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{{Short description|Performs agricultural labor}}
{{Use dmy dates|date=May 2013}}
{{Redirect|Farmhand}}
{{globalize/US|date=June 2013}}
{{Use dmy dates|date=November 2022}}
A '''farmworker''' is a hired agricultural worker on a farm. However, in discussions relating to labor law application, the term "farmworker" is sometimes used more narrowly, applying only to a hired worker involved in agricultural production, including harvesting, i.e. not to a worker in other on-farm jobs, such as packing.
[[File:Onion Picking and Cleaning.jpg|alt=Two farmworkers, one dressed in blue covers and the other in red with a face covering, bending down. They are presumed to be cleaning and picking up onions on a grassy field. Location is unknown.|thumb|272x272px|Two farm workers cleaning and picking at an onion field, location unknown ]]
{{Rural society}}[[File:Ansel Adams - Farm workers and Mt. Williamson.jpg|thumb|right|240px|Farm workers on a field near [[Mount Williamson]] in [[Inyo County, California]]. This photograph is by [[Ansel Adams]].]]


A '''farmworker''', '''farmhand''' or '''agricultural worker''' is someone employed for labor in agriculture. In labor law, the term "farmworker" is sometimes used more narrowly, applying only to a hired worker involved in agricultural production, including harvesting, but not to a worker in other on-[[farm]] jobs, such as picking fruit.
==Farm workers in the United States==
{{See also|Bracero program}}


Agricultural work varies widely depending on context, [[Intensive farming|degree of mechanization]] and crop. In countries like the United States where there is a declining population of American citizens working on farms — temporary or itinerant skilled labor from outside the country is recruited for labor-intensive crops like vegetables and fruits.
===Farm structure===
The development of a particular kind of [[agriculture]] is dependent on the characteristics of the farming region. The soil type, climate, slope, and distance to markets all help in shaping the type of agriculture that thrives in any particular region. For instance, the [[Midwestern United States]] has rich, fertile soil, and so it produces corn, soybeans, cattle, hogs, and dairy products and has become known as the [[Corn Belt]] of America.<ref name="USDA">USDA Agricultural Fact Book ’98: Chapter 2, http://www.usda.gov/news/pubs/fbook98/chart2.htm</ref> In contrast, agriculture in [[California]]’s Mediterranean and moderate climate produces more than half of the nation’s fruits, vegetables, and nuts, which require hand-harvesting and a large labor force.<ref>A Look at California Agriculture. http://www.agclassroom.org/kids/stats/california.pdf</ref>


[[File:عامل من السودان.jpg|thumb|left|Sudanese farmer reviews cantaloupe production, south of [[Khartoum]]]]
Over the last century the amount of farmland in production has remained relatively steady, but the number of operating farms has continually dropped, signifying a consolidation of farm enterprises.<ref name="USDA" /> Around the 1930s hard economic times hit the country with the [[Great Depression]] and the [[Dust Bowl]] era, forcing some farmers off the land.<ref>Wessel’s Living History Farm, Farming in the 1930s http://www.livinghistoryfarm.org/farminginthe30s/life_01.html</ref> From 1950 to 2001 the amount of U.S. farm land used for major [[commodity]] crop production has remained about the same while over half of the farms are gone.<ref>{{cite news | url=http://www.grist.org/feature/2007/10/09/ednote/ | last=Philpott | first=Tom | title=Your Food Doesn’t Come From the Grocery Store: A journey into the heart of industrial agriculture | date=9 October 2007 | work=Grist Environmental News and Commentary}}</ref> A farm’s reliance on farmworkers greatly depends on the quantity and type of crop in production. Some crops require more labor than others, and in California many labor-intensive crops are produced such as [[dairy]] products, [[fruit]]s, tree [[Nut (fruit)|nuts]] and [[vegetable]]s.<ref name="Kandel">{{cite news | last=Kandel | first=William | title=Hired Farmworkers a Major Input for Some U.S. Farm Sectors | work=Amber Waves | date=April 2008 | url=http://www.ers.usda.gov/AmberWaves/April08/Features/HiredFarm.htm}}</ref> Although the domestic farm labor force has decreased in the last century, the proportion of hired workers has grown.<ref name="Kandel" /> Increased competition among agricultural producers and consolidation have created a need for a large, inexpensive, temporary workforce that increasingly comes from abroad.
[[File:02 Jean Claude at work.jpg|alt=A picture of a man in a cabbage farm|thumb|A Rwandan farmworker]]
Agricultural labor is often the first community affected by the human health impacts of [[Environmental impact of agriculture|environmental issues related to agriculture]], such as [[health effects of pesticides]] or exposure to other health challenges such as [[valley fever]]. To address these environmental concerns, immigration challenges and marginal working conditions, many labor rights, [[economic justice]] and [[environmental justice]] movements have been organized or supported by farmworkers.


===Demographics===
==Worldwide==
[[File:Mexican woman and children looking over side of truck fsa.3c29778u.jpg|thumb|Mexican American worker circa 1939]]
The US had 1.063 million hired agricultural workers in 2012,<ref name=USDAFL2015>United States Department of Agriculture. Farm Labor. http://www.ers.usda.gov/topics/farm-economy/farm-labor/background.aspx</ref> Hired workers currently account for about one-third of agricultural workers. The remainder of agricultural workers are farm owners and members of their families. Agricultural service workers (which include labor provided by labor contractors<ref name=USDAFL2015/>) make up 27 percent of the hired workers. A household survey of US hired farmworkers found that 45 percent are Hispanic and 64 percent are US citizens. However, of US hired farmworkers doing crop-related work (excluding workers with [[H-2A visa]]s), about 50 percent lack legal authorization to work. However, Mexico also brings in the most legal immigrants, with the Department of Homeland Security reporting in 2003 that Mexicans consist of 16.4% of immigrants into the United States.<ref>{{Cite web|url=http://search.proquest.com/openview/abc902921dd5268f43f82fe015328d5b/1?pq-origsite=gscholar&cbl=47930|title=Immigrant Workers in the United States - ProQuest|website=search.proquest.com|language=en|access-date=2017-04-08}}</ref> There are many [[Undocumented Farmworkers in California|undocumented farmworkers in California]]. In 2012, of hired farmworkers other than agricultural service workers, 26 percent were employed in farm work for part of the year, rather than being year-around farm employees.<ref name=USDAFL2015/> Also In 2012, of hired crop workers, about three-quarters were not "migrant", i.e. they worked at a single location within 75 miles of home.<ref name=USDAFL2015/>


===In the United States===
Substantial demographic change among farmworkers has occurred since the mid-20th Century. In 1954, there were 2.73 million hired agricultural workers in the US<ref name=USCA1954>United States Census of Agriculture 1954. http://agcensus.mannlib.cornell.edu/AgCensus/censusParts.do?year=1954</ref> The 61 percent reduction in farmworker numbers between then and 2012 occurred despite an agricultural output increase of about 140 percent,<ref>US Department of Agriculture, Economic Research Service. Agricultural productivity in the U.S. http://www.ers.usda.gov/data-products/agricultural-productivity-in-the-us.aspx</ref> serving a population that increased by 93 percent over that period.<ref>United States Census Bureau. Population estimates. http://www.census.gov/popest/data/historical/index.html</ref> Whereas 74.7 percent of hired farmworkers were seasonal in 1954,<ref name=USCA1954/> 74 percent were year-around employees in 2012.<ref name=USDAFL2015/>
{{excerpt|Farmworkers in the United States}}


===Wages===
===In Canada===
[[File:Nanton Alberta.jpg|thumb|Small town in Canada with farming history and heritage]]
According to the US Department of Agriculture, the average wage rate for US [hired] agricultural field and livestock workers in 2014 was $11.29 per hour. This figure does not include the average value of perquisites, such as cash bonuses, housing or meals that are provided to some agricultural workers.<ref>United States Department of Agriculture. Farm Labor. (Released November 20, 2014). http://usda.mannlib.cornell.edu/usda/current/FarmLabo/FarmLabo-11-20-2014.pdf</ref> The average exceeded the median.
Canada {{as of | 2010 | lc = on}} had 297,683 agricultural employees; 112,059 were year-around and 185,624 were seasonal or temporary.<ref>{{Cite web|url= https://www150.statcan.gc.ca/cansim/a26?lang=eng&retrLang=eng&id=0040236&pattern=0040200..0040242&tabMode=dataTable&srchLan=-1&p1=1&p2=50|title= Paid agricultural work in the year prior to the census|website= www150.statcan.gc.ca|date= 24 November 2014|access-date= 2019-11-12}}</ref> Qualifying employers in Canada can hire temporary foreign farmworkers from participating countries for periods of up to 8 months per calendar year for on-farm primary agriculture in specified commodity sectors, if the work involved totals at least 240 hours within a period of 6 weeks or less.<ref name=ESDC>Employment and Social Development Canada. Hiring seasonal agricultural workers. http://www.esdc.gc.ca/eng/jobs/foreign_workers/agriculture/seasonal//index.shtml {{Webarchive|url=https://web.archive.org/web/20150420041456/http://www.esdc.gc.ca/eng/jobs/foreign_workers/agriculture/seasonal/index.shtml |date=20 April 2015 }}</ref> This Seasonal Agricultural Worker Program, established in 1966, brings about 25,000 foreign workers to Canada each year. About 66 percent of those work in Ontario, 13 percent in Québec, and 13 percent in British Columbia.<ref>{{Cite web|url= http://www.cbc.ca/news/canada/migrant-workers-who-they-are-where-they-re-coming-from-1.1137930|title= Migrant workers: Who they are, where they're coming from|publisher=CBC News|access-date= 2019-11-12}}</ref>


