Fresh Fruit, Broken Bodies: A Review

"Fresh Fruit, Broken Bodies" Summary

In "Fresh Fruit, Broken Bodies," anthropologist Seth Holmes visits immigrant field workers, in hopes of bringing a focus on how social, economic, and healthcare inequalities cause damaging yet avoidable injuries and health problems. He visits a group of Indigenous families for around 18 months as they cross the border, work on some farms, and then return to their hometown.

Constantly bending over causes physical
problems in the future for these workers

Throughout the story Holmes illustrates everything he is seeing, especially all the mistreatment of the workers. Most of these workers suffer poor health due to their class position, including "increased rates of nonfatal injuries, musculoskeletal pain, heart disease, and many types of cancer" (Holmes 101). These examples played a big role during his time with the families, as most of the story was centered around the field workers being mistreated which would eventually lead to physical and mental health problems.

How Should We Feel?

The story explains a lot about how these workers are treated day in and day out, but how should that make us feel? First off, we need to think about the workers and how important they are. Most of these workers come in at “3:00 in the morning, and [they] might just be there until 7:00. 8:00, 9:00 at night. Daylight to dark, it’s just the nature of farming” (Holmes 64). 

Here is a video about the importance of immigrants in relation to US farmers

Without the farmers, our country would not have nearly as much fresh fruit and vegetables as we do in our local grocery stores. We would not be able to go and just buy one without worry and much work for us. I believe we should feel for these workers, and thank them especially. They work tiring long days for less than minimum wage, just to keep our country growing and moving forward. 

Why You Should Read The Book

Holmes has made an impact with "Fresh Fruit, Broken Bodies," as it has truly brought the attention to what really goes on behind the fruits and vegetables that are in our local grocery stores daily. Holmes is in a much better life than the workers, but has still decided to put himself in the immigrants' shoes and experience what they have to go through. Immigrant workers have been impacted in a lot of ways, even after all that they have done for us. One example is that "through the past two decades, a cash-strapped Mexican government ... has reduced financial supports for corn producers" (Holmes 41). A lot of these farm workers only came to America and work nonstop in order to live a better life, but are instead being caught and taken by our government, back to where they tried to first escape from.

Works Cited

Holmes, Seth M. Fresh Fruit, Broken Bodies Migrant Farmworkers in the United States. Univ. of California Press, 2014.