Revaluing Horticultural Skills

Those bright red strawberries or unblemished tomatoes do not just fall from the plant into their packing materials. It takes the exquisite attention and detailed care of the millions of harvest workers, underpaid and overworked, often migrants, to put our cherished fruits and vegetables on the table. Finally, we have a book that thoroughly and lucidly explores why such important work has been coded as de-skilled and how it could and should be otherwise. - Julie Guthman, author of Wilted: Pathogens, Chemicals, and the Fragile Future of the Strawberry Industry. This book is so welcome. It gives horticulture and its skills due respect for feeding people and for what they are – a remarkable array of knowledge without which urban consumers would be entirely instead of only partially in hock to mostly big food processors. Horticulture is a bulwark between public health and food serfdom. Hannah Pitt’s understanding of exactly what skills are entailed is both fine scholarship and a cultural appeal for dignity. Peeling back myths that growing food is unskilled and of low value, she poses deep challenges to British politics. Why is cheap food seen as a good thing if it demeans the real values of those who grow it? Why is land labour so vulnerable to exploitation? These are not easy questions but this book places them fair and square on our plates as well as minds. -Tim Lang, Professor Emeritus of Food Policy, City St George’s, University of London Revaluing Horticultural Skills offers an insightful account of the deep social injustices that arise from the devaluing of horticulture work and workers. This is a vital, timely book for people who care about just and sustainable food systems. -Associate Professor Victoria Stead, Deakin University, Australia