Harvest Pilgrims tells the story, through more than 80 photographs and texts by Pietropaolo, of the thousands of migrant farm workers who come to Canada every year to work on our farms on temporary permits. They are “guest workers,” who until the tragic death of three workers on Canadian farms by COVID-19, were almost completely off the radar in Canadian society.

Like migratory birds, most of Canada’s 30,000 guest farm workers arrive in the spring and leave in the autumn. Hailing primarily from Mexico, Jamaica, and smaller countries of the Caribbean, these temporary workers have become entrenched in the Canadian labour force and are the mainstay of both traditional family farms in and large agro-business operations in Canada. Many of them make the trip year after year, working on the same farm, arriving in time for the spring planting and returning home after the harvest. But where is “home” for these workers, if they spend six months in Canada and six months in the country of their birth?

With Harvest Pilgrims, Pietropaolo becomes the first author and photographer to publish an extensive account of this little-known phenomenon in Canada.

Once again, makes a hidden, almost invisible world that lies behind the food we eat, visible and ingrained in our conscience. His work adds a new dynamic to the discourse and culture of food, by putting into question the simplistic notion of the so called 100-mile diet. He has revealed that it is virtually impossible to grow fruits and vegetables locallyin Canada unless temporary foreign workers are flown in from thousands of miles away.

Border Crossings magazine said, “Pietropaolo’sphotographs have the intensity found in Jean Mohr’s and John Berger’s seminal book A Seventh Man.

Alex Freund, Chair in German-Canadian Studies at the University of Winnipeg, said, “Harvest Pilgrims scratches at the myth of Canada as an immigrant nation… The power of Pietropaolo’s photographs lies, foremost, in making visible those who are most invisible in Canadian society.Harvest Pilgrims might best be placed on the dinner table as a constant reminder of the real cost of food.”

Foreword by Naomi Rosenblum, author of A World History of Photography.

Essay by Maia-Mari Sutnik, Curator of Photography, Art Gallery of Ontario.

Essay and texts by Vincenzo Pietropaolo.

Soft cover with flaps, duo tone, 130 pp., 10x10.5 in.

Publisher: Between the Lines, Toronto, 2009. ISBN 978-1-897071-54-0.