of the work force, made
nearly half as much as their white counter-
parts. Similar wage discrepancies can be
found among poultry, meat and fish process-
ing workers where more than 80% are people
of colour, making US$2500 less per year on
average than white individuals in similar
positions (US$23,645 for white workers com-
pared with US$21,117 for people of colour)
(Liu and Apollon, 2011).
One solution to wage discrepancies has
been the rise in the use of fair-trade labels. Fair
trade is the idea that producers can receive
better payment for their product as certified
by intermediary organizations like Fairtrade
International. In practice, there are a host of
products available to be certified fair trade
ranging from bananas to coffee to cotton to
sports balls. These programmes allow consu-
mers usually in Western countries to pur-
chase products from developing countries at a
premium for ethical working conditions and
wages (Fairtrade International, 2011). In western
nations like the USA, there have not been simi-
lar programmes until recently when a domes-
tic North America-based fair trade association
began to ensure fair wages and treatment of
workers in the USA (Domestic Fairtrade
Association, 2010). Despite this, there are cur-
rently no fair trade standards in place for meat,
dairy, or other animal products. And while fair
trade products may provide additional income
for developing world and potentially develo-
ped world farmers and farm-workers, they are
also more expensive than their conventional
counterparts, often making them infeasible
to consumers who cannot afford to pay extra
for products.
Fair wages and fair trade
in agriculture
As the farm share has dropped steadily over
the past two decades, so has the percentage
of farm costs spent on labour and benefits.
In 1997, nearly 4% of total costs were spent
on salaries and benefits, while in 2008 this
amount was 2.86% (USDA ERS, 2011b). In
some cases, this may because of the increase
of mechanization in agriculture, which has
likely played a role in the decrease in agri-
cultural workers in the USA. Between 1990
and 2010 hired farm-workers declined from
more than 1.14 million to 1.05 million, with
an estimated 38% of hired farm-workers
employed in the livestock industry, mostly on
larger farms and ranches with sales more
than US$500,000 a year. During the same
time period, farm-worker wages rose by about
0.9% compared with 0.6% for non-farm non-
supervisory positions (USDA ERS, 2011c).
Nevertheless, the average wage for a farm-
worker in 2010 was US$10.17 an hour and
an estimated 30% of all farm-workers had
