Fresh Fruit, Broken Bodies: Migrant Farmworkers in the United States (California Series in Public Anthropology)

Ben Waber reviewed Fresh Fruit, Broken Bodies: Migrant Farmworkers in the United States (California Series in Public Anthropology) by Seth Holmes

An Even More Urgent Ethnography

4 stars

It is a shame that this book is still timely in 2025, but Holmes' deep ethnographic examination of the fruit picking industry and the migrant workers who by and large keep them operating is enlightening. Holmes illuminates the reality of these workers - their precarious work environment, high skill level, and health issues - as well as some surprising insight into the long-term immigration goals of at least this sample of workers. I would have loved more quantitative metrics to help ground the deep observational data that Holmes collected, since it was hard to discern how representative some of his observations were. Still, this book is a must read if you're in the US or at all interested in the workplace more generally. Highly recommend

Eduardo Santiago reviewed Fresh Fruit, Broken Bodies: Migrant Farmworkers in the United States (California Series in Public Anthropology) by Seth Holmes

Review of 'Fresh Fruit, Broken Bodies: Migrant Farmworkers in the United States (California Series in Public Anthropology)' on 'Goodreads'

5 stars

We know that our food is artificially cheap. At some abstract level we know there's suffering involved. Holmes beautifully lets us see and almost feel what that suffering is really like: the terror of the border crossing, the social circumstances that make it necessary; the back-neck-knee-and-body-breaking misery of picking strawberries seven days a week for unending hours; waking to rainfall as condensed breath drips from your uninsulated ceiling; the humiliation and insults and violence. Seth Holmes walked the walk, spending years living with (excuse the term) migrant workers roaming between Oaxaca, California, and Washington. People who turn out to be (gasp!) actual human beings who experience love, joy, fear, sadness, pain (only much, much more of the latter than you or I ever will).

Holmes writes engagingly, with more grace and heart than I could ever muster. Even when interviewing truly contemptible hatemongering bigots he refrains from editorializing, letting their …

We know that our food is artificially cheap. At some abstract level we know there's suffering involved. Holmes beautifully lets us see and almost feel what that suffering is really like: the terror of the border crossing, the social circumstances that make it necessary; the back-neck-knee-and-body-breaking misery of picking strawberries seven days a week for unending hours; waking to rainfall as condensed breath drips from your uninsulated ceiling; the humiliation and insults and violence. Seth Holmes walked the walk, spending years living with (excuse the term) migrant workers roaming between Oaxaca, California, and Washington. People who turn out to be (gasp!) actual human beings who experience love, joy, fear, sadness, pain (only much, much more of the latter than you or I ever will).

Holmes writes engagingly, with more grace and heart than I could ever muster. Even when interviewing truly contemptible hatemongering bigots he refrains from editorializing, letting their own words damn them. But those are just small parts of the book. The vast majority takes you into the lives of these families, into their days and hopes of finding better lives. And into the systems that make that almost impossible.

Recommended reading for anyone who eats food. Required for anyone who has influence over immigration, agricultural, medical, or other cultural policies.