Are western Europe's food supplies worth

more than east European workers' health?

 This article is more than 1 month old
The coronavirus threat facing fruit and vegetable pickers flown in from
quarantined Romania underlines Europe’s inequalities
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Costi Rogozanu and Daniela Gabor

Thu 16 Apr 2020 12.48 BSTLast modified on Thu 16 Apr 2020 16.30 BST

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 Seasonal workers wait to board flights to Germany in Cluj, Romania, 9 April

2020. Photograph: Raul Stef/AP
White asparagus is late April’s delicacy across much of north-west Europe. In
Germany the pale spears of the Spargel are cherished as “white gold”, their
arrival each year marked by festivals and celebrations. But Germany alone
needs 300,000 seasonal workers to harvest its crops. Over the past 10 years
most of these workers have come from Romanian villages where seasonal
migration is one of the few sources of income.
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 Guardian Pick

Whilst many have been gleefully saying how Brexit would leave crops rotting
in the fields because of loss of access to cheap Eastern European Labour, the
truth is that we should have stopped replying on them a long time ago. We
have been exploiting countries for their workforce instead of investing in ways
to reduce our reliance. It is nothing but reverse colonialism. Instead of going to
another country and forcing the locals to work for little m…

Jump to comment

ThelastGreatLiberal

16 Apr 2020

179180

 Guardian Pick
 It is a serious issue and there is no doubt about it. With rapidly ageing
populations right across Western Europe, access to labour is a major
headache. The desperate need to attract seasonal workers from the east - as
well as care workers, hospitality workers, food processing workers and much
else besides - indicates just how very serious that labour shortage is.

Some people seem to think that all you have to do is increase wages and hey
presto!…

Jump to comment

Pinnington

16 Apr 2020

3839

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