Fresh Fruit, Broken Bodies: Migrant Farmworkers in the United States

The Skagit Valley

To open this chapter, Holmes focuses on the labor hierarchies on US farms, beginning with a description of the Skagit Valley in northwestern Washington State, one of the sites of his fieldwork. He includes a lyrical description of the region, including its fertile fields, snowcapped mountains, and quaint towns. However, he soon shifts the emphasis to problems in the area. Citing the Benson dairy farm, farmer Johnson’s berry fields, and the Christensen orchards as examples, he touches on the challenges facing family-run farms, which struggle to compete with corporate agribusiness. Locals rail against the loss of family farms on their bumper stickers, which read: “Save Skagit Farmland, Pavement Is Forever” (47).

Migrant Farmworkers in the Skagit Valley

Holmes introduces the squalid conditions in which migrants live and work. A few thousand workers migrate to the Skagit Valley every spring. Some laborers live in squatter shacks made of plastic sheets, cardboard, and cars parts. Others stay in company-owned labor camps. Holmes’s detailed description of the camps conveys the extent of their dilapidation: “The migrant camps look like rusted tin-roofed tool sheds lined up within a few feet of each other or small chicken coops” (47). These small shacks stand in stark contrast to the nearby homes of wealthy Americans, which Holmes describes as multilevel houses with “picturesque views of the valley” (47).