AMO Organics
August, 2001
Low wages and repetitious back-breaking work make it difficult for migrant
farmworkers to pull themselves up out of poverty and into independence.
Considering that the vast majority of farmworkers lived and worked on their
own farms in Mexico, it is not surprising that many farmworkers aspire to
leave farm laboring to become farm owners. The transition is not easy,
however, with increasing production costs and decreasing prices offered
for vegetables, especially organic products, due to the entry of large scale
farmers into the market. Aware of the challenges, in 1998 a group of former
farm-workers from the Salinas Valley in California organized AMO Organics as
a marketing and service cooperative to help them overcome the challenges of
producing and marketing their organic vegetables.
As a marketing cooperative comprised of former farmworkers, special attention is paid to marketing to low-income populations, who often lack quality groceries and markets. General Manager Diego Vasquez shares, "AMO Organics feels that it has a responsibility to work in providing the community of farmworkers and other low-income communities with access to organic produce at affordable prices." In 1999, AMO Organics members started a farmers market at the local Women, Infant, and Children's Nutrition (WIC) Program Center to provide fresh, organic, affordable produce weekly to these communities. At the same time, AMO Organics has worked to find a special niche market for their certified organic, Hispanic produce. Their newest contract will be with the Berkeley school system, which recently required cafeterias to use food from local, organic producers. AMO Organics is excited to share with you their story and products.
Below, farmers from AMO Organics share their thoughts on life, work and cooperation.
Roots in Mexico - All of AMO's twelve farmers came across the border from Mexico.
"I was born in countryside at my home; not in a hospital. From there on, I have been from the countryside. The first things I saw were animals and landscapes, not cars and television. My experience with the land has been since I was born...In Mexico life was difficult. There's no support from organizations, and even less support from the government. I couldn't get ahead on my own. My motivation to come to the USA was to find a better life for my family, so that tomorrow and the day after tomorrow they will have the education that I couldn't have and maybe have more opportunities to get good jobs or go to a university." - Efren
American Dreams-Harsh Reality - Though many aspiring immigrants imagine America to be a promise land, the life of a migrant laborer is far from paradise.
"I left Mexico in 1985. There was a recession. There weren't many jobs, and the few there were, were very poorly paid. I came to the USA and went to work in agriculture, but as an employee harvesting lettuce, which wasn't how I wanted to work in agriculture." - Efren
"We
came here because we wanted to better our lives because we were very poor.
It turned out that we went to work in fields. I spent a lot of time irrigating,
thinning plants, harvesting lettuce, broccoli, cauliflower. It was a lot
of work and there were a lot of pesticides that made us sick."
- Salvador
"It's very different being an employee, no matter how good your position is. It's different from actually growing plants. When you're an employee, you're in an industry doing just one activity, like harvesting, and they tell you 'come over here' and 'go over there,' and you don't learn how to do the other jobs you need to grow plants, like watering or using tractor equipment." - An AMO member
Becoming Independent - The transition from farm-worker to farmer is a challenging one, but organizations like AMO Organics are making it easier for farm-workers to become independent.
"I never thought that I would have the opportunity to work in what I'm doing. I never thought that I would be able to farm for myself, but I saw the opportunity and I came." - Valdemar
"My greatest satisfaction of being a farmer is that I don't have someone over me. It's one of my greatest satisfactions that what I'm doing is what is best for me. If I don't do it well, well, I did it, and nobody is going to yell at me for that." - An AMO member
"I started daydreaming that one day I would be able to learn something and be able to teach my people in Mexico. I think that if I had the opportunity before I got old that I would go to the mountains to the farms and dedicate some of my time to sharing what I have learned." - Jose
"Here sometimes you don't make so much money, but you can go on, learn how the system works and learning a lot of things - things that you don't learn even if you worked 30 years at a single job, even if its agriculture. You won't learn it because you specialize in one thing but you don't know what you should know: how to grow a plant form seed, harvest it, and know how to pack it and sell it." - An AMO member
Unity Out of Necessity - In 1997-98, several of AMO's current members lost thousands of dollars when their marketer went bankrupt, refusing to compensate farmers.
"Before Amo Organics existed, everyone worked for themselves, each person sold where they wanted, and we all ended up selling through brokers who stole from everyone here. From that experience, we came up with the idea for Amo Organics, because we knew that as individuals we will not survive." - Valdemar
"We have good quality product, but we had to sell it through brokers, and they were selling the products at a good price in their name because they used a box with their name on it. You give them your vegetables but it's only known by their name. The consumer is buying your product, but they will never know it was yours. Besides that they pay what they fell like paying; they keep the biggest portion of the earnings." - An AMO member
"Why Organic? Previously applying mass amounts of pesticides has made the farmers of AMO Organics big believers in organic farming. I worried about the pesticides because since I left Mexico, I worked in fields with insect infestations where they applied a lot of pesticides. I still thank God that all my children were born healthy." - An AMO member
"I learned about a different way of practicing agriculture - without pesticides and fertilizers - which I liked very much, especially because I could take my children with me and teach them what I was learning." - Maria
"We know that with a conventional farmer, every time they irrigate, water is going downstream full of pesticides. I recommend to all farmers that the organic is better, to think about people yet to be born. When they spray pesticides, the birds fall. The snakes, turtles, rabbits, everything comes here because here we don't kill them. - Juan My satisfaction of being a farmer is in farming in a sustainable way and giving fresh, healthy food." - Jose
"Take lettuce from here with confidence that it will have a little dirt on it, but not any insecticides." - An AMO member