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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 Fruit picking.
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.
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.
Workers in the Seasonal Agricultural Worker Program, being citizens of Mexico and various Caribbean countries, 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. 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" (British Columbia did not participate in the Seasonal Agricultural Workers Program until 2004.).
Many of the issues noted for farm workers in the US also apply in Canada. 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 are not always able or willing to access these health and compensation services".
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.
Several issues, particularly low pay, and harsh working conditions have been identified that pertain to some farmworkers in Mexico. Many of these issues are pursued by farmworker organizations, with resulting labor action, e.g. strikes occurring in 2015.
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.Cifuentes, E. et al. 1993. Problemas de salud asociados al riego agricola con agua residual en Mexico. Salud Publica de Mexico 1993, 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.de Jesús Chain-Castro, T. et al. 1998. Pesticide poisoning in Mexican seasonal farm workers. Int. J. Occupational Env. Health 4:202-203 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.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
The North American Free Trade Agreement (NAFTA), established in 1994, facilitated economic trade between the United States and Mexico. However, due to factors such as declining wages, the devaluation of the peso, and unilateral trade liberalization, production of different crops such as corn has decreased in Mexico while increasing in the United States. This was because NAFTA removed all barriers for trade including tariffs that were put into place. As a result, agricultural exports have shifted in favor of the United States. For example, corn grown in the United States is now cheaper than corn grown in Mexico, creating competition between the two countries. Before NAFTA, Mexican farmers could grow and sell corn without facing such intense competition from U.S. imports.
This major agreement has created a shift in the number of people, specifically farmers, in both countries. More people have migrated to the United States than Mexico due to the competitiveness of prices. Those people have looked elsewhere for work because there were no longer opportunities in their home country. According to data from the Institute for Agriculture and Trade Policy, “From 1992 through 2012 the U.S. lost 245,288, or 22 percent, of small-scale farmers (under $350,000 annual gross farm income) and 6,123, or 5 percent of mid-sized farmers”. In addition to having more advanced machinery, large U.S. agricultural businesses had the capital means to expand production and were heavily subsidized by the U.S. government, allowing them to outcompete Mexico’s smaller, less capitalized farms which was an imbalance that NAFTA exacerbated, contributing to the displacement of over two million Mexican farmers.
Most major farms continued to flourish while small scale farms suffered. This was mainly due to the growth of the meat and dairy industry which relied on fewer but larger scale farms to meet their needs. According to Ben Lilliston, director of Rural Strategies and Climate Change at Institute of Agriculture and Trade Policy, it is estimated that more than two million Mexican farmers closed their farms in the wake of NAFTA’s flood of U.S. imports, or as many as one-quarter of the farming population. While people from Mexico may have left agriculture, production is still the most important part of the food system, and the U.S. relies on a large portion of farmers to continue producing, many of whom are migrant workers who were previously farmers in Central Mexico. Without these workers, the U.S. food system would be placed in jeopardy.
For example, in 2017 Hurricane Maria caused over 69% of farmers to deal with one month or more of food insecurity, and over 38% of farmers dealt with continuing food insecurity that lasted for three months or more. According to a study done by Dr. Aníbal Ruiz-Lugo at the University of Puerto Rico, farmers with land in Puerto Rico, 43% lost their farms completely due to Hurricane Maria. Hurricane Maria affected the farmers with smaller amounts of land in rural areas, who experienced more food insecurity than those with larger amounts of land in larger, urban areas.
Hurricane Maria destroyed over 80% of the country’s agriculture, was linked to over 2,974 deaths, and caused the longest blackout in the history of the United States. After around six months, only 68% of people in Puerto Rico had received electricity again. The blackout was also detrimental to farmlands because it hindered access and transportation.
Farm workers in the United States make up only 1% of workers, even though they are an important part of the food system. Most farm workers are undocumented people from other countries like Mexico. But recently, the number of farm workers in agriculture has decline as the population has aged. Approximately 26% of farm workers who specialize in crop production identify as non-white. Female farm workers are 28% more likely to choose working in crops rather than livestock. As of 2022, 47% of crop workers do not obtain a high school degree, while 34% of workers in livestock do not either, as most of their time is spent doing labor . Between the years of 1990–2023, the average annual rate rose 1.1 per year . In 2023, the wage for a farm worker was $17.55, which is the lowest paid job in the United States. This is common, as according to Joan Lo and Ariel Jacobson, “five out of the eight lowest paying jobs in the country are in the food system."
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.
Huerta believed strongly in organizing voter registration, education, and participation from community members whose voices were usually not at the center of important issues. The CSO implemented a “house meeting” approach, where they went to different houses and met with farmworkers to discuss issues. This tactic emphasized the notion that it is very important to get a community together because, together, they can help solve problems and advocate for important change to occur. In 1974, Huerta gave a speech where she advocated for farmworkers and political activism. In her speech, she said, “There are 3 million farmworkers in this country. That is a lot of political power. They have seen what we have done and so they know what we can do." She urged farmworkers to vote and be more active in politics because they were not guaranteed a voice.
In California, Huerta was a lobbyist for the United Farm Workers Union, where she spoke about farmworker justice in front of members of Congress . She later founded her own organization called the Dolores Huerta Foundation, focusing on the previous work she had done on political activism and voter registration. She continued to speak at different universities, urging people to vote and use their voice, often explaining that “If we don’t get involved to elect our representatives, we don’t even have a democracy."
Chávez was born on a small farm in Arizona in 1927. He worked on a farm in California until he finished 8th grade. In 1952, he worked on an orchard where he met Fred Ross, who encouraged him to join the CSO. With Huerta and Ross, Chavez created different organizational chapters and urged minority groups like Mexican Americans to become active participants in the democratic process. In 1965, Chávez, the National Farm Workers Association, and Filipino workers came together in a strike against grape growers in Delano, California.
In 1966, Chávez led a pilgrimage from Delano to Sacramento which ended at the state capital. Chávez was an advocate for higher wages, improved working conditions, and labor laws. He was especially interested in non-violent protests, which consisted of marching with farmworkers and supporters. After the 1965 strike and the 1966 pilgrimage, Chávez decided to stop eating and fasted for 25 days. Chavez often said, "I said to myself, if I'm going to save my soul, it's going to be through the struggle for social justice." Huerta and Chávez are still influential in the farmworker justice movement, which still advocates for voter participation and education.
One contemporary organization advocating for farmworker justice is the Food Chain Workers Alliance (FCWA), which focuses on ending poverty and creating more sustainable agricultural systems. The Alliance believes in four main aspects which are meant to help pave the way for food justice to happen. First, there must be food-worker solidarity groups. These workers help bridge the gap between producers and consumers by creating spaces where producers can have a voice. Second, the Alliance works to enhance and create new policies towards food justice. They are now campaigning for fair labor practices for farm workers. They also research current food insecurity farmworkers face, and they show how that detrimentally effects their lives. Third, they work with programs which certify food as being “fair trade. Lastly, they focus on education and outreach to the public. The Alliance wants to make sure that consumers understand what is occurring on the production level and they do this by working with human rights and social justice groups. Groups like the FCWA strive to educate consumers on food injustice and promote support for farm workers, working toward food and farmworker justice work towards food justice within the food system.
In Cuba
Prior to Cuban Revolution, the all-important Cuban sugar-the growing economy had an integrated rural-urban workforce — each season, town-dwellers helped to bring in the harvest.
Subsequently, mechanisation ensued.
In Mexico
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.
In Puerto Rico
Puerto Rico is an island community and a