---
title: "New report exposes the exploitation behind the world’s food systems workers"
description: "‘Food Work’, a new IPES-Food report exposes the extent and forces driving the exploitation of workers in food systems across the globe."
type: "NewsArticle"
publisher: "Daily Maverick"
site: "https://www.dailymaverick.co.za"
section: "LABOUR ABUSE"
author: "Iman Allie"
author_url: "https://www.dailymaverick.co.za/author/iman-allie/"
canonical_url: "https://www.dailymaverick.co.za/article/2026-10-07-new-report-exposes-the-exploitation-behind-the-worlds-food-systems-workers/"
published: "2026-10-07T14:44:27"
lang: "en-ZA"
word_count: 1297
---

# New report exposes the exploitation behind the world’s food systems workers

> ‘Food Work’, a new IPES-Food report exposes the extent and forces driving the exploitation of workers in food systems across the globe.

By Iman Allie · Published 7 October 2026, 16:44 SAST

## Key points
- A new IPES-Food report exposes the global food system’s deep reliance on exploited labour – from farmworkers and fishers to delivery drivers and domestic workers.
- Nearly 1.4 billion people work in food systems, with women, migrants and racialised workers facing discrimination, poverty wages, unsafe conditions and weak legal protection.
- Corporate power, employer-tied visas, union-busting, gig technology and climate breakdown are intensifying pressure on workers – with hundreds of millions earning below a living wage.
- The report calls for stronger unions, equal rights for migrants, tougher corporate accountability, enforceable labour standards and proper recognition of care work.

## Content

The food system is the world’s largest source of employment – employing nearly 1.4 billion people from farmworkers, fishers, slaughterhouse staff to delivery drivers, restaurant and supermarket employees, and domestic workers. About two out of every five workers work in the food sector, yet this sector exploits more workers than any other. This is according to a [new report](https://ipes-food.org/report/food-work/) by IPES-Food.

IPES-Food launched “Food Work”, a report detailing the exploitation of workers globally in the food system, on 5 October. On the same day IPES-Food held a webinar to discuss the report.

### The forces at work

The report outlines that there are six forces exacerbating food worker exploitation globally.

The report firstly discusses gender, class, and race-based discrimination as a driver of exploitation with the “invisibilisation” of food-related care work mostly performed by women, such as cooking, feeding and community care at the centre.

According to IPES-Food expert and research professor at the University of Texas, Raj Patel, food-related care work among women is often not recognised and women are underpaid and undervalued.

According to the report, women perform an estimated 12.5 billion hours of unpaid care work every day, which forces them into informal or part-time work, leading to lower earnings, weak protections, and limited bargaining power. Women also face persistent wage gaps, structural segregation in low-paid jobs, and high rates of workplace violence and harassment.

Secondly, current migration systems institutionalise the exploitation of migrant workers.

A very significant part of the food system relied on the exploitation of migrant workers, said co-chair of IPES-Food and former UN Special Rapporteur on extreme poverty and human rights Olivier De Schutter. They were often exploited and docile, because they had no ability to complain out of fear of being deported from the country if they contacted local authorities, De Schutter explained.

Even where immigration was legal, the immigration policies very often obliged migrant workers to accept employer-tied visas, meaning that workers were forced to work for one identified employer and to accept substandard wages, poor housing conditions and dangerous working conditions, he added. It could be very costly for these migrant workers to complain, because they risked being dismissed by the unique employer on whom they depended.

Advocate and director of migrant and refugee worker rights NGO Our Journey, Sumitha Shaanthinni Kishna, said that in her line of work she often saw migrant workers in Malaysia bringing their children to farms, because they didn’t have access to affordable childcare and education.

Workers were often expected to meet production targets without adequate tools or infrastructure, which affected their wages. Kishna also noted that migrant farmworkers often did not have a proper place to rest or eat when they were in the field.

“Decent work isn’t only about wages and working hours, it’s also about very basic dignity, somewhere to sit and eat, rest, clean drinking water and access to sanitation as well,” Kishna said.

When asked about the tensions between migrant workers and local workers during the webinar, Kishna said that tensions sometimes arose between migrant workers and local workers in regions like Malaysia and South Africa because employers may prefer migrant workers over local workers, because migrant workers worked longer hours, had limited complaints and accepted a lower wage. This created the concept that workers were taking over jobs from the locals and fuelled xenophobia among the local community.

