Is the price of your flowers costing lives? Maybe you hadn’t thought about it before but it is important to know where your flowers are coming from. Blockchain transparency can help protect migrant farm workers when the right systems and management is put in place.
It is a sad reflection on society when time and time again, the plight of migrant farm workers goes ignored. Reading an article in The Guardian this week I was struck by how familiar it was. An Indian worker, subjected to slave like conditions in Italy had died in 40 degree heat whilst picking flowers. Shocking, yes, unheard of, no. This article appears every harvest season and yet the changes required to prevent deaths, suffering and mental trauma to these workers seems to be unheard.
The recurring issues in farm labor, such as exploitation and harsh working conditions, are deeply entrenched in global agriculture. Despite the constant spotlight on these issues, little seems to change, as seen in tragic incidents like the recent death of an Indian flower picker in Italy. This event has once again highlighted the slave-like conditions endured by many migrant workers, who work with little to no protection or rights.
Migrant farm-workers, who often come from countries like India, Bangladesh, and sub-Saharan Africa, are particularly vulnerable. They are drawn to countries like Italy by the promise of work, only to find themselves in situations that are far from what they had hoped. These workers are essential to the agricultural industry, yet they are subjected to extremely low wages, long hours, and unsafe conditions. During heatwaves, which have become more frequent due to climate change, the risks increase significantly, sometimes leading to fatalities.
The tragic death of the Indian flower picker is not an isolated incident. Rather it is a familiar incident that appears in the headlines every year. So how can we hold their employers to account? How can we begin to imagine new ways of valuing farm labor? How can we incentivize good employer behavior and penalize bad behavior? The key is transparency.
Ensuring a fairer future for Farmers
This cycle of exploitation persists due to the opaque nature of supply chains in agriculture. The lack of transparency makes it difficult to hold those responsible accountable for the inhumane treatment of workers. This is where blockchain technology could play a transformative role. Projects like Morpheus Network, Origin Trail and Vechain are actively working on solutions to provide more transparency to supply chains globally.
“Blockchain is key when providing a record of where and how food and other products are arriving in our supermarkets. We work with numerous producers and distributors that want to ensure best practices are followed and consumers want to be assured that the products they purchase are not the result of exploitation,” says Dan Weinberger, Co-Founder and CEO of Morpheus Network.
Moreover, blockchain could also help in ensuring that farm-workers are fairly compensated. Smart contracts, which are self-executing contracts with the terms of the agreement directly written into code, could be used to ensure that workers are paid fairly and promptly for their labor. This would reduce the power of employers to exploit workers by withholding wages or forcing them to work under dangerous conditions.
By providing a transparent record of workforce management using blockchain technology, it would become easier to identify and eliminate exploitative practices. This could lead to a shift in the industry, where ethical treatment of workers becomes a standard practice rather than an exception.
The recurring tragedies at harvest time underscore the urgent need for widespread change. It is time to create a future when farm workers are treated with the dignity and respect they deserve.