Workers in the Seasonal Agricultural Worker Program, being citizens of Mexico and various Caribbean countries,<ref name=ESDC/> tend to be Spanish-speaking. Between 1991 and 1996, in British Columbia, the number of South Asian agricultural workers increased from 3,685 to 5,685, mostly Punjabi-speaking.<ref name="Runsten">{{Cite web|url= http://www.naid.ucla.edu/uploads/4/2/1/9/4219226/c14_2000.pdf|title= The Extent, Pattern, and Contributions of Migrant Labor in the NAFTA Countries|access-date= 2019-11-12|archive-date= 4 March 2016|archive-url= https://web.archive.org/web/20160304125508/http://www.naid.ucla.edu/uploads/4/2/1/9/4219226/c14_2000.pdf|url-status= dead}}</ref> Analysis published in 2000 indicated that "Of the 5,000 workers employed by the over 100 licensed Farm Labour Contractors in British Columbia, two-thirds were recent immigrants who entered Canada less than 3 years ago. Of the 700 harvest workers surveyed, 97 percent were Punjabi speaking"<ref name=Runsten/> (British Columbia did not participate in the Seasonal Agricultural Workers Program until 2004.<ref name="Otero">{{Cite web|url= https://www.sfu.ca/~otero/docs/Otero-and-Preibisch-Final-Nov-2010.pdf|title= Farmworker Health and Safety: Challenges for British Columbia|access-date= 2019-11-12}}</ref>).
For 2014, the median hourly wages of $9.17 for "Farmworkers and Laborers, Crop, Nursery, and Greenhouse" and $11.02 for "Farmworkers, Farm, Ranch, and Aquacultural Animals" can be compared with the median for all US occupations of $17.09,<ref>US Dept. of Labor, Bureau of Labor Statistics. May 2014 National Occupational Employment and Wage Estimates http://www.bls.gov/oes/current/oes_nat.htm#00-0000</ref> and with the federally mandated minimum wage of $7.25 per hour. In 2014, of US private sector workers paid hourly wages, the fraction paid less than minimum wage was 1.3 percent of workers in "agriculture and related industries", versus 2.5 percent of those in "nonagricultural industries".<ref>US Dept. of Labor, Bureau of Labor Statistics. Characteristics of minimum wage workers, 2014. http://www.bls.gov/opub/reports/cps/characteristics-of-minimum-wage-workers-2014.pdf</ref>


Many of the issues noted for farm workers in the US also apply in Canada.<ref name=Otero/> Analysis pertaining to Ontario noted that "All workers are eligible (with some variability) for provincial health insurance ... and workers compensation (WSIB), and are covered by provincial health and safety legislation through the Ministry of Labour, and yet [migrant farm workers] are not always able or willing to access these health and compensation services".<ref>{{Cite web|url= http://imrc.ca/wp-content/uploads/2013/10/IMRC-Policy-Points-VI.pdf|title= International Migration Research Centre|website= imrc.ca|access-date= 2019-11-12}}</ref>
In 2014, for US "Farmworkers and Laborers, Crop, Nursery and Greenhouse", the median annual wage was $19,060. The 10th and 90th percentiles were $17,280 and $27,890, respectively.<ref>US Dept. of Labor, Bureau of Labor Statistics. 45-2092 Farmworkers and Laborers, Crop, Nursery, and Greenhouse http://www.bls.gov/oes/current/oes452092.htm</ref> For "Farmworkers, Farm, Ranch and Aquacultural Animals" the median annual wage was $22,930. The 10th and 90th percentiles were $17,080 and $37,360, respectively.<ref>US Dept. of Labor, Bureau of Labor Statistics. 45-2093 Farmworkers, Farm, Ranch, and Aquacultural Animals http://www.bls.gov/oes/current/oes452093.htm</ref> These figures can be compared with some of the poverty thresholds for 2014 published by the US Census Bureau: single person under 65: $12,316; two people (householder under 65): $15,835; same, but with one child under 18: $16,317.<ref>United States Census Bureau. Poverty thresholds. https://www.census.gov/hhes/www/poverty/data/threshld/</ref>


Every Canadian province and territory has an office that deals with labour and employment laws. A person at the local employment or labour-standards office can talk to farmworkers about fair pay, hours of work, rest periods, and working conditions, and provide other services. An employer cannot punish a farmworker for contacting an employment-standards office.<ref>{{Cite web|url= https://www.canada.ca/en/immigration-refugees-citizenship/services/work-canada/permit/temporary/after-apply-next-steps/understand-your-rights-foreign-workers.html|title= Understand your rights as a foreign worker|last= Immigration|first= Refugees and Citizenship Canada|date= 2008-03-26|website= aem|access-date= 2019-11-12}}</ref>
===Working conditions and workplace issues===
For most agricultural workers, much work is outdoors and may involve extremes of weather. Crop harvesting may require bending and crouching. Because machinery and animals can cause injury, workers must take precautions and be alert. Although crop workers may risk exposure to pesticides, exposure can be minimal if appropriate safety precautions are followed.<ref>US Dept. of Labor, Bureau of Labor Statistics. Agricultural workers. Work environment. http://www.bls.gov/ooh/farming-fishing-and-forestry/agricultural-workers.htm#tab-3</ref>
Heat stress is a serious concern. Among US farmworkers involved with crops, the heat-related average death rate over a 15-year period was 0.39 per 100,000 workers. The Centers for Disease Control has recommended: "Agricultural employers should develop and implement heat stress management measures that include 1) training for field supervisors and employees to prevent, recognize, and treat heat illness, 2) implementing a heat acclimatization program, 3) encouraging proper hydration with proper amounts and types of fluids, 4) establishing work/rest schedules appropriate for the current heat indices, 5) ensuring access to shade or cooling areas, 6) monitoring the environment and workers during hot conditions, and 7) providing prompt medical attention to workers who show signs of heat illness."<ref>Centers for Disease Control. Heat-related deaths among crop workers – United States 1992-2006. MMWR June 20, 2008 / 57(24);649-653.</ref>


=== In Cuba===
Potential health and safety issues that may be associated with farm work also include vehicle rollovers, falls, musculoskeletal injuries, hazardous equipment, grain bins, pesticides, unsanitary conditions, and respiratory disease among others.<ref>Occupational Safety and Health Administration. Agricultural operations. https://www.osha.gov/dsg/topics/agriculturaloperations/hazards_controls.html</ref><ref>{{Cite web|url=http://www.cdc.gov/niosh/docs/2007-106/|title=CDC - NIOSH Publications and Products - Respiratory Disease in Agricultural Workers: Mortality and Morbidity Statistics (2007-106)|website=www.cdc.gov|access-date=2016-05-10}}</ref>
{{expand section|date=November 2019}}
[[File:Farmer plows his field with oxen at Cuba-Vinales.jpg|thumb|Farmer plows his field with oxen at Cuba-Vinales]]
Prior to [[Cuban Revolution|social changes in the 1960s]], the all-important Cuban [[sugar]]-the growing economy had an integrated rural-urban workforce — each season, town-dwellers helped to bring in the harvest.<ref>
{{cite book
| last1 = Pollitt
| first1 = Brian H.
| chapter = The technical transformation of Cuba's sugar agroindustry
| editor1-last = Pérez-López
| editor1-first = Jorge F.
| editor2-last = Alvarez
| editor2-first = Jose
| title = Reinventing the Cuban Sugar Agroindustry
| url = https://books.google.com/books?id=reSXX-8OMVwC
| series = Rural economies in transition
| year = 2005
| publisher = Lexington Books
| publication-date = 2005
| page = 47
| isbn = 9780739110003
| access-date = 30 November 2019
| quote = [...] within urban Cuba, the creation of alternative employment and educational opportunities in the early 1960s largely demobilized the army of urban workers that had previously migrated each year from the towns to the countryside during the peak harvesting months of January to May.
}}
</ref>
Subsequently, mechanisation ensued.<ref>
{{cite book
| last1 = Pollitt
| first1 = Brian H.
| chapter = The technical transformation of Cuba's sugar agroindustry
| editor1-last = Pérez-López
| editor1-first = Jorge F.
| editor2-last = Alvarez
| editor2-first = Jose
| title = Reinventing the Cuban Sugar Agroindustry
| url = https://books.google.com/books?id=reSXX-8OMVwC
| series = Rural economies in transition
| year = 2005
| publisher = Lexington Books
| publication-date = 2005
| page = 48
| isbn = 9780739110003
| access-date = 30 November 2019
| quote = Complementing extension of the harvest was an ambitious program to mechanize the cutting and loading of the sugarcane.
}}
</ref>


===In Mexico===
In 1998-99, 468 individuals employed in agriculture were identified with acute occupational pesticide-related illness in six states participating in the SENSOR program (AZ, CA, FL, NY, OR, TX), which include states where large numbers of crop farmworkers are employed. This compared with 441 individuals employed in non-agricultural occupations who were identified with acute occupational pesticide-related illness in those states.<ref>Calvert, G.M.et al. 2004. Acute occupational pesticide-related illness in the U.S. 1998-1999. Surveillance findings from the SENSOR-Pesticides Program. Am. J. Industrial Med. 45: 14-23.</ref> The US Environmental Protection Agency’s Worker Safety Program provides educational materials facilitating implementation of the Agricultural Worker Protection Standard established under federal regulation.<ref>US Environmental Protection Agency. Pesticides: health and safety. Protecting workers. http://www.epa.gov/pesticides/health/protecting-workers.html</ref><ref>US Environmental Protection Agency. How To Comply With the Worker Protection Standard for Agricultural Pesticides: What Employers Need To Know. http://www.epa.gov/agriculture/htc.html</ref> In 2009-2010, NAWS (the National Agricultural Workers Survey, conducted under the US Bureau of Labor Statistics) found that 84 percent of workers received training in safe use of pesticides within the past 12 months from their current employers.<ref name=NAWS>National Agricultural Workers Survey. https://naws.jbsinternational.com/</ref>
The Encuesta Nacionalde Empleo estimated 2.7 million agricultural workers in Mexico. About a million are migrants. There is much use of seasonal and migrant agricultural labor in northwestern Mexico, because of the considerable fruit and vegetable production occurring in that region. Rough estimates of peak seasonal labor requirements for Sinaloa, Sonora, and Baja California Norte and Sur are 400,000 to 600,000.<ref name="Runsten" />


