Yuma, AZ

Palm trees tower over a street of manufactured homes at sunset in one of Yuma’s many retirement communities. Warm winters and plenty of activities (we floated in an outdoor pool and enjoyed line dancing) make it a magnet for seniors from across North America.

Yuma, Arizona grows most of the green vegetables that Americans eat from November to March. It’s impressive how quickly a line of workers can cut and toss heads of cabbage onto a conveyer belt – for hours at a time. It also shows how dependent we are on low-paid workers for basic foods.

We visited our friend Deanie in Yuma, Arizona for a couple days, where we walked through a grove of date palms, learned how labor intensive it is to produce the sweet fruits, and sampled a date shake. Most of these Medjool dates are shipped to the Middle East, where they are highly prized.