Photos: The workers picking your summer strawberries earn as little as $1 per hour

Heralds of summer, fresh strawberries, raspberries and blackberries are now abundant in US supermarkets. But perfect fruit comes at a heavy price: Reuters reports that since March, the culinary world’s underclass of agricultural workers has been protesting in Baja California, Mexico, complaining of pay rates as low as $1 per hour.

In the past few weeks, hundreds of strawberry pickers have been arrested, and the strikes have resulted in tons of fruit being left to rot. Shot in the heart of Baja, these photos reveal the meager lives and rough working conditions that produce berries ripe, plentiful, and cheap.