Several issues, particularly low pay, and harsh working conditions have been identified that pertain to some farmworkers in Mexico.<ref>{{Cite web|url=https://graphics.latimes.com/product-of-mexico-camps/|title=Hardship on Mexico's farms, a bounty for U.S. tables|website=graphics.latimes.com|date=7 December 2014 |access-date=2019-11-12}}</ref> Many of these issues are pursued by farmworker organizations, with resulting labor action, e.g. strikes occurring in 2015.<ref>{{Cite web|url=https://www.latinpost.com/articles/45297/20150401/50-000-mexican-farmworkers-have-gone-on-strike-in-baja-california-demanding-overtime-pay-breaks-healthcare-and-water.htm|title=50,000 Mexican Farmworkers Have Gone on Strike in Baja California, Demand Overtime Pay, Breaks, Healthcare and Water|date=2015-04-01|website=Latin Post|language=en-US|access-date=2019-11-12}}</ref><ref>{{Cite news|url=https://www.theglobeandmail.com/news/world/north-americas-fruit-industry-feeling-effect-of-farm-workers-strike-in-mexico/article23700928/|title=North America's fruit industry feeling effect of farm workers' strike in Mexico|access-date=2019-11-12}}</ref>
NAWS found that "Almost all farm workers reported that their current farm employer made drinking water, toilets and washing water available on a daily basis. Of the small percentage of farm workers who reported not using the employer-provided toilets on a daily basis (3% in 1999-2000), three-fourths indicated that the bathroom was 'too far away' to use."<ref name=NAWS/>


[[File:Mexican farmer on his dugout.jpg|thumb|left|Mexican farmer on his dugout]]
The survey asked: If you are injured at work or get sick as a result of your work, does your employer provide health insurance or pay for your health care? In 2009-2010, 74 percent of survey farmworkers answered yes, 15 percent did not know. In 2007-2008, 60 percent of farmworkers considered it "easy" to get access to US health care.<ref name=NAWS/>


Over the past quarter-century, water quality and pesticide issues affecting farmworkers in Mexico have been identified in peer-reviewed literature. The following examples are of interest but are not necessarily broadly representative. In the Mezquital Valley of central Mexico, in the early 1990s, about 85,000 acres were irrigated with wastewater. A study of the implications found that important outcomes were diarrheal disease and parasitic infections in farmworkers and their families.<ref>Cifuentes, E. et al. 1993. Problemas de salud asociados al riego agricola con agua residual en Mexico. Salud Publica de Mexico [1993, 35(6):614-619]</ref> Pesticide issues were investigated in 200 farmworkers in a small area of northwestern Mexico in the 1990s. Of those workers, 59% could read at the third-grade level, few had received information about pesticides; 30% did not wear personal protective gear; and 20% had experienced acute [[pesticide poisoning]] at least once during the season investigated.<ref>de Jesús Chain-Castro, T. et al. 1998. Pesticide poisoning in Mexican seasonal farm workers. Int. J. Occupational Env. Health 4:202-203</ref> A study was conducted comparing 25 farm workers engaged in pesticide spraying with a control group of 21 workers not exposed to pesticides, from the Nextipac community in Jalisco, Mexico. The exposed group showed acute poisoning in 20 percent of the cases.<ref>Payán-Rentería, R. et al. 2012. Effect of chronic pesticide exposure in farm workers of a Mexico community. Arch. Env. Occupational Health 67: 22-30</ref>
In 1999-2000, roughly 2 per hundred farmworkers 18 and older reported having been a victim of violence (e.g. pushed, slapped, hit, etc.) within the past year,<ref name=NAWS/> whereas violent crime victimizations were 2.61 per hundred of the US population in 2012.<ref>US Department of Justice, Bureau of Justice Statistics. Criminal victimization 2013 (revised) http://www.bjs.gov/index.cfm?ty=pbdetail&iid=5111</ref> In 1999-2000, roughly 0.14 percent of farmworkers 18 and older reported having been a victim of workplace violence within the past year,<ref name=NAWS/> whereas the rate of workplace violence was 0.5 percent for all US employed persons over the age of 16 in 2005-2009.<ref>US Department of Justice, Bureau of Justice Statistics. 2011. Workplace violence, 1993-2009. http://www.bjs.gov/content/pub/pdf/wv09.pdf</ref> Sexual harassment and sexual exploitation of female farmworkers have been reported and are an important concern.<ref>Tamayo, W. R. 2000. Forging our identity: transformative resistance in the areas of work, class and the law: The role of the EEOC in protecting the civil rights of farm workers. 33. U. C. Davis Law Review 1075</ref> However, there is a dearth of statistics to indicate the extent of these abuses, and undocumented foreign workers may be especially reluctant to report them.<ref>Oxfam America. Working in fear: sexual violence against women farmworkers. http://www.oxfamamerica.org/enwiki/static/media/files/Sexual_violence_against_women_farmworkers_full_doc.pdf</ref>


[[File:" 13 - ITALY - soy farm - BIO ITA - soybean field organic agricolture in Veneto.jpg|thumb|Organic soybean farm in Veneto, Italy]]
There have been some cases of human slavery and human trafficking among farmworkers.<ref>Beardsley, S. Brothers receive 12-year prison terms in Immokalee human slavery case. Naples Daily News. Dec. 19, 2008. http://www.naplesnews.com/news/local-news/immokalee-brothers-get-prison-sentence-aliens-case</ref><ref>Gillespie, P. (18 January 2008). "Sixth Immokalee slavery case suspect arrested Group accused of keeping beating, stealing from Immokalee laborers". Fort Myers News Press. Retrieved 17 May 2013.</ref> However, some Equal Employment Opportunity Commission claims regarding human trafficking of farmworkers, the subject of widely publicized court cases, were dismissed or rejected by federal courts.<ref>Corr, C. Judge blisters EEOC for "frivolous" case against growers. Hawai’i Free Press. March 20. 2015. http://www.hawaiifreepress.com/ArticlesMain/tabid/56/ID/14876/Judge-EEOC-Human-Trafficking-Case-Frivolous.aspx</ref><ref>Human trafficking charges dismissed. The Maui News. July 21, 2012. http://www.mauinews.com/page/content.detail/id/563160/Human-trafficking-charges-dismissed.html?nav=10</ref>


===In the European Union===
Workers rights cards, in English and Spanish, are produced by the US Department of Labor. The Migrant and Seasonal Agricultural Worker Protection Act establishes standards regarding wages, housing, transportation, disclosures and record-keeping. Among other provisions, the act prohibits retaliatory intimidation or discrimination against a migratory or seasonal worker who, with just cause, has filed a complaint or testifies or asserts a right relating to provisions of the Act. In order to operate legally, farm labor contractors must register with the Department of Labor.<ref>US Department of Labor, Wage and Hour Division. Fact Sheet #77C. http://www.dol.gov/whd/regs/compliance/whdfs77c.pdf</ref>
For the 27 member states of the European Union in 2009, 77 percent of the overall average agricultural labor force was family members; however, in Slovakia, the Czech Republic, Bulgaria, Hungary, and Estonia, family members were not predominant in the agricultural labor force. Hired labor accounted for more than half of the total (hired plus family) labor in the horticulture sector. In the 27 states, the average wage of farm workers was €6.34.<ref>{{Cite web|url=https://ec.europa.eu/agriculture/rica/pdf/EU_farm_economics_2012.pdf|title=EU farm economics 2012|access-date=2019-11-12}}</ref> In 2010, there were estimated to be about 25 million agricultural workers, including farm family members, in the EU-27 states; many were part-time workers. The full-time equivalents were estimated to be about 10 million.<ref>{{Cite web|url=http://ec.europa.eu/agriculture/rural-area-economics/briefs/pdf/08_en.pdf|title=How many people work in agriculture in the European Union?|access-date=2019-11-12}}</ref>


==Careers==
The H-2A program under US Citizenship and Immigration Services allows US employers or agents meeting various requirements to bring in foreign nationals for temporary or seasonal agricultural work. The petitioner must demonstrate that there are not sufficient qualified, able, willing and available US workers for the jobs. Employment of H-2A workers must not adversely affect wages of US workers doing similar jobs.<ref>United States Citizenship and Immigration Services. H-2A temporary agricultural workers. http://www.uscis.gov/working-united-states/temporary-workers/h-2a-agricultural-workers/h-2a-temporary-agricultural-workers</ref>
The share of employment in agriculture, forestry and fishing in total employment declined globally by 13 percentage points between 2000 and 2021, to 26.6 percent. Yet, agriculture remains the second largest source of employment worldwide after the services sector.<ref name=":14">{{Cite web |title=World Food and Agriculture – Statistical Yearbook 2023 |publisher=FAO {{!}} Food and Agriculture Organization of the United Nations |url=https://www.fao.org/documents/card/en?details=cc8166en |access-date=2023-12-13 |via=FAODocuments |language=en |doi=10.4060/cc8166en}}</ref>


