TWN Info Service on Sustainable Agriculture
7 October 2026
Third World Network

Dear Friends and Colleagues

They feed the world, but food workers are Earth’s most exploited workforce

Every meal depends on the labour of people who grow, harvest, process, transport, sell, cook, serve, and deliver our food. Yet the people who feed us are among the most exploited workers in the world.

Nearly 1.4 billion people – two out of every five workers worldwide – work in food systems, making this the world’s largest workforce. Yet food systems also exploit more workers than any other sector. These essential workers face widespread low pay, wage theft, forced and child labour, discrimination, dangerous working conditions, and exclusion from basic protections.

Food Work: The workers behind our food and the exploitation they face, a landmark new report from IPES-Food, exposes the systemic exploitation running through the global food chain.

This is no accident. Today’s food systems are built around keeping labour cheap and workers disempowered, leaving migrant workers, women, and other marginalised workers particularly exposed.

And conditions are worsening. Climate change, corporate concentration, and new forms of digital surveillance are making food work increasingly hazardous and exploitative.

But exploitation is not inevitable. Food workers have repeatedly organised to win better pay, safer workplaces, and stronger rights. IPES-Food sets out five priorities for dignified food work – from strengthening worker power and labour protections to guaranteeing equal rights for migrant workers and reining in corporate power.

The people who feed the world deserve safe, fairly paid, and dignified work.

With best wishes,
Third World Network
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https://ipes-food.org/they-feed-the-world-but-food-workers-are-earths-most-exploited-workforce/

PRESS RELEASE
5 October 2026
IPES-FOOD (International Panel of Experts on Sustainable Food Systems)

THEY FEED THE WORLD, BUT FOOD WORKERS ARE EARTH’S MOST EXPLOITED WORKFORCE

• 1.4 billion people work to feed the world, yet food systems exploit more workers than any other sector, says Food Work, a new IPES-Food report.
• The essential workers who provide the world’s food face systemic low pay, unsafe conditions, abuse, insecure work, and exclusion from basic labour protections – with migrant and other marginalised workers facing the greatest risks.
• Climate change, corporate concentration, and digital technologies are driving increasingly dangerous and exploitative conditions.
• Exploitation is not inevitable: workers are fighting back by taking steps such as organizing and pushing for comprehensive labour standards.

Food workers face exploitation across the global food chain

The 1.4 billion people who grow, process, transport, sell, serve, and deliver the world’s food face widespread exploitation – from poverty wages and dangerous working conditions to wage theft, forced labour, and discrimination – according to a new report released today by IPES-Food documenting cross-cutting labour abuse.

The food system is the world’s largest source of employment – accounting for approximately 2 out of every 5 workers – yet the sector also exploits more workers than any other sector.

The report, Food Work: The workers behind our food and the exploitation they face, is the most comprehensive global review of labour exploitation across food systems to date. It finds that this exploitation is not accidental, but rooted in a food system built around keeping labour cheap and maximising profits at the expense of worker wellbeing. Thirty percent of food system workers earn below a living wage. Migrant workers, women, racialized groups, and other marginalized workers face the greatest risks – in a sector plagued by informal work and widespread exclusion from basic labour protections.

Exploitation runs through the entire food chain and every country, from farms, fishing vessels, and factories to supermarkets, restaurants, and delivery platforms. While conditions differ enormously, the same pattern recurs: human exploitation is built into the system, and the workers with the least power and protection are exposed to the greatest risks. This system keeps workers silent as they fear harsh consequences from speaking out, including losing employment that supports their families.

Climate change and new technologies are making food work more dangerous

Agriculture is one of the most dangerous sectors in the world, with one-third of all occupational deaths worldwide, due to conditions including exposure to extreme weather, long shifts without breaks, and contact with harmful pesticides and chemicals. Where international labour standards do exist, experts found that they are largely ignored.

Climate change is making farm work even more hazardous, with extreme heat, wildfires, floods, and other climate impacts increasingly threatening workers’ health and lives. Many farmworkers lack basic protections from extreme weather, while policymakers continue to resist regulations to protect workers from intensifying climate conditions.

New technologies are also creating new perils for food workers. Digital surveillance and algorithmic management are increasingly being used to control workers, intensify productivity pressures, and break down labour relations. Automation is displacing workers and intensifying health and safety hazards – such as in the meatpacking industries of USA and Brazil, where workers suffer workplace injuries and illnesses at three to ten times the national average. Meanwhile the report finds that app-based platform work, such as food delivery, preys on vulnerable workers by shifting insecurity and risk onto workers who often lack basic labour protections.

Migrant food workers face some of the greatest risks

Migrant workers are particularly exposed. Farm work, food processing, and delivery and hospitality sectors are highly dependent on migrant labour. Yet government migration policies keep them locked in legal limbo, while employer-tied permits, irregular status, and the threat of deportation can leave workers susceptible to physical and mental abuse at work, and unable to challenge abusive conditions. Governments often devote far greater resources to policing migration than enforcing labour standards, the report finds, reinforcing the power imbalance between workers and employers.

Corporate power keeps labour costs low and workers vulnerable

At the root of these abuses is a food system that researchers found consistently rewards keeping labour costs low. Highly concentrated corporations can suppress wages, outsource jobs and risks through layers of subcontracting, and prioritise shareholder returns, while workers struggle to secure decent pay and working conditions.

Food workers are organising for better pay, rights, and conditions

Yet progress beyond this exploitative system is possible without raising food prices. The report documents how food workers are organising and winning higher pay, stronger protections, and safer workplaces, showing that conditions improve when workers have the power to act collectively and governments uphold their rights.

IPES-Food calls for stronger unions and collective bargaining, enforceable standards for decent work, equal rights for migrant workers, and action to tackle corporate concentration and hold companies accountable for abuses throughout food supply chains.

Raj Patel, IPES-Food panel expert said:
“The people who put food on our plates are some of the most exploited workers in the world. Farmworkers, cooks, delivery riders – they consistently face low pay, unsafe conditions, abuse, and insecure work. Powerful food corporations profit from keeping labour cheap and workers powerless. But history shows that when food workers organise, they win better pay, safer workplaces, and stronger rights – raising the bar for workers everywhere, and making the food system safer for everyone.” 

Olivier De Schutter, co-chair of IPES-Food said:
“Governments have allowed a vast workforce to fall through the cracks of labour law. Food workers are routinely carved out of basic standards on wages, safety, and collective bargaining. Even where rights do exist on paper, they are not enforced, due to lack of inspections and prevalence of informality. It’s time to close these loopholes, invest in enforcement, and guarantee dignified work for all food workers.” 

Errol Schweizer, IPES-Food panel expert said:
“Our food system would collapse without migrant labour, yet migrant food workers face some of the highest rates of exploitation, injury and death. Government immigration and labour policies make migrant workers vulnerable, exploitation easier, and abuse harder to escape – with borders policed far more aggressively than abusive employers.”

Mamadou Goïta, IPES-Food panel expert said:
“As recent heatwaves show, climate change is becoming a workers’ rights crisis. Farmworkers already face poverty wages, toxic pesticides, and gruelling conditions. Now climate change is turning up the heat and making their work even more dangerous. Yet governments are still failing to guarantee workers even basic, lifesaving protections like shade, rest, and drinking water. The people producing our food should not have to risk their health or their lives to earn a living.”