New Books in Economics Teresa M. Mares and Laura-Anne Minkoff-Zern, "Will Work for Food: Labor Across the Food Chain" (U California Press, 2025)
Oct 22, 2025
Laura-Anne Minkoff-Zern, an associate professor at Syracuse University, and Teresa Mares, an anthropology professor at the University of Vermont, delve into the hidden labor aspects of our food system in their new book. They address crucial issues like farmworker food insecurity and the impact of immigration on labor vulnerability. The conversation also covers the changing dynamics in food processing, retail, and the often-overlooked value of domestic food work. Their insights illuminate the critical need for labor justice and solidarity among food workers.
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Food Systems Reveal Linked Labor
- A food-systems approach connects seed-to-waste processes and worker experiences across sectors.
- Teresa Mares and Laura-Anne Minkoff-Zern argue this view reveals structural links and shared precarity across the chain.
Farmworker Food Insecurity Sparked The Project
- Both authors began by researching farmworker food insecurity and noticed ironies where farmworkers cannot afford healthy diets.
- That research expanded into seeing connections to restaurant, processing, trucking, and domestic labor across the chain.
Processing Covers Wide, Persistent Harms
- Food processing spans gruesome high-risk meatpacking to small artisan and cereal plants with similar exploitation.
- Wage theft, repetitive injuries, child labor, and undocumented-worker vulnerability recur across processing scales.