Many programs exist, such as World-Wide Opportunities on Organic Farms ([[WWOOF]]) that facilitate the placement of volunteer farmworkers on specific types of farms. Additionally, farms may offer apprenticeship or internship opportunities where labor is traded for the knowledge and experience gained from a particular type of production. In the United States, formal, or registered, apprenticeships offer competitive wages as well as classroom education in addition to on-the-job training, and are governed by state regulations that ensure minimum standards for wages, education, and training programs are met, in contrast with many informal farm internships which may only offer room and board as compensation and may not primarily benefit the intern.
Despite laws and regulations for protection of farmworkers, concerns persist regarding violations, and regarding the economic status and welfare of many farmworkers.<ref>Bon Appetit Management Company Foundation and United Farmworkers. 2011. Inventory of farmworker issues and protections in the United States. http://www.bamco.com/content/uploads/2014/01/farmworkerinventory_all_0428_2011.pdf</ref>

===Organizing===
{{Main|United Farm Workers}}

Compared to other workers, organization attempts on the behalf of farm-workers face a double challenge. First, [[labor laws]] that apply are not always enforced for agricultural workers.<ref>{{cite web|title=Mission and Programs|url=http://migrantjustice.net/about|publisher=Migrant Justice|accessdate=15 May 2013}}</ref> The [[National Labor Relations Act]] of 1935, for example, which protects most workers who organize and form [[trade unions]] from employer retaliation (e.g., the firing of workers for trying to join a union) and sets up a framework for unions and employers to negotiate in good faith, does not extend to farm workers<ref name="Oxfam"/> Similarly, the [[Fair Labor Standards Act]] of 1938, which sets minimum wage and overtime pay requirements does not apply to farm labor. In 1966, the minimum wage requirement, but not the overtime pay, was extended to apply to farm workers who worked on farms where there was over approximately 7 full-time employees in a quarter.<ref name="Oxfam"/>
Some states such as California, have passed [[California Agricultural Labor Relations Act|laws guaranteeing the right to organize]], but these apply only to the particular state in which the law was passed.
A second important challenge faced by farm worker organizers is the vulnerability of the workers due to their immigration status. The non-immigrant status of guest workers as well as the lack of documentation of many other workers places them in a politically weak position to address worker [[injustices]].<ref name="Oxfam">Oxfam America. 2004. Like Machines in the Fields: Workers Without Rights in American Agriculture. Research Paper. http://www.oxfamamerica.org/newsandpublications/publications/research_reports/art7011.html</ref>
Despite these challenges, there has been an important history of farm worker organizing in the United-States, and farm labor organizing continues to this day both to ensure the enforcement of existing regulation and to create new regulations.
Some of the causes that these organizations fight for include:
* Free negotiation<ref>{{cite web|title=Food First Mission Statement|url=http://www.foodfirst.org/|publisher=Food First Institute for Food & Development Policy|accessdate=21 April 2013}}</ref>
* Recognizing workers' rights such as health, wages, and safety<ref name="Agricultural Justice Project">{{cite web|title=The Agricultural Justice Project's Social Justice Standards|url=http://www.agriculturaljusticeproject.org/standards.html|publisher=Agricultural Justice Project|accessdate=21 April 2013}}</ref><ref name="About Us">{{cite web|title=About Us|url=http://www.nnirr.org/drupal/|publisher=National Network for Immigrant and Refugee Rights|accessdate=16 May 2013}}</ref><ref>{{cite web|title=Mission|url=http://www.bnhr.org/|publisher=Border Network for Human Rights|accessdate=17 May 2013}}</ref>
* Fair treatment of undocumented workers<ref name="Agricultural Justice Project"/><ref name="Mission and Programs">{{cite web|title=Mission and Programs|url=http://migrantjustice.net/node/171|publisher=Migrant Justice|accessdate=21 April 2013}}</ref>
* Fair wages<ref name="Mission">{{cite web|title=Mission|url=http://foodchainworkers.org/|publisher=Food Chain Workers Alliance|accessdate=21 April 2013}}</ref><ref name="sfalliance.org">{{cite web|title=About Us|url=http://www.sfalliance.org/about.html|publisher=Student/Farmer Alliance}}</ref>
*Fair trade of product<ref name="Agricultural Justice Project"/><ref name="Mission"/><ref>{{cite web|title=About Us|url=http://fairworldproject.org/|publisher=Fair World Project|accessdate=17 May 2013}}</ref>
* Alliances with other organizations and student support<ref name="sfalliance.org"/><ref>{{cite web|title=About Us|url=http://www.ciw-online.org/|publisher=Coalition of Immokalee Workers|accessdate=17 May 2013}}</ref>
* Good relationship of farmer with buyer<ref name="Agricultural Justice Project"/><ref name="Mission"/>
* Protection of children<ref name="Agricultural Justice Project"/>
* Safe housing for workers<ref name="About Us"/><ref name="Mission and Programs"/>
* Bias-free policing
* Inclusion in the healthcare system<ref name="Mission and Programs"/>
* Unionization, in some cases <ref>{{cite web|title=About Us|url=http://www.jwj.org/about/index.html|publisher=Jobs with Justice}}</ref>
* Education of the community about immigrant workers,<ref name="Mission and Programs"/>

Some of the main organizations associated with the farm workers movement are the [[United Farm Workers]], the [[Farm Labor Organizing Committee]], the Agricultural Justice Project<ref name="Agricultural Justice Project"/> and the [[Coalition of Immokalee Workers]]. Many of the issues around which farm workers organize relating to [[occupational health and safety]] and labor rights, such as immigration rights and pesticide use on farms, are also socially important issues that affect overall society.<ref>{{cite web|last=Henderson|first=Elizabeth|title=Reviving Social Justice in Sustainable and Organic Agriculture|url=http://fairworldproject.org/voices-of-fair-trade/reviving-social-justice-in-sustainable-and-organic-agriculture/|publisher=Fair World Project|accessdate=17 May 2013}}</ref>

The first approach of organization targets regulation changes by pressuring the government through worker solidarity movements. The UFW, for example, often runs campaigns targeting policy by encouraging citizens to communicate with their government representatives on a variety of issues. As a recent example, on the heels of the death of a young farm worker, the UFW has been encouraging supporters to contact California’s governor [[Arnold Schwarzenegger]], to improve the enforcement of existing regulations regarding working in the heat. Despite having the strictest heat laws in the country, heat deaths continue to occur and are largely attributed to a lack of workplace inspectors which results in a low level of compliance.<ref>{{cite web|title=History|url=http://migrantjustice.net/node/171|publisher=Migrant Justice|accessdate=21 April 2013}}</ref>

<ref>Khokha, Sasha. 2008. "Teen Farmworker's Heat Death Sparks Outcry" on NPR website. 6 June 2008. http://www.npr.org/templates/story/story.php?storyId=91240378</ref> A second strategy involves targeting high-profile businesses that are supplied through contractors and subcontractors hiring farm workers. Recently, the Coalition for Immokalee Workers, for example, has applied pressure to several companies through consumer boycotts, including McDonald's and Taco Bell. The result of these campaigns were that these companies agreed to pay an extra penny per pound to the farmworkers who picked for them, regardless of the fact that they were employed through subcontractors.<ref>Dell Joyce, Shawn. 2008. "Honoring the hands that feed us" on Idaho Mountain Express and Guide website. 19 November 2008 http://www.mtexpress.com/index2.php?ID=2005123689</ref>

The [http://fairworldproject.org/ Fair World Project], launched by the [[Organic Consumers Association]] in 2010, is an organization which promotes fair trade practices as well as the labeling of certified products. It also works to educate consumers and the community about fair trade.

=== Farmworker Movement in the 21st Century ===
The Farmworkers Movement has continued into the 21st century, and has included an emphasis on environmental issues. While there is intersection between both the labor rights and environmental justice efforts within the larger farmworker movement, there have been splits and differences between the two areas. Some critics of the environmental groups which work on similar issues to farmworkers organizations have claimed that they focus on “natural wildlife” rather than on the farmworkers themselves who are exposed the chemicals which are harming the environment.<ref name="Ghostworkers and Greens">{{Cite book|jstor=10.7591/j.ctt18kr5sh.5|title=Ghostworkers and Greens|date=2016-01-01|publisher=Cornell University Press|isbn=9780801456688|editor-last=Tompkins|editor-first=Adam|edition=1|series=The Cooperative Campaigns of Farmworkers and Environmentalists for Pesticide Reform|pages=1–14|doi=10.7591/j.ctt18kr5sh.5}}</ref>

==== Labor ====
Organizing efforts within the farmworker community have continued to focus on labor rights and other labor related issues. Organizations such as the United Farm Workers have a history of working to protect the rights of farmworkers; some of the campaigns and causes these organizations work on include heat exposure, wage rights, and overtime inclusion.<ref>{{Cite news|url=http://ufw.org/organizing/key-campaigns/|title=Key Campaigns - UFW|work=UFW|access-date=2017-04-24|language=en-US}}</ref>

Farmworker organizations have been able to achieve legislative success in reaching their goals for greater rights for farmworkers. In 2005, following the deaths of four California farm workers due to extreme summer heat, the United Farm Workers was instrumental in getting former California governor Arnold Schwarzenegger to propose emergency heat stress regulations to prevent possible additional heat-related deaths of outdoor employees and agricultural workers.<ref name="UFW Chronology - UFW">{{Cite news|url=http://ufw.org/research/history/ufw-chronology/|title=UFW Chronology - UFW|work=UFW|access-date=2017-04-24|language=en-US}}</ref> The proposed regulations required water and shade to be present and available for laborers working outside who felt negatively affected by the heat.<ref>{{Cite web|url=http://www.gis.state.mn.us/resource.html?Id=17546|title=Schwarzenegger Orders Farmworker Heat Protection Rules|website=www.gis.state.mn.us|language=EN|access-date=2017-04-24}}</ref>

