Optimists say that with a growing cadre of elderly part-timers on small and unproductive plots of land, even the civil servants in the farm ministry will see that the system is unsustainable and be forced to act if only to save the sector on which their influence depends.

ECONOMIST: Japan's farmers

The 96-page report, Ripe with Abuse, is based on more than 260 interviews with farmworkers, farm owners, civil society members, industry representatives, government officials, lawyers and union officials.

BBC: South Africa wine grown by 'abused' workers

Dolores Huerta, co-founder of the United Farm Workers of America and a lifelong advocate for civil rights, workers, and women.

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