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Many readers of this blog spend significant time and money tracking down and buying local produce, in the interest of supporting local farmers and minimizing fuel waste. But even buying local produce may not be enough to clear our consciences, if we can’t always be sure that the workers who pick this produce are paid fairly, provided with water and shade, and given time off from work.

For those of us living in New York State, this problem got a bit deeper this week. One of the likely victims of the upheaval in the New York State Senate is the Farmworkers Fair Labor Practices Act, which would extend certain basic labor protections to the farmworkers who plant and harvest our food.

Nationwide, farmworkers face even more drastic working conditions than other low-wage workers. The National Labor Relations Act (better known as the Wagner Act) of 1935, which gives workers the right to organize without interference, excludes farmworkers and domestic workers. The Fair Labor Standards Act of 1938 exempts farmworkers from requirements for overtime pay, and allows owners of small farms to avoid paying even minimum wage to their workers. On average, farmworkers earn $13,000/year—not even enough to place a family of two over the federal poverty line.

At the same time, farmworkers have been some of the most tireless defenders of their own rights. From the time of Cesar Chavez ‘s and Dolores Huerta’s leadership through today, farmworkers have courageously organized to protect existing rights and to introduce new legislation that offers new rights. During the height of farmworker organizing, in the 1960s and 1970s, many Jewish communities joined in these campaigns by boycotting grapes picked by non-union workers.

The proposed New York State law would grant farmworkers collective bargaining rights, require employer to allow farmworkers at least 24 consecutive hours off each week, provide for an eight-hour work day, require overtime pay at one and one-half times the normal rate, make provisions of unemployment insurance applicable to farmworkers, apply state sanitary codes to housing built for farmworkers, require the reporting of work-related injuries, and extend workers’ compensation benefits to farmworkers.

In other words—farmworkers in New York State might finally gain the labor protections afforded to other low-income workers.

This is not the only farmworker battle going on—in California, United Farm Workers is working on bills to ease union organizing among farmworkers, and to guarantee that farmworks have access to water and shade during their shifts. (UFW recently commemorated the one-year anniversary of the death of a 17-year-old girl who died of heat exhaustion and dehydration while working on a California farm without access to drinking water). On the national level, Senator Dianne Feinstein recently re-introduced AgJobs, a bill that would allow a path to citizenship for migrant farmworkers.

There is a basic principle in Jewish labor law that workers should never become effectively enslaved to their employers. In one biblical verse, God comments, “The children of Israel are my servants.” (Leviticus 25:55) In a gloss on this verse, the rabbis of the Talmud comment, “and not servants to servants.” (Bava Kamma 116b) Based on this reading, the rabbis permit workers to quit their jobs in the middle of the day, and forbid working as a domestic servant long enough for the job to take on the appearance of real servitude.

One of the primary ways in which Jews declare our freedom from slavery is by celebrating Shabbat, a once-a-week statement that we will never again submit to a taskmaster who demands a seven-day work week. This same emphasis on declaring our own freedom leads to other protections of workers’ autonomy and personal well-being. It’s a small step to guarantee New York State farmworkers one day of rest a week to exercise their own freedom, as well as the basic protections afforded to workers in other industries.

The New York State legislative session will soon close for the year, just as farmworkers are preparing for the long, hot, summer harvest season. I hope that the current political mess will not get in the way of helping all residents of New York State to enjoy the summer bounty with the confidence that our local fruits and vegetables were picked by workers who are able to organize for better working conditions, who have a day a week to go to church or to spend relaxing with their friends or families, and who receive compensation when they are injured on the job.