![Fishermen bringing in the day's catch. (Photo: Travis Daniels)](https://cdn.dailymaverick.co.za/i/rNDMDBfnDmNbwzmkUjt8Zp2rhC4=/200x100/smart/filters:strip_exif\(\)/file/attachments/orphans/Iman-FoodWork2_697720.jpg)

*Fishermen bringing in the day’s catch. (Photo: Travis Daniels)*

Thirdly, dominant corporations use their market power to drive down wages, engage in anti-competitive wage-fixing, outsource core jobs to third-party brokers, and aggressively counter union organising, according to the report.

De Schutter highlighted that globally, 30% of food system workers or about 416 million people earned less than a living wage.

The report also highlights an example of worker suppression in South Africa. In recent years, nearly 600 Makro workers were fired for striking during contract negotiations with Massmart (Makro’s owner), but rather than facing fines for union busting, the company sued the union for damages.

Further, government agencies often under pressure from corporate lobbyists are unable or unwilling to enforce merger controls between corporations or labour regulations effectively, the report says.

According to the report, digital technologies such as automation and gig-based platform work are being implemented to cut labour costs and maximise control of workers.

“Workers are being made to fit the machine, they are being turned into actors in a system where efficiency is the greatest goal, not worker liberation,” Patel said.

In his example, he explained that at Walmart nearly three-quarters of workers reported pressure to work faster under increased surveillance, and almost all workers reported dehydration.

Meanwhile, in app-based food delivery services, about 1,000 accidents occur every day among delivery drivers, with the majority denied basic workplace injury compensation.

![Farmers harvest spinach at DF Farm in Dawn Park](https://cdn.dailymaverick.co.za/i/S3MAC3p3Bg02Ork0UCMJxWhWB7A=/200x100/smart/filters:strip_exif\(\)/file/attachments/orphans/Iman-FoodWork3_592974.jpg)

*Farmers harvest spinach at DF Farm in Dawn Park Johannesburg, South Africa. Spinach is a very popular vegetable in the South African diet. (Photo: Gallo Images / Sharon Seretlo)*

Moreover, agricultural workers are on the frontlines of climate breakdown, according to the report.

Patel highlighted that these workers were forced to work fewer hours as a result of heat stress, and workers paid by the hour would in turn be paid less. Patel added that climate change brought increased risk to workers who handled pesticides. As heat brought an increase in pests, the use of pesticides increased too. Patel then explained that the heat then drove chemicals from the pesticides through the air, where they could be absorbed into workers’ skin more easily.

[Read more

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Lastly, legal loopholes and weak enforcement are failing workers’ rights, according to the report. While international standards such as that of the International Labour Organization’s Core Labour Standards and International Covenant on Economic, Social and Cultural Rights recognise basic protections, many countries maintain legal exemptions that exclude food and farm workers from these basic protections.

These protections include collective bargaining, safe working conditions, non-discrimination, and the elimination of forced and child labour as fundamental human rights, including minimum wage requirements, overtime pay, and safety standards.

Where laws do exist, severely underfunded labour inspectorates allow employers to violate rights with impunity, which creates a regulatory environment in which exploitation is structurally enabled, according to the report. Thus, globally millions of food workers remain without social protections, fair compensation, or meaningful legal recourse.

### The path to dignified food work

The report has identified five core priorities to transform food work from a sector of exploitation into dignified, safe and fulfilling work.

Worker power must be built by strengthening trade unions, expanding collective bargaining to all workers, and forging broad cross-movement coalitions. This is crucial to solving a lot of issues related to the exploitation of workers, according to labour rights expert Susan Longley.

Decent work must be secured through enshrining comprehensive labour standards in law, eliminating legal carve-outs for food and farm workers, establishing binding workplace safety floors and investing in robust public labour inspection regimes.

Equal rights for migrant workers must be guaranteed through ending policies that criminalise migrants, dismantling employer-tied visa schemes, and guaranteeing equal labour rights and social protections regardless of status.

Corporate power must be reined in by tackling corporate concentration, holding lead firms accountable for labour abuses throughout their supply chains, and institutionalising democratic oversight of emerging technologies.

Finally, food work must be valued. Food work should be formally recognised and care workers should be compensated for their vital skills and lived experience, and for their importance in feeding the world.

“A blow against one is a blow against all. This is not something where we get to sit outside... Our own liberation depends on the liberation of workers. And supporting that is a vital part of ensuring our dignity,” Patel said. **DM**