While the media focuses on the impact of the heatwave on holidaymakers and garden lawns, the real disaster is unfolding in our fields and farms. The drought has devastated the harvest. Yields of wheat, barley and potatoes have collapsed. Fruit and vegetable growers are watching their crops wither on the vine. The result is a food crisis that is already hitting the poorest hardest.
But behind the headlines about food prices lies a hidden story: the story of the farm workers. These are the men and women who plant, tend and harvest our food. They work long hours in brutal conditions, often for the minimum wage or less. Many are migrant workers, brought in on seasonal visas, living in overcrowded caravans and tents, denied the basic rights of decent wages, housing and healthcare.
The climate crisis is making their lives even harder. Extreme heat makes work in the fields dangerous. The drought means longer hours as farmers struggle to save what they can. Wildfires threaten homes and livelihoods. And yet farm workers are blamed when food prices rise, scapegoated by the right-wing media as ‘greedy foreigners’ who are ‘taking our jobs’.
The truth is the opposite. Farm workers are the backbone of our food system, and they are being exploited and abandoned by a system that values profit over people. Small farmers are being squeezed too, driven to the wall by supermarkets and banks. They are told to ‘innovate’ and ‘diversify’, but the reality is that the market is stacked against them.
The solution is not to blame the victims, but to organise them. Farm workers need unions to fight for collective bargaining, fair wages and safe working conditions. Small farmers need to be freed from the tyranny of the supermarkets and the banks. They need access to land, fair prices and the resources to transition to sustainable farming.
The climate crisis is a class crisis. Farm workers and small farmers are on the front line. They are not the problem; they are part of the solution. We must stand with them and fight for a food system that works for people and the planet, not for profit.
