It is such a short poem, yet it delivered me a strong and reality message especially the last three lines of the poem that made me think more and realized that the author is right. Those that eat food that originates from the fields, will never know the sacrifice of the field workers. A majority of people do not recognize the hardship of field workers. This issue pertains to all the countries throughout the world. Without those field workers, there would not be food on our tables nor would there be products to buy at the grocery stores.  

Considering this specific subject about people not thinking where their food products come from, I can relate it to a similar aspect that I have seen and heard in the United States. People who live outside of the country, ought to think that people working in the United States get paid well. As for any other country, there are jobs that pay very little while other jobs pay extremely well. With that being said, in relation to field workers, they are paid and treated poorly. Luckily, they are not treated as slaves as in the past times where they were beaten to death if they disobeyed their landowners, but they do suffer while working and trying to earn a living for themselves and for their family. I was involved with a Catholic ministry group that traveled to different areas of the state to help those in need. For example, the group seek the homeless and give them basic needs like food, water, and clothing or visit juvenile detentions to talk and give advice to the young folks to bring their hopes up. The group managed to visit a farm during one hot summer where Hispanic migrant farmworkers were located. Once the group arrived at the farm, we were given a brief tour of the farm. During the tour, I remember seeing that some of the workers were moving fast while others were moving in slow, painful motion while trying to harvest the field under an excessive heat wave; if I remember right, the temperature was about 92℉ (33.3℃). After the tour, I was able to talk to a male worker who was only 19 years old. He was from Guatemala and was lucky enough to have a temporary work permit that allowed him to come to the United States and work to have a living. Even though the work that he was performing was not the best, as he described, it is better than not having a job in Guatemala. He did not mention exactly he was being paid, but he told me that it was not enough to have a stable life inside the United States. Based on what he told me about his stay at the farm, I changed my view with respect to products sold at grocery stores. 

It is terrible to see people from your own culture suffering under massive chronic conditions; it is really heartbreaking. Not only do people not recognize the hard work that fieldworkers do, but cruel people discriminate against them and despise them terribly. If I could post pictures about what I saw along with this blog, I definitely would demonstrate the rough reality some people go through, but the group was not allowed to record or take photographs which were strictly prohibited due to privacy purposes.

It may be said that those who know where the fresh food products come from, they are thankful for the hardworking of the fieldworkers.