The New York Times International - 07.08.2019

8 | WEDNESDAY, AUGUST 7, 2019 THE NEW YORK TIMES INTERNATIONAL EDITION

business

At first glance, the Norwich Meadows Farm stand at the Union Square Green- market in New York City looks like any other, with its rows of onions and lettuce, and a banner with the words “fresh” and “organic” in big green letters. But there’s something the chefs who regularly crowd the stand know that other customers may not: Its owners, Zaid and Haifa Kurdieh, have an uncan- ny ability to spot the next big thing in produce and grow it in bulk. Their farm here in Norwich, a former manufacturing town about 60 miles southeast of Syracuse, is a prime reason that Jimmy Nardello peppers and Persian cucumbers have become ubiq- uitous in New York City restaurants. The Kurdiehs provide Michael Antho- ny, the chef of Gramercy Tavern, with habanada peppers, a mild variant of the habanero. They sell sweet Kyoto red carrots to the chef Derek Wilcox of the Japanese restaurant Shoji at 69 Leonard Street, and tomatillo-like husk cherries to the chefs Jeremiah Stone and Fabian von Hauske Valtierra of Wildair and Contra. Their produce also pops up at Eleven Madison Park, Blue Hill and Mo- mofuku Ko. “There are certain varietals of vegetables that become hot because one farmer grows them and chefs love them,” said Lena Ciardullo, the executive chef of Marta, Caffe Marchio and Vini e Fritti. Norwich Meadows Farm “is always early on that bandwagon. They tend to source awesome varietals that catch a chef’s eye,” like the Rosa Bianca eggplant, a fleshy varietal with few seeds that she has used on a pizza in- spired by pasta alla Norma. If the Kurdiehs’ produce is uncom- mon, so is the way they grow it — with technology and farmers from one of the world’s oldest, most advanced agricultural nations: Egypt. Each year, they enlist about 25 farmers from that country to work for six to 10 months. They use high tunnels, unheated greenhouses developed in the 1950s and still not widely used in the United States, and even adapt some varieties that are popular in the Middle East. “The entire world has been affected by Egyptian farming practices,” Mr.

Kurdieh said. “The Nile River has been farmed forever. These folks are the cra- dle of Arabic cultural civilization. It’s in their blood.” Mr. Kurdieh, 55, was born in Los An- geles, but grew up all over the Middle East as his father worked as an engineer in the oil industry. At a young age he knew he wanted to farm, even though his relatives didn’t see it as a respect- able occupation. “The mothers would tell their daugh- ters, ‘If you misbehave, I am going to marry you to a farmer,’ ” he recalled. Still, he returned to the United States to attend agricultural school and earned a master’s degree in business adminis- tration at the University of South Dako- ta. He worked at the United States De- partment of Agriculture and at Cornell University, helping farms with financing and business management; but he always wanted to open a farm with his wife, whom he had met during high school in Jordan. “We had gardens all the time because we just couldn’t find good vegetables in the United States, and we grew up with such quality,” he said. In 1998, the couple bought a small house in Norwich, where real estate was inexpensive. In the backyard, they culti- vated the types of vegetables they had enjoyed in the Middle East. A few years later, they bought some land nearby, and installed high tunnels. Mr. Kurdieh said he prefers them to standard greenhouses because they require less equip- ment and are therefore more cost effi- cient. They also don’t need heating because, unlike with greenhouses, most farmers don’t use them to grow warm-

