Notices by Sarah Taber (sarahtaber@mastodon.online)

Love the flop-sweat smell, ICE!

She's asking the right questions. Sadly, slavery IS a staffing issue. It's quite popular on farms. And it's not caused by "hiring illegals."

The US's biggest modern slavery case was 100% workers who came legally.

I'm an American & former farm worker. Let's talk!

Widespread abuses are why Biden made updates to the H-2A guest worker program. Basic stuff: minimum wage enforcement. "If people are living on your property they need plumbing." "Don't take their passports."

To stop more slavery rings from happening!

https://www.americanimmigrationcouncil.org/blog/biden-h2a-rule-expands-protections-oversight-migrant-workers/

Sorry to my colleagues in agriculture, who might not like that I'm being so point-blank about this.

We're supposed to act surprised, like we don't know this is happening in our own labor force.

But folks, we've GOT to stop pussyfooting around with how our own industry works.

This is reality. We can deal with reality, or keep getting "surprised" by it & left behind.

To come to the US legally? Farm workers are supposed to get an H-2A visa.

In theory, H-2A visas are fine. They're supposed to work like a temp agency/worker-to-workplace matching service.

But in reality? So many H-2A workers are abused, extorted, cheated, raped, & held prisoner on the job.

Here's a brief piece on how over 100 people who went through the entire proper H-2A documentation process to enter the US legally, still wound up in slavery.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=iJUdONHDIbs

Matter of fact, the US has a whole federal holiday dedicated to how "making an official declaration that slavery's over" isn't enough. You have to actually go to the plantations to see to it people are freed for real.

Juneteenth!

Just in case you were wondering why they want to cancel that too 💀

Maybe people get confused on what "ending slavery" looks like.

It doesn't come from grand sweeping gestures, declarations, & press conferences.

Freedom comes from follow-through. If someone's getting beaten on the job, there has to be a number they can call.

And someone has to pick up the phone.

And you know what Trump just did?

He just overturned all those updates. Back in June 2025.

Now, the system for *legal* farm immigration is back to the free-for-all that let people build a $200M slavery business in Georgia- with a license from the federal government.

https://www.dol.gov/newsroom/releases/whd/whd20250620

Now how's that link up to the ol' "Who will pick our crops" question?

These days I'm a small farmer. There's a saying in agriculture. "It doesn't matter what the laws are. Farmers will still get their workers one way or another."

So "Who will pick our crops?" is exactly what we should be asking.

So if ICE's tweet has the energy of a sweaty "Nuh-uhhh, I know you are but what am I?"

That's why!

The Trump administration just gutted critical anti-slavery protections for legal, documented farm workers.

And then they fired the people who enforced the ones we had left.

Anyway. To actually end slavery, you need a way for people who are being beaten, not paid, held hostage, etc at work to get help & get out. At least a hotline or something.

And Trump fired the folks whose job it was to pick up the phone... 6 months ago.

https://news.bloomberglaw.com/daily-labor-report/trumps-federal-workforce-cuts-hit-labor-department-enforcement

Rep. Greenfield is asking exactly the right questions.

If the US is going to feed itself, there are farm jobs that have to be done. So how are we gonna do it?

No, really! How?

Who's going to do the work? What will their lives be like?

Will we build a farm sector that offers jobs that free people can build our lives with? Or will we keep building jobs that only seem worthwhile to desperate people with no other options?

If only immigrants take these jobs, how do they get here?

What are the circumstances they work under?

I came up as a farm worker. So I've been pretty open about how Americans absolutely DO take farm jobs- when they're worth having.

I would know! That's what I did.

If you want to know how that works, I talk about it here! https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=FdZfYMIv3iM&t=1s

Final note, I love that ICE, even at their most flustered, still puts a "Knowingly" in front of "hiring illegal workers is a crime."

That way they can talk all big & bad, but employers still feel safe bc all they have to do is go 👉👈 omg officer I had NO IDEA they were undocumented

The folks in charge of the US right now DO NOT want people asking asking these questions. Because they just low key made slavery great again.

They're desperate to turn it around.

That's why if you dare to ask "Who will pick the crops?" the folks who just re-legalized slavery… call you pro-crime.

We're so afraid of food & pleasure that we can look at Neanderthals who, to me, were prob melting fat out of bones for Love of the Game. Their environment was rich enough that they didn't *have* to do that

& conclude "It must have been desperation. No other reason people would do this!"

Craving fat, sugar, & salt are survival instincts. It motivates critters to put in extra effort to get foods that pay off.

I know it's very hip & chic or whatever to freak out about craving "bad foods."

But getting pleasure from high-calorie foods is. like. why our ancestors lived to make us

It's kinda like saying "grizzly bears eat the eggs from salmon & leave the meat behind because they're trying to max out calories & get fat for the winter."

Pretty sure grizzly bears don't count calories y'all wtf

They're doing that because all the fat in the eggs TASTES GOOD.

Salmon are falling apart by the time they get that far upriver. Their meat's not very palatable anymore.

So why bother finishing the whole yucky fish when there's more tasty eggs in the river?

And that's a good thing to keep in mind right now!

Because we're getting bombarded with the idea that "modernity" is "degenerate" and we have to "return" to purer, more austere ways of life.

whoops. food processing thread turned into philosophy again

Anyway, this is just a reminder that early humans were human. They took care of the sick and loved art & saturated fat.

Thinking that everything they did was a grim survival tactic?

That's usually us projecting our issues onto the past. Not what their own lives were actually about.