Other legislative impacts and victories for farmworkers include the signing of an overtime law by California governor Jerry Brown in 2016 which extended overtime pay to farm workers who worked past 8 hours in a day or 40 hours in a week.<ref name="Los Angeles Times">{{Cite news|url=http://www.latimes.com/politics/la-pol-sac-farmworkers-overtime-signed-20160912-snap-story.html|title=In historic move, Gov. Jerry Brown expands overtime pay for California farmworkers|date=2016-09-12|work=Los Angeles Times|access-date=2017-04-24|language=en-US|issn=0458-3035}}</ref> The new rules will be phased-in over the course of four years, beginning in 2019.<ref name="Los Angeles Times"/> There has long been a precedent for the exclusion of agricultural workers from other labor right provisions, including the Fair Labor Standards Act of 1938, which had previously created minimum wage and overtime standards for American workers but had excluded all agricultural workers.<ref name="Los Angeles Times"/> In California in 1976, the state Industrial Welfare Commission had extended overtime pay to farmworkers but only after 10 hours on a job in a single day or past 60 hours in a week.<ref name="Los Angeles Times"/>

==== Environmental Justice ====
Since becoming popular in the 1980s, environmental justice issues have increasingly become important in the farmworker movement.<ref>{{Cite book|jstor=j.ctt5hhd79.10|title=Pesticide Drift and the Pursuit of Environmental Justice|date=2011-01-01|publisher=MIT Press|isbn=9780262516280|editor-last=Harrison|editor-first=Jill Lindsey|pages=145–186}}</ref> Issues typically include the use of and exposure to pesticides, food sustainability, and climate change.

===== Pesticides =====
The use of pesticides for crop protection in the agriculture industry became increasingly widespread in the 20th century, and growers (employers of farmworkers) have heavily relied on their use post-World War Two.<ref name="Ghostworkers and Greens"/> Over 1 billion pounds of pesticides are used in the United States each year.<ref>{{Cite journal|last=Alavanja|first=Michael C.R.|date=2009-01-01|title=Pesticides Use and Exposure Extensive Worldwide|journal=Reviews on environmental health|volume=24|issue=4|pages=303–309|issn=0048-7554|pmc=2946087|pmid=20384038}}</ref> Exposure to pesticides has been linked to negative health effects, and many farmworkers, both individuals and groups, have spoken out against their use in recent decades.<ref>{{Cite web|url=https://www.farmworkerjustice.org/content/pesticide-safety|title=Pesticide Safety {{!}} Farmworker Justice|website=www.farmworkerjustice.org|access-date=2017-04-24}}</ref> As growers consistently believed that pesticides were the best method to control pests, many growers' associations worked against regulation on the use of pesticides in the 1970s. Due to the rise of globalization, employers have been pressured to lobby for less regulations against pesticides in recent years to cope with increased competition, while farmworkers have been pressured to stay silent on workplace conditions and to remain unorganized.<ref name="scholarship.law.ufl.edu">{{Cite journal|last=D.|first=Flocks, Joan|date=2012-01-01|title=The Environmental and Social Injustice of Farmworker Pesticide Exposure|url=http://scholarship.law.ufl.edu/facultypub/268/|language=en}}</ref>

Several groups of farmworkers and organizations which represent farmworkers across the United States have consistently spoken out against the pesticides due to their claims of negative effects on the workers who are exposed to the chemicals. Such groups include Farmworker Justice, El Comité de Apoyo a Los Trabajadores Agrícolas (CATA), and the Farmworker Advocacy Network. While other strictly environmental justice groups have achieved success in reaching their goals by lobbying for regulations and public protests, farmworkers have struggled to advance via similar methods on the issue of workplace pesticide exposure.<ref name="scholarship.law.ufl.edu"/> Groups which focus on pesticides today have opted to use a variety of methods in trying to help those affected by the use of harmful chemicals. Some organizations such as CATA have used pesticide safety training, including tips on clothing to wear.<ref>{{Cite web|url=http://www.cata-farmworkers.org/english%20pages/fhsi.htm|title=Farmworker Health and Safety Institute|website=www.cata-farmworkers.org|access-date=2017-04-24}}</ref>  Other groups, such as Farmworker Justice, have called for increased protections by the Environmental Protection Agency and the requirement of reporting of pesticide use on a national level, in addition to calling for extensive research on the long-term effects of pesticide use and exposure on agricultural workers.<ref>{{Cite web|url=https://www.farmworkerjustice.org/sites/default/files/aExposed%20and%20Ignored%20by%20Farmworker%20Justice%20singles%20compressed.pdf|title=Exposed and Ignored: How pesticides are endangering our nation's farmworkers|last=|first=|date=|website=Farmworker Justice|archive-url=|archive-date=|dead-url=|access-date=}}</ref>

The federal government has also been involved in regulating the use of and monitoring the effects of pesticides.  Since its creation in 1970, The Environmental Protection Agency (EPA) has been involved in working to regulate the use of pesticides and any potential harmful effects. The EPA's Agriculture Worker Protection Standard (WPS) attempts to help workers exposed to pesticides and aims to reduce the risk involved with exposure to pesticides. The WPS gives protections to over 2 million agricultural workers and pesticide handlers; its services include preventing workers from being in areas under a restricted-entry interval (REI), with a few exceptions.<ref name="EPA,OCSPP,OPP">{{Cite web|url=https://www.epa.gov/pesticide-worker-safety/agricultural-worker-protection-standard-wps|title=Agricultural Worker Protection Standard (WPS)|last=EPA,OCSPP,OPP|first=US|website=www.epa.gov|language=en|access-date=2017-04-24}}</ref> On November 2, 2015 the EPA revised the WPS in order to enact stronger protections for the same workers and handlers it had covered previously.<ref name="EPA,OCSPP,OPP"/> The majority of the revised protections of the WPS took effect on January 2, 2017, however three requirements will take effect on January 2, 2018; these requirements are aimed at increasing pesticide safety training and revised information posters on pesticide safety, in addition to compelling handlers to suspend applications if any workers are in an "application exclusion zone."<ref>{{Cite web|url=https://www.epa.gov/sites/production/files/2016-04/documents/wps-faq.pdf|title=Worker Protection Standard Frequently Asked Questions|last=|first=|date=|website=United States Environmental Protection Agency|archive-url=|archive-date=|dead-url=|access-date=}}</ref>

Recently, The Dow Chemical Company, a U.S.-based multinational chemical company, has been accused of attempting to persuade the Trump administration to ignore the findings of federal scientists that found that the chemicals chlorpyrifos, diazinon, and malathion are harmful to nearly 1,800 “critically threatened or endangered species." The chemicals are heavily used and sold by the Dow Company, and the company has hired its own scientists to create a rebuttal to the findings of the governmental studies.<ref>{{Cite news|url=http://abcnews.go.com/Technology/wireStory/ap-exclusive-pesticide-maker-scrap-risk-study-46904938|title=AP Exclusive: Pesticide maker tries to kill risk study|last=News|first=ABC|work=ABC News|access-date=2017-04-24|language=en}}</ref>

==== Food Justice ====
There are other specific groups that are influential in their organization attempts. For example, the [[Food Chain Workers Alliance]] is a coalition of agricultural production organizations founded in 2009 with the goal of creating a sustainable food system and advocating workers' rights while keeping the cost of food down. Campaigns include [http://www.dignityatdarden.org/ Dignity at Darden], [http://makingchangeatwalmart.org/ Making Change at Walmart], and the [http://www.ciw-online.org/ Campaign for Fair Food]. The program also fights for raising the tipped minimum wage, and the Fair Food Agreement with the [http://www.ciw-online.org/ Coalition of Imomokalee Workers].<ref>{{cite web|url=http://foodchainworkers.org/?page_id=38|title=Mission|publisher=Food Chain Workers Alliance|accessdate=16 May 2013}}</ref>

Another such group is the ‘’’Agricultural Justice Project’’’ (AJP). This project seeks to promote food justice by creating a food label that signifies the certification of fair treatment of the workers who helped produce the food as well as fair contracts and pricing for farmers, and sustainable and fair trade of the food at every step of production. Four nonprofit organizations are partners in the AJP: The Rural Advancement Foundation International (RAFI-USA), The Farmworker Support Committee (CATA), Florida Organic Growers (FOG), and the Northeastern Organic Farming Association (NOFA). Each group has a common goal of improving the quality of life for sustainable farmers.

==== Legislation ====
In 2003, an immigration reform bill titled the Agricultural Jobs, Opportunity, Benefits and Security Act of 2003 (AgJOBS) was introduced in Congress and received bipartisan support from over 500 labor, business, immigrants rights, and other groups.<ref name="UFW Chronology - UFW"/> The bill would allow undocumented farm workers in the US to have the opportunity to legally earn the right to stay in the country permanently by continuing to work in the agriculture industry. In April 2005 AgJobs became the first major bill aimed at immigration reform in 20 years to be supported by a majority of senators, however it was not a supermajority and did not receive enough votes to avoid a filibuster.<ref name="UFW Chronology - UFW"/> The bill has not been passed as of April 2017. 

