Research
Our research focuses on labor in global food systems and addresses three key questions in this area:
- How can policy, institutions, and technology help to improve working conditions? Topics such as child and forced labor on farms, precarious working conditions among migrant farm workers, and the effects of agrochemicals on the health of both farmers and workers are recurrently on the media agenda—and increasingly on the policy agenda. For example, due diligence and supply chain laws, which have recently been discussed and approved in several countries, are aimed at holding private companies accountable for issues such as labor rights violations along their supply chain. The topic is also on the industry agenda, as the industry regularly uses standards or technology to e.g., reduce manual labor, improve occupational health and safety, or trace products back to their origin to demonstrate to consumers that forced and child labor were absent in the production. In our research, we assess how the public, private, and third sectors can contribute to better working conditions through policies, collective action, and technology.
- How does labor and migration policy affect workers, farmers, and agricultural production? Labor demand and supply in food systems are influenced by farm, labor, migration, and trade policy at different levels, especially because the hired labor force in food systems is largely composed of migrant workers. Policies may be aimed at benefiting workers, but could also target farmers, other employers, and food production. Several of our projects assess how governmental policies affect labor demand, supply, mismatches between supply and demand, and food production both directly and indirectly.
- What is the future of work in food systems? Climate change and the strive for more environmentally friendly production influence the type of skills and the amount of labor required; as well as working conditions on farms and beyond. Our research is concerned with the trade-offs and synergies between environmental and socio-economic sustainability goals that ongoing trends, such as green transitions in farming, imply for labor in food systems.
To answer these questions, we employ quantitative and qualitative methods and use both primary and secondary data. Primary data comes from our surveys, experiments, and qualitative interviews with workers and employers (such as farmers, cooperatives, companies, or restaurants) across agricultural value chains. Our topics are inherently global and relevant in higher-income and lower-income countries alike. Thus, ongoing projects look at agrifood labor issues in Africa, Asia, Europe, and Latin America that capture specific contexts while also offering general lessons to be learned.