CBS reporters followed the path of migrant farm workers as they harvested the crops from Florida to New Jersey. Interviewers and the cameras that filmed them revealed desperate workers trapped in a system that provided the only work they knew how to do.
After letting workers describe their long hours, low pay, filthy living quarters, poor food, and transportation that was worse than that provided for animals, the interviewers repeatedly asked the workers if they thought they would ever escape from the work they had chosen. The answer repeatedly given was “I don’t see how.”
Harvest of Shame was broadcast right before Thanksgiving, a holiday on which Americans have traditionally enjoyed the blessings of a bountiful harvest. The CBS documentary forced Americans to change their conceptions of how that bountiful harvest reached their dining tables.
Harvest of Shame changed the way Americans saw themselves as it also changed the nature of American documentary films.
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