Groups such as Farmworker Justice have continued to support the AgJobs bill, and while it was not a stand-alone bill in the 112th Congress, it was included with Senator Bob Menendez’s (NJ) Comprehensive Immigration Reform Act of 2011.<ref name="farmworkerjustice.org">{{Cite web|url=https://www.farmworkerjustice.org/resources/labor-and-immigrations-resources|title=Immigration and Labor Resources {{!}} Farmworker Justice|website=www.farmworkerjustice.org|access-date=2017-04-24}}</ref>

Other recent legislation relating to farmworkers was introduced in 2011 by Representative Howard Berman (CA); the bill was titled the Agricultural Labor Market Reform Act, H.R. 3017. This bill aimed to remove incentives for growers (agricultural employers) to hire guest workers instead of US workers.<ref name="farmworkerjustice.org"/> This bill did gather the support of some farmworker organizations, including Farmworker Justice.<ref name="farmworkerjustice.org"/>

There have also been legislative attempts at enacting environmental change by farmworker groups. In 2017, a coalition including the United Farm Workers (UFW) has challenged the Environmental Protection Agency’s reversal of a previous law to ban the pesticide chlorpyrifos; according to studies conducted by the EPA, exposure to chlorpyrfios, even at very low levels, can damage children’s brain development and cause other brain-harming effects.<ref name="action.ufw.org">{{Cite web|url=http://action.ufw.org/page/speakout/epa_417?source=web)|title=Take action on EPA’s shameful refusal to ban brain-harming chemical|website=action.ufw.org|access-date=2017-04-24}}</ref> The chemical was banned in 2000 for most household settings but is still used on some crops.<ref name="Lipton">{{Cite news|url=https://www.nytimes.com/2017/03/29/us/politics/epa-insecticide-chlorpyrifos.html|title=E.P.A. Chief, Rejecting Agency’s Science, Chooses Not to Ban Insecticide|last=Lipton|first=Eric|date=2017-03-29|work=The New York Times|access-date=2017-04-24|issn=0362-4331}}</ref> Many environmental groups have since come out to condemn the choice of the EPA to reject the pesticide ban.<ref name="Lipton"/> The coalition has called for Administrator of the Environmental Protection Agency (EPA) Scott Pruitt to reinstate the planned ban.<ref name="action.ufw.org"/>

==== Social Media, Outreach, and the Internet ====
The use of social media and coalition building has become increasingly important for organizations within the farmworkers movement in the 21st century. As the United Farm Workers organization notes on their website, the group “increasingly makes use of the Internet to solicit mass grass-roots participation…” On the importance of alliances and coalition building, UFW writes, “Hundreds of thousands of supporters are involved through UFW appeals forwarded by allied and sympathetic organizations.”<ref>{{Cite web|url=http://ufw.org/|title=The Official Web Page of the United Farm Workers of America|website=UFW|language=en-US|access-date=2017-04-24}}</ref> 

Many farmworker organizations are now able to receive individual donations via their organization websites.<ref>{{Cite web|url=http://cata-farmworkers.org/testing/volunteer-donate/|title=Volunteer & Donate – CATA Farmworkers|website=cata-farmworkers.org|language=en-US|access-date=2017-04-24}}</ref><ref>{{Cite web|url=https://secure.ufw.org/page/contribute/donateforchange|title=United Farm Workers {{!}} Donate For Change|website=secure.ufw.org|access-date=2017-04-24}}</ref> Also, a significant amount of groups with websites now have social media platforms where the organizations can connect with local community members or others interested in their work.<ref name="facebook.com">{{Cite web|url=https://www.facebook.com/CATA-The-Farmworkers-Support-Committee-135739323110696/|title=CATA- The Farmworkers' Support Committee|website=www.facebook.com|language=en|access-date=2017-04-24}}</ref><ref name="facebook.com"/><ref>{{Cite web|url=https://www.facebook.com/FarmworkerJustice/|title=Farmworker Justice|website=www.facebook.com|language=en|access-date=2017-04-24}}</ref> However, even with the advent of the use of the internet union membership in some organizations, such as the United Farm Workers, is comparatively much lower compared to participation at its height in the 1970s.<ref>{{Cite news|url=http://www.flashreport.org/blog/2015/04/16/ufw-inflates-membership-numbers-a-lie-or-premature-calculation/|title=UFW Inflates Membership Numbers – A Lie, or Premature Calculation?|work=FlashReport|access-date=2017-04-24|language=en-US}}</ref> While UFW union membership was cited at close to 50,000 at its height in the late 1970s, in 2014 it claimed 8,724 members.<ref>{{Cite news|url=https://www.unionfacts.com/union/United_Farm_Workers#membership-tab|title=Union Facts {{!}} United Farm Workers {{!}} Profile, Membership, Leaders, Political Operations, etc.|work=Union Facts|access-date=2017-04-24|language=en}}</ref>

==Farm workers in Canada==
In Canada in 2010, there were 297,683 agricultural employees; 112,059 were year-around and 185,624 were seasonal or temporary.<ref>Statistics Canada, Census of Agriculture, Table 004-0236 Paid agricultural work in the year prior to the census. http://www5.statcan.gc.ca/cansim/a26?lang=eng&retrLang=eng&id=0040236&pattern=0040200..0040242&tabMode=dataTable&srchLan=-1&p1=1&p2=50</ref>

Qualifying employers in Canada can hire temporary foreign farmworkers from participating countries for periods of up to 8 months per calendar year for on-farm primary agriculture in specified commodity sectors, if the work involved totals at least 240 hours within a period of 6 weeks or less.<ref name=ESDC>Employment and Social Development Canada. Hiring seasonal agricultural workers. http://www.esdc.gc.ca/eng/jobs/foreign_workers/agriculture/seasonal//index.shtml</ref> This Seasonal Agricultural Worker Program, established in 1966, brings about 25,000 foreign workers to Canada each year. About 66 percent of those are employed in Ontario, 13 percent in Québec and 13 percent in British Columbia.<ref>CBC News Canada. Migrant workers – who they are, where they’re coming from. (Feb. 7-8, 2012) http://www.cbc.ca/news/canada/migrant-workers-who-they-are-where-they-re-coming-from-1.1137930</ref>

Workers in the Seasonal Agricultural Worker Program, being citizens of Mexico and various Caribbean countries,<ref name=ESDC/> tend to be Spanish-speaking. Between 1991 and 1996, in British Columbia, the number of South Asian agricultural workers increased from 3,685 to 5,685, mostly Punjabi-speaking.<ref name=Runsten>Runsten, D. et al. 2000. The extent, pattern, and contributions of migrant labor in the NAFTA countries: an overview. A conference on agricultural migrant labor in North America. NAID Center, UCLA. http://www.naid.ucla.edu/uploads/4/2/1/9/4219226/c14_2000.pdf</ref> Analysis published in 2000 indicated that "Of the 5,000 workers employed by the over 100 licensed Farm Labour Contractors in British Columbia, two-thirds were recent immigrants who entered Canada less than 3 years ago. Of the 700 harvest workers surveyed, 97 percent were Punjabi speaking."<ref name=Runsten/> (British Columbia did not participate in the Seasonal Agricultural Workers Program until 2004.<ref name=Otero>Otero, G. and K. Preibisch. Farmworker health and safety. Challenges for British Columbia. http://www.sfu.ca/~otero/docs/Otero-and-Preibisch-Final-Nov-2010.pdf</ref>)

Many of the issues noted for farmworkers in the US also apply in Canada.<ref name=Otero/> Analysis pertaining to Ontario noted that "All workers are eligible (with some variability) for provincial health insurance ... and workers compensation (WSIB), and are covered by provincial health and safety legislation through the Ministry of Labour, and yet [migrant farm workers] are not always able or willing to access these health and compensation services."<ref>McLaughlin, J. et al. The migrant farmworker health journey. Identifying issues and considering change across borders. International Migration Research Centre. Policy Points. Issue 6, April 2014. http://imrc.ca/wp-content/uploads/2013/10/IMRC-Policy-Points-VI.pdf</ref>

Every Canadian province and territory has an office that deals with labour and employment laws. A person at the local employment or labour standards office can talk to farmworkers about fair pay, hours of work, rest periods and working conditions, and provide other services. An employer cannot punish a farmworker for contacting an employment standards office.<ref>Government of Canada, Immigration and Citizenship. Understand your rights – foreign workers. http://www.cic.gc.ca/english/work/tfw-rights.asp</ref>

==Farm workers in Mexico==
The Encuesta Nacional de Empleo estimated 2.7 million agricultural workers in Mexico. About a million are migrants. There is much use of seasonal and migrant agricultural labor in northwestern Mexico, because of the considerable fruit and vegetable production occurring in that region. Rough estimates of peak seasonal labor requirements for Sinaloa, Sonora, and Baja California Norte and Sur are 400,000 to 600,000.<ref name=Runsten/>

Several issues, particularly low pay and harsh working conditions, have been identified that pertain to some farmworkers in Mexico.<ref>Marosi, R. 2014. Hardship on Mexico's farms, a bounty for U.S. tables. Los Angeles Times, Dec. 7, 2014. http://graphics.latimes.com/product-of-mexico-camps/#int=email|Mexico-Food-2014|||||||ADM-20141206-lnk1</ref> Many of these issues are pursued by farmworker organizations, with resulting labor action, e.g. strikes occurring in 2015.<ref>Thompson, N. A. 50,000 Mexican Farmworkers Have Gone on Strike in Baja California, Demand Overtime Pay, Breaks, Healthcare and Water . Latin Post. http://www.latinpost.com/articles/45297/20150401/50-000-mexican-farmworkers-have-gone-on-strike-in-baja-california-demanding-overtime-pay-breaks-healthcare-and-water.htm</ref><ref>Binkowski, B. North America’s fruit industry feeling effect of farm workers’ strike in Mexico. The Globe and Mail (Toronto), March 31, 2015. http://www.theglobeandmail.com/news/world/north-americas-fruit-industry-feeling-effect-of-farm-workers-strike-in-mexico/article23700928/</ref>

