Discriminating Seasonalities. How Greenhouse Farms (are) Shape(d by) Seasonal Work in Japan.

The seasonality of agri-food products is not a matter of chance but of social organization. In horticultural greenhouses, environmental factors can be artificially altered - e.g. with heating systems - to allow producers to enter markets earlier and with greater consistency. Seasonal agricultural work is needed longer, and is more intense and costly, thus subject to forms of rationalization - along biases and preconceptions. This paper focuses on Japan, in a context of agricultural population decline - due to aging and the lack of incentive for younger generations - and growing demand for out-of-season food, which domestic agriculture hardly meets. Recruitment and employment of foreign labor is a necessity, yet widely overlooked. This paper shows how the social organization of (counter-)seasonality in (artificialized) greenhouses, in order to stabilize their productions and outlets, is based on discriminating non-national workers: first, within the administrative institution sourcing them from overseas, securing labor under the guise of trainees - mandatorily committed to workplaces, rather than workers, channeling marginalized, non-national groups to out-of-season greenhouse farmers; then, within these farms, management is then planned according to the trainees they are assigned. We concentrate on tomatoes and strawberries, two highly artificialized and emblematic greenhouse products. Over fifteen operations and cooperatives were visited, and 13 semi-structured interviews were conducted with recruiters, trainees, and their employers in the Kumamoto region and its vicinity, ranking first in greenhouse production, Japan-wide. We underline how the cost and prospects generated by artificializing food seasonality in greenhouses operates in tandem with foreign workers’ discrimination, in a country rarely investigated. Our conclusions suggest that the use of a seasonal workforce may discriminate against populations based on conformity to imperatives arising from the artificialization of seasonal production and consumption rhythms.