weather crops out of season.” But it was hard to find farmers to operate the tunnels, which require some experience and intuition to operate, Mr. Kurdieh said. Farmers have to know how to spot the pests that the hot, humid climate invites, particularly in an organic operation like his, where chemical pesticides aren’t used. They also have to be more mindful of soil management, as there is no rain to moisten and cleanse the ground. So in 2002, Mr. Kurdieh flew to Egypt, an early adopter of the high-tunnel system, and found a group of farmers to work for him. Before they arrived in Norwich, Mr. Kurdieh was cultivating 200 varieties; he now grows more than 1,300 on the 250-acre farm. It seems unlikely that the use of Egyp- tian labor will catch on in the United States anytime soon. Mr. Kurdieh spends a lot of time filling out lengthy visa applications, and is well versed in Middle Eastern culture. “If you put these Egyptians on an American farm, they will have a hard time,” he said. Many speak only Arabic, and pause for prayer several times a day. Khaled Abdelrahman, 50, one of the Egyptian farmers, agreed. “I like it here because 90 percent of people are from Egypt,” he said. “Zaid speaks Arabic, and same religion.” It’s easy to tell when you’ve arrived at the farm: Miles of half-cylindrical greenhouses become visible from the road. Look closer, and you might spot some Japanese negi onions, whose noodlelike sprouts look like creatures from “Star Wars,” or the hairy, purple heads of bronze fennel.

At the house on a recent Monday af- ternoon, Ms. Kurdieh, 56, was scolding someone for tracking in mud, as she fu- riously chopped onions and squash for a tagine. (The Kurdiehs have two adult children who live elsewhere.) “When my husband first started the farm, I thought it would just be here” in Norwich, Ms. Kurdieh said. “But he goes to New York City. I was told about how people get killed and mugged in New York City.” Now, she eagerly joins him for the four-hour drive back and forth once a week for most of the year. She and Mr. Kurdieh often eat at New York restaurants, and even helped create an off- menu salad at Gramercy Tavern, a gen- erous pile of whatever vegetables are in season. Mr. Kurdieh’s love of dining out, his obsession with reading seed catalogs and his ability to talk to chefs about fla- vors have all helped Norwich Meadows Farm stand out. “I am always thinking about the mar- keting of the crops,” he said. When chefs come looking for a fruit or vegetable with a particular taste or texture, he of- fers a suggestion, and often grows it for them. “Zaid is like the best kind of chef,” Dan Barber, the chef and co-owner of the two Blue Hill restaurants, wrote in an email. “He’s willing to take a bet on unknown varieties with no known market just to experiment with what he believes will yield better flavor. His farmers’ market stand is like a supermarket of future possibilities.” Mr. Kurdieh grows produce for Mr. Barber’s restaurants, and also test- grows seeds for the chef’s company, Row 7. When Norwich Meadows Farm intro- duced Persian cucumbers, which are thin-skinned with minimal bitterness, back in 1998, “there was a fistfight in the market, and we only had 10 pounds,” Mr. Kurdieh said. “It’s the celebrity effect,” he added. “If chef XYZ says it’s good, someone is going to buy it. That is what makes the new things move.” He is aware that his success is precar- ious. As visa restrictions have grown tighter, “my business is at the mercy of the political system,” Mr. Kurdieh said. “Every year we have to prove that it is in the United States’ interest to bring these guys over. If someone says it is no longer in the United States’ interest, that means we are up a creek.” “We are the crux of every political is- sue: immigration, borders, G.M.O. crops,” Mr. Kurdieh added with a sigh. “But all we want is for people to eat good food.”

Zaid Kurdieh, left, is an owner of the Norwich Meadows Farm stand at Union Square Greenmarket, which is popular with many of New York’s high-end chefs.

EMON HASSAN FOR THE NEW YORK TIMES

Planting seeds to taste the future

NORWICH, N.Y.

A New York farm stand with an eye for the next big thing is a hit with chefs

BY PRIYA KRISHNA

The Norwich Meadows Farm uses high tunnels, which are unheated greenhouses that are popular where most of the farm’s methods and laborers come from: Egypt.