Over the past quarter-century, water quality and pesticide issues affecting farmworkers in Mexico have been identified in peer-reviewed literature. The following examples are of interest, but are not necessarily broadly representative. In the Mezquital Valley of central Mexico, in the early 1990s, about 85,000 acres were irrigated with wastewater. A study of the implications found that important outcomes were diarrheal disease and parasitic infections in farmworkers and their families.<ref>Cifuentes, E. et al. 1993. Problemas de salud asociados al riego agricola con agua residual en Mexico. Salud Publica de Mexico [1993, 35(6):614-619]</ref> Pesticide issues were investigated in 200 farmworkers in a small area of northwestern Mexico in the 1990s. Of those workers, 59% could read at the third-grade level, few had received information about pesticides; 30% did not wear personal protective gear; and 20% had experienced acute pesticide poisoning at least once during the season investigated.<ref>de Jesús Chain-Castro, T. et al. 1998. Pesticide poisoning in Mexican seasonal farm workers. Int. J. Occupational Env. Health 4:202-203</ref> A study was conducted comparing 25 farm workers engaged in pesticide spraying with a control group of 21 workers not exposed to pesticides, from the Nextipac community in Jalisco, Mexico. The exposed group showed acute poisoning in 20 percent of the cases.<ref>Payán-Rentería, R. et al. 2012. Effect of chronic pesticide exposure in farm workers of a Mexico community. Arch. Env. Occupational Health 67: 22-30</ref>

==Farm workers in the European Union==
For the 27 member states of the European Union in 2009, 77 percent of the overall average agricultural labor force was family members; however, in Slovakia, the Czech Republic, Bulgaria, Hungary and Estonia, family members were not predominant in the agricultural labor force. Hired labor accounted for more than half of total (hired plus family) labor in the horticulture sector. In the 27 states, the average wage of farm workers was €6.34.<ref>European Commission, Directorate-General for Agriculture and Rural Development. 2013. EU farm economics overview FADN 2009. http://ec.europa.eu/agriculture/rica/pdf/EU_farm_economics_2012.pdf</ref> In 2010, there were estimated to be about 25 million agricultural workers, including farm family members, in the EU-27 states; many were part-time workers. The full-time equivalents were estimated to be about 10 million.<ref>EU Agricultural Economics Briefs. How many people work in agriculture in the European Union? July 2013. http://ec.europa.eu/agriculture/rural-area-economics/briefs/pdf/08_en.pdf</ref>

==Careers==
Many programs exist, such as World-Wide Opportunities on Organic Farms ([[WWOOF]]) that facilitate the placement of volunteer farmworkers on specific types of farms. Additionally, farms may offer apprenticeship or internship opportunities where labor is traded for the knowledge and experience gained from a particular type of production.


==See also==
==See also==
[[File:Old woman cleaning olives.jpg|thumb|Old woman cleaning olives]]
* [[Agroecology]]
* [[Agroecology]]
* [[Farmer]]
* [[Farmer]]
Line 149: Line 101:
* [[Grower (disambiguation)]]
* [[Grower (disambiguation)]]
* [[Environmental Justice]]
* [[Environmental Justice]]
* [[Peasant]]
* [[Subsistence agriculture]]


==References==
==References==
{{reflist|2}}
{{Reflist}}

==Sources==
{{Free-content attribution
| title = World Food and Agriculture – Statistical Yearbook 2023
| author = FAO
| publisher = FAO
| documentURL = https://www.fao.org/documents/card/en?details=cc8166en
| license statement URL = https://commons.wikimedia.org/whttps://commons.wikimedia.org/wiki/File:World_Food_and_Agriculture_-_Statistical_Yearbook_2023.pdf
| license = CC BY-SA IGO 3.0
}}


==Further reading==
==Further reading==
Line 157: Line 121:


==External links==
==External links==
* [http://www.doleta.gov/agworker/naws.cfm National Agricultural Workers Survey]
* [https://web.archive.org/web/20130216092130/http://www.doleta.gov/agworker/naws.cfm National Agricultural Workers Survey]
* [http://usda.mannlib.cornell.edu/MannUsda/viewDocumentInfo.do?documentID=1063 USDA National Agricultural Statistics Service]
* [http://usda.mannlib.cornell.edu/MannUsda/viewDocumentInfo.do?documentID=1063 USDA National Agricultural Statistics Service]
* [http://leahy.senate.gov/issues/Immigration/GuestWorker.pdf Levine, Linda. 2006. The Effects on U.S. Farm Workers of an Agricultural Guest Worker Program. CRS Report for Congress.]
* [https://web.archive.org/web/20081205095126/http://leahy.senate.gov//issues/Immigration/GuestWorker.pdf Levine, Linda. 2006. The Effects on U.S. Farm Workers of an Agricultural Guest Worker Program. CRS Report for Congress.]
* [http://www.fwjustice.org/ Farmworker Justice website]
* [http://www.fwjustice.org/ Farmworker Justice website]
* [http://www.un.org/apps/news/story.asp?NewsID=16109&Cr=&Cr1 Hundreds of millions of agricultural workers face poverty, hunger. UN report. 2005.]
* [https://www.un.org/apps/news/story.asp?NewsID=16109&Cr=&Cr1 Hundreds of millions of agricultural workers face poverty, hunger. UN report. 2005.]
* [http://www.cdc.gov/niosh/topics/agriculture/ National Institute for Occupational safety and Health: Agriculture]
* [https://www.cdc.gov/niosh/topics/agriculture/ National Institute for Occupational safety and Health: Agriculture]
* [http://www.ncfan.org/storage/Close%20to%20Slavery.pdf Guest Worker Programs in the U.S.]
* [https://web.archive.org/web/20131212102322/http://www.ncfan.org/storage/Close%20to%20Slavery.pdf Guest Worker Programs in the U.S.]
*[https://www.npr.org/sections/thesalt/2018/07/31/634442195/when-the-u-s-government-tried-to-replace-migrant-farmworkers-with-high-schoolers When The U.S. Government Tried To Replace Migrant Farmworkers With High Schoolers]
{{Agriculture footer}}
{{Authority control}}


[[Category:Agricultural occupations]]
[[Category:Agricultural occupations]]
[[Category:Agricultural labor]]
[[Category:Agricultural labor]]
[[Category:Farmworkers| ]]

Latest revision as of 02:52, 28 November 2024

"Farmhand" redirects here. For other uses, see Farmhand (disambiguation).

Two farmworkers, one dressed in blue covers and the other in red with a face covering, bending down. They are presumed to be cleaning and picking up onions on a grassy field. Location is unknown.
Two farm workers cleaning and picking at an onion field, location unknown
Rural area
Economics
People
Society
History
Politics
Farm workers on a field near Mount Williamson in Inyo County, California. This photograph is by Ansel Adams.

A farmworker, farmhand or agricultural worker is someone employed for labor in agriculture. In labor law, the term "farmworker" is sometimes used more narrowly, applying only to a hired worker involved in agricultural production, including harvesting, but not to a worker in other on-farm jobs, such as picking fruit.

Agricultural work varies widely depending on context, degree of mechanization and crop. In countries like the United States where there is a declining population of American citizens working on farms — temporary or itinerant skilled labor from outside the country is recruited for labor-intensive crops like vegetables and fruits.

Sudanese farmer reviews cantaloupe production, south of Khartoum
A picture of a man in a cabbage farm
A Rwandan farmworker

Agricultural labor is often the first community affected by the human health impacts of environmental issues related to agriculture, such as health effects of pesticides or exposure to other health challenges such as valley fever. To address these environmental concerns, immigration challenges and marginal working conditions, many labor rights, economic justice and environmental justice movements have been organized or supported by farmworkers.

Worldwide

[edit]

In the United States

[edit]
This section is an excerpt from Farmworkers in the United States.[edit]
Farmworkers in Fort Valley, Georgia in 2019

Farmworkers in the United States have unique demographics, wages, working conditions, organizing, and environmental aspects. According to The National Institute for Occupational Safety & Health in Agricultural Safety, approximately 2,112,626 full-time workers were employed in production agriculture in the US in 2019 and approximately 1.4 to 2.1 million hired crop workers are employed annually on crop farms in the US.[1] A study by the USDA found the average age of a farmworker to be 33. In 2017, the Department of Labor and Statistics found the median wage to be $23,730 a year, or $11.42 per hour.

The types of farmworkers include field crop workers, nursery workers, greenhouse workers, supervisors, etc.[2] The United States Department of Labor findings for the years 2019-2020 report that 63 percent of crop workers were born in Mexico, 30 percent in the mainland United States or Puerto Rico, 5 percent in Central America, and 2 percent in other regions.[3] The amount of farm labor in the United States has changed substantially: in 1870, almost 50 percent of the U.S. population was employed in agriculture;[4] As of 2008, less than 2 percent of the population is directly employed in agriculture.[5][6]

Potential health and safety issues that may be associated with farm work include vehicle rollovers, falls, musculoskeletal injuries, hazardous equipment, grain bins, pesticides, unsanitary conditions, and respiratory disease. According to the United States Department Of Labor, farmworkers are at risk of work-related lung diseases, noise-induced hearing loss, skin diseases, and certain cancers related to chemical use.[7] Farm workers also suffer disproportionately from heat stress, with fewer than average seeking treatment. While some progress has been made, many farm workers continue to struggle for fair pay, proper training, and safe working conditions.[8]

In Canada

[edit]
Small town in Canada with farming history and heritage

Canada as of 2010 had 297,683 agricultural employees; 112,059 were year-around and 185,624 were seasonal or temporary.[9] Qualifying employers in Canada can hire temporary foreign farmworkers from participating countries for periods of up to 8 months per calendar year for on-farm primary agriculture in specified commodity sectors, if the work involved totals at least 240 hours within a period of 6 weeks or less.[10] This Seasonal Agricultural Worker Program, established in 1966, brings about 25,000 foreign workers to Canada each year. About 66 percent of those work in Ontario, 13 percent in Québec, and 13 percent in British Columbia.[11]

Workers in the Seasonal Agricultural Worker Program, being citizens of Mexico and various Caribbean countries,[10] tend to be Spanish-speaking. Between 1991 and 1996, in British Columbia, the number of South Asian agricultural workers increased from 3,685 to 5,685, mostly Punjabi-speaking.[12] Analysis published in 2000 indicated that "Of the 5,000 workers employed by the over 100 licensed Farm Labour Contractors in British Columbia, two-thirds were recent immigrants who entered Canada less than 3 years ago. Of the 700 harvest workers surveyed, 97 percent were Punjabi speaking"[12] (British Columbia did not participate in the Seasonal Agricultural Workers Program until 2004.[13]).

