The Harvest – The story of the children who feed America
by Eileen Rivera
“Every time you eat a salad, every time you eat a vegetable, you have to realize that this might have been picked by a child.” – Eva Longoria
“In some countries, children work fourteen hours a day, seven days a week. In some countries, children twelve and younger pick crops. The United States of America is one of those countries.” These are the opening lines of an eye-opening documentary that follows three adolescents as they travel and work with their migrant farmer families. The children portrayed in the film are in this country legally and some were born here.
First, we meet Zulema Lopez at her 12th birthday party. The next morning finds her grandmother dragging her out of bed and promising that she could sleep in the truck on the way to the fields. Zulema is shown pushing through growth to find the strawberries for which she is paid sixty-four dollars a week.