SHANE LAVALETTE FOR THE NEW YORK TIMES

A group of Democratic senators in the United States has demanded in a letter sent to Google’s chief executive, Sundar Pichai, that the internet giant convert its more than 120,000 temporary and contract workers to full-time employees. The letter, written by Senator Sherrod Brown of Ohio, also urged Google to stop its “anti-worker practices” and treat ev- eryone at the company equally. “Making these changes to your company’s employment practices will en- sure equal treatment of all Google workers and put an end to the two-tier employment structure you have perpetuat- ed,” Mr. Brown wrote. Among the 10 senators who signed were three running for president: Kamala Harris, Bernie Sanders and Elizabeth Warren. As of March, Google had more temporary workers than full-time employees — 121,000 temps and contractors and 102,000 full-timers, according to company data viewed by The New York Times. The senators’ letter, which was sent last month, cites a May article by The Times that explained how Google had created a shadow work force of temps, contractors and other contingent workers brought in through staffing companies. The senators pushed for a number of changes to how the company treats temps and contractors, including mov- ing them to full-time status after six months as well as equalizing their wages and benefits with permanent staff. While many of the temps and contractors sit in the same offices as Google employees and often do similar work, they usually make less money, have signifi- cantly worse benefit plans and do not enjoy the same workplace rights. Most of Google’s contingent workers are technically employees of staffing agencies, although the company acts like the employer in most cases — decid- ing when they work and what they do and assessing the quality of their work, according to current and former temps and contractors. They have said they joined Google hoping to land full-time jobs. When they encountered sexual harassment or pressure to perform unpaid overtime from Google employees, they were re- luctant to speak up for fear that they would be labeled troublemakers and not receive full-time jobs. Eileen Naughton, Google’s vice president of people operations, said in a letter replying to the senators that the company strongly disagreed “with any suggestion that Google misuses independ- ent contractors or temporary workers.” She said the company’s practices “ac- cord with the highest industry stand- ards.” Ms. Naughton said Google worked with staffing companies that had a particular expertise and could offer a “ca- reer path to employees.” She added that using contingent workers was a com- mon practice in almost every industry in the United States and the government. She did not directly address any of the senators’ policy demands. Mr. Pichai did not respond to the letter.

Though Silicon Valley companies are among the richest in the world, they have embraced employing temps. And while the pay for engineers and execu- tives in Silicon Valley continues to rise, a growing faction of workers at many of those companies are not sharing in the success. Temps and contractors account for 40 percent to 50 percent of workers at most technology firms, according to esti- mates by OnContracting, a site that helps people find tech contracting posi- tions. By keeping a large portion of their work forces contingent, companies like Google save money and maintain flexi- bility to decrease their head counts should business conditions change. Younger tech companies like Uber and Lyft have built giant businesses that depend largely on the work of independ- ent contractors, not employees. Some Democrats are seizing on the is- sue as another sign of inequality in the United States. That has put Google in their cross hairs. Pete Buttigieg, the Democratic mayor of South Bend, Ind., who is also running for president, highlighted the wide- spread use of contingent labor at Google when laying out his economic plan to give more power to workers.

Mr. Brown has also been a vocal critic of the growing use of so-called alterna- tive work arrangements by companies. In his letter to Google’s chief executive, Mr. Brown said the company was using temporary and contract workers for more than short-term and nonessential work. “We urge Google to end any abuses of these worker classifications and treat all Google workers equally,” he wrote. He noted that the more than $800 billion in market value of Google’s parent company, Alphabet, and Mr. Pichai’s hundreds of millions of dollars in stock compensation made it “that much more diffi- cult to stomach the mistreatment of these workers.” When Google’s parent company re- ported quarterly earnings last month, Ruth Porat, the company’s chief finan- cial officer, said “some” customer sup- port workers from staffing companies were being brought “in-house.” In addition to the other demands, Mr. Brown encouraged the company to eliminate noncompetition clauses and prohibit mandatory nondisclosure agreements about the terms and conditions of employment, including in con- tracts between temps and their staffing agencies. He also said Google should accept li- ability for workplace violations that oc- curred with temps or contractors — in- stead of passing responsibility onto staffing agencies. “Adopting these policies will extend the economic security of Google employment to all individuals who contrib- ute to the company’s success,” Mr. Brown said. The other senators who signed the letter were Richard Blumenthal of Con- necticut, Benjamin L. Cardin of Mary- land, Richard J. Durbin of Illinois, Ed- ward J. Markey of Massachusetts, Patty Murray of Washington and Brian Schatz of Hawaii.

Senators press Google

on use of contractors

Sundar Pichai, Google’s chief executive, was criticized by lawmakers for “mistreating” workers while he is getting hundreds of millions of dollars in stock compensation.