Many of the issues noted for farm workers in the US also apply in Canada.[13] Analysis pertaining to Ontario noted that "All workers are eligible (with some variability) for provincial health insurance ... and workers compensation (WSIB), and are covered by provincial health and safety legislation through the Ministry of Labour, and yet [migrant farm workers] are not always able or willing to access these health and compensation services".[14]

Every Canadian province and territory has an office that deals with labour and employment laws. A person at the local employment or labour-standards office can talk to farmworkers about fair pay, hours of work, rest periods, and working conditions, and provide other services. An employer cannot punish a farmworker for contacting an employment-standards office.[15]

In Cuba

[edit]
Farmer plows his field with oxen at Cuba-Vinales

Prior to social changes in the 1960s, the all-important Cuban sugar-the growing economy had an integrated rural-urban workforce — each season, town-dwellers helped to bring in the harvest.[16] Subsequently, mechanisation ensued.[17]

In Mexico

[edit]

The Encuesta Nacionalde Empleo estimated 2.7 million agricultural workers in Mexico. About a million are migrants. There is much use of seasonal and migrant agricultural labor in northwestern Mexico, because of the considerable fruit and vegetable production occurring in that region. Rough estimates of peak seasonal labor requirements for Sinaloa, Sonora, and Baja California Norte and Sur are 400,000 to 600,000.[12]

Several issues, particularly low pay, and harsh working conditions have been identified that pertain to some farmworkers in Mexico.[18] Many of these issues are pursued by farmworker organizations, with resulting labor action, e.g. strikes occurring in 2015.[19][20]

Mexican farmer on his dugout

Over the past quarter-century, water quality and pesticide issues affecting farmworkers in Mexico have been identified in peer-reviewed literature. The following examples are of interest but are not necessarily broadly representative. In the Mezquital Valley of central Mexico, in the early 1990s, about 85,000 acres were irrigated with wastewater. A study of the implications found that important outcomes were diarrheal disease and parasitic infections in farmworkers and their families.[21] Pesticide issues were investigated in 200 farmworkers in a small area of northwestern Mexico in the 1990s. Of those workers, 59% could read at the third-grade level, few had received information about pesticides; 30% did not wear personal protective gear; and 20% had experienced acute pesticide poisoning at least once during the season investigated.[22] A study was conducted comparing 25 farm workers engaged in pesticide spraying with a control group of 21 workers not exposed to pesticides, from the Nextipac community in Jalisco, Mexico. The exposed group showed acute poisoning in 20 percent of the cases.[23]

Organic soybean farm in Veneto, Italy

In the European Union

[edit]

For the 27 member states of the European Union in 2009, 77 percent of the overall average agricultural labor force was family members; however, in Slovakia, the Czech Republic, Bulgaria, Hungary, and Estonia, family members were not predominant in the agricultural labor force. Hired labor accounted for more than half of the total (hired plus family) labor in the horticulture sector. In the 27 states, the average wage of farm workers was €6.34.[24] In 2010, there were estimated to be about 25 million agricultural workers, including farm family members, in the EU-27 states; many were part-time workers. The full-time equivalents were estimated to be about 10 million.[25]

Careers

[edit]

The share of employment in agriculture, forestry and fishing in total employment declined globally by 13 percentage points between 2000 and 2021, to 26.6 percent. Yet, agriculture remains the second largest source of employment worldwide after the services sector.[26]

Many programs exist, such as World-Wide Opportunities on Organic Farms (WWOOF) that facilitate the placement of volunteer farmworkers on specific types of farms. Additionally, farms may offer apprenticeship or internship opportunities where labor is traded for the knowledge and experience gained from a particular type of production. In the United States, formal, or registered, apprenticeships offer competitive wages as well as classroom education in addition to on-the-job training, and are governed by state regulations that ensure minimum standards for wages, education, and training programs are met, in contrast with many informal farm internships which may only offer room and board as compensation and may not primarily benefit the intern.

See also

[edit]
Old woman cleaning olives

References

[edit]
  1. ^ "Agricultural Safety | NIOSH | CDC". 25 October 2021.
  2. ^ "USDA ERS - Farm Labor".
  3. ^ "Search, DRE, Employment & Training Administration (ETA) - U.S. Department of Labor". 19 May 2023.
  4. ^ Agricultural employment: has the decline ended? Archived 2021-04-16 at the Wayback Machine, Retrieved May 6, 2016
  5. ^ "Employment by major industry sector". Bls.gov. 19 December 2013. Archived from the original on 11 May 2018. Retrieved 1 April 2014.
  6. ^ "Extension". Csrees.usda.gov. 28 March 2014. Archived from the original on 28 March 2014. Retrieved 1 April 2014.
  7. ^ "Agricultural Operations - Overview | Occupational Safety and Health Administration".
  8. ^ "Crop cultivation Specialization of labour". Agriculture land usa. Retrieved 27 July 2024.
  9. ^ "Paid agricultural work in the year prior to the census". www150.statcan.gc.ca. 24 November 2014. Retrieved 12 November 2019.
  10. ^ a b Employment and Social Development Canada. Hiring seasonal agricultural workers. http://www.esdc.gc.ca/eng/jobs/foreign_workers/agriculture/seasonal//index.shtml Archived 20 April 2015 at the Wayback Machine
  11. ^ "Migrant workers: Who they are, where they're coming from". CBC News. Retrieved 12 November 2019.
  12. ^ a b c "The Extent, Pattern, and Contributions of Migrant Labor in the NAFTA Countries" (PDF). Archived from the original (PDF) on 4 March 2016. Retrieved 12 November 2019.
  13. ^ a b "Farmworker Health and Safety: Challenges for British Columbia" (PDF). Retrieved 12 November 2019.
  14. ^ "International Migration Research Centre" (PDF). imrc.ca. Retrieved 12 November 2019.
  15. ^ Immigration, Refugees and Citizenship Canada (26 March 2008). "Understand your rights as a foreign worker". aem. Retrieved 12 November 2019.
  16. ^ Pollitt, Brian H. (2005). "The technical transformation of Cuba's sugar agroindustry". In Pérez-López, Jorge F.; Alvarez, Jose (eds.). Reinventing the Cuban Sugar Agroindustry. Rural economies in transition. Lexington Books. p. 47. ISBN 9780739110003. Retrieved 30 November 2019. [...] within urban Cuba, the creation of alternative employment and educational opportunities in the early 1960s largely demobilized the army of urban workers that had previously migrated each year from the towns to the countryside during the peak harvesting months of January to May.
  17. ^ Pollitt, Brian H. (2005). "The technical transformation of Cuba's sugar agroindustry". In Pérez-López, Jorge F.; Alvarez, Jose (eds.). Reinventing the Cuban Sugar Agroindustry. Rural economies in transition. Lexington Books. p. 48. ISBN 9780739110003. Retrieved 30 November 2019. Complementing extension of the harvest was an ambitious program to mechanize the cutting and loading of the sugarcane.
  18. ^ "Hardship on Mexico's farms, a bounty for U.S. tables". graphics.latimes.com. 7 December 2014. Retrieved 12 November 2019.
  19. ^ "50,000 Mexican Farmworkers Have Gone on Strike in Baja California, Demand Overtime Pay, Breaks, Healthcare and Water". Latin Post. 1 April 2015. Retrieved 12 November 2019.
  20. ^ "North America's fruit industry feeling effect of farm workers' strike in Mexico". Retrieved 12 November 2019.
  21. ^ Cifuentes, E. et al. 1993. Problemas de salud asociados al riego agricola con agua residual en Mexico. Salud Publica de Mexico [1993, 35(6):614-619]
  22. ^ de Jesús Chain-Castro, T. et al. 1998. Pesticide poisoning in Mexican seasonal farm workers. Int. J. Occupational Env. Health 4:202-203
  23. ^ Payán-Rentería, R. et al. 2012. Effect of chronic pesticide exposure in farm workers of a Mexico community. Arch. Env. Occupational Health 67: 22-30
  24. ^ "EU farm economics 2012" (PDF). Retrieved 12 November 2019.
  25. ^ "How many people work in agriculture in the European Union?" (PDF). Retrieved 12 November 2019.
  26. ^ "World Food and Agriculture – Statistical Yearbook 2023". FAO | Food and Agriculture Organization of the United Nations. doi:10.4060/cc8166en. Retrieved 13 December 2023 – via FAODocuments.

Sources

[edit]

 This article incorporates text from a free content work. Licensed under CC BY-SA IGO 3.0 (license statement/permission). Text taken from World Food and Agriculture – Statistical Yearbook 2023​, FAO, FAO.

Further reading

[edit]
  • Flores, Lori A. Grounds for Dreaming: Mexican Americans, Mexican Immigrants, and the California Farmworker Movement (Yale University Press, 2016). xvi, 288 pp.
[edit]
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