Your Labor Day reading list: five stories that will help you understand the workers behind what you eat

Labor Day beckons, dear reader. And all across the country this weekend, plenty of Americans will be busy indulging in their one last hurrah before the summer officially ends.

But there’s a lot more to Labor Day than long weekends and mattress sales, of course. Are you a worker? Well, the labor movement was thinking of you when it founded this holiday in the 19th century to honor (and protest) sweat and toil and 12-hour days. In 1894, President Grover Cleveland made it legit, declaring the first Monday of September a federal holiday.

Aren’t you glad everything is all better now?

This Labor Day, we at The New Food Economy will be thinking of the workers who produce, pick, process, pack, and plate our food—so many of whom are invisible to eaters. In their honor, we’re sharing their stories. Welcome to the secret life of the supply chain.

• Amazon gets huge subsidies to provide good jobs—but it’s a top employer of SNAP recipients in at least five states

One-third of Amazon employees in Arizona need food stamps to feed themselves.

• The food industry’s food stamps problem

We recently obtained data on SNAP employers from six states and found that thousands of people who work in fast-food and retail jobs don’t make enough money to buy groceries.

• Female farmers struggle to work and take care of children. And no one’s really talking about it.

Across the country, the newest generation of female farmers is discovering that having children can redefine their relationship to farm work.

• If you want to understand everything that’s wrong with tipping, look to New York

Debates over the tip credit have brought up challenging questions about race, class, and income. The resulting decisions could change restaurant culture forever.

• Seafood processed by forced labor is illegal. So why is it still on our shelves?

North Korean forced laborers filet some salmon steaks sold at Walmart. That shouldn’t happen. Here’s why it does.