TING SHEN FOR THE NEW YORK TIMES

U.S. lawmakers are urging company to give temporary workers full-time status

BY DAISUKE WAKABAYASHI

Temporary workers outnumber full-time employees at Google.

it is global bond markets that are flash- ing the most worrying signs about the outlook for economic growth in the United States and much of the world. Ten-year Treasury bonds yielded 1. percent during Asian trade, down from 2.06 percent a week earlier — a sign that investors now believe that weaker growth and additional interest rate cuts by the Federal Reserve are on the way. “The Chinese have sent a strong signal that they are ready to rumble,” said Paul Blustein, a senior fellow at the Cen- ter for International Governance Inno- vation and the author of “Schism,” a book due out next month about the fray- ing relationship between the United States and China. “To depreciate the currency at such a fraught time sends a signal that they are prepared to endure

a heck of a lot of pain, and it doesn’t sur- prise me that markets would finally come around and say, ‘This could be re- ally bad.’” As we’ve seen many times through this trade war, escalation and de-escalation can come at seemingly any time. Mr. Trump could back away from his latest tariff threat and calm things down, or move the opposite direction by increas- ing the tariff to be charged on those $ billion in imports from China. But one recurring theme of the last two years is that trade conflicts in the Trump era never seem to become fully resolved, but rather go through more-intense ver- sus less-intense phases. Whatever happens next — and whether this turns out to be the begin- ning of a major turning point for the global economy or just one rough day on

the markets — it is clear that the trade war is no longer confined to trade. While Mr. Trump has often accused China of seizing advantage in global trade by manipulating the value of its currency to keep it lower, the latest de- velopments reflect pretty much the opposite. In fact, a slowing Chinese economy is creating downward pressure on the renminbi — a pressure that China’s government has resisted, through intervention by its central bank and capital controls, to try to keep people from mov- ing money out of mainland China. On Monday, the Chinese essentially reduced the scale of that intervention and let the value of the renminbi fall closer to the level it would reach in an open market. The risk is that Mr. Trump and even- tually leaders of other nations will con-

clude that currencies are now fair game — that they are a good and appropriate weapon to use in trade disputes. For weeks Mr. Trump has pilloried the Fed- eral Reserve for not cutting interest rates more, arguing that this has made the value of the dollar excessively high, hence weakening American exporters. Trade disputes and currency disputes have historically gone hand in hand. During the Great Depression of the 1930s, nations competed to devalue their currencies in “beggar-thy-neigh- bor” policies that ultimately made ev- eryone poorer. It’s less clear what a 21st- century currency war would look like. Major economies have mostly agreed not to take action to artificially depress their currencies at the expense of their trading partners. But setting monetary and fiscal policies aimed at helping your

domestic economy is considered O.K., even if doing so has implications for currencies. The thing is, it can be debatable which bucket a given policy fits into. For example, countries including Germany, China and Brazil accused the United States of manipulating its currency when the Fed engaged in “quantitative easing” policies in 2010 that depressed the value of the dollar. If Mr. Trump tries to drive the value of the dollar lower using Treasury Depart- ment authorities to intervene in markets, or prevails upon the Fed to ag- gressively lower interest rates in order to depress the value of the dollar, that could embolden not just China but also other economic powers, like Japan and Europe, to do the same. The entire structure of international institutions meant to prevent Depres-

sion-era policies would be under threat. “If you don’t change the economic fundamentals, intervening in currency markets won’t be effective,” said David Dollar, a senior fellow at the Brookings Institution and a former Treasury De- partment representative in China. Cit- ing organizations like the World Trade Organization, he said, “The question for me is, does this end up damaging the core economic institutions?” Nothing about the world economy over the last few years has been linear or predictable. There is no reason that the events of Aug. 5, 2019, need to be the first chapter of future books about the Global Recession of 2020. But to avoid that result, it matters that world leaders understand just what is at stake — and the pervasive pessimism in markets this week was a good indication.

Global markets threatened as U.S.-China trade fight widens

MARKETS, FROM PAGE 1

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The New York Times International - 07.08.2019

Planting seeds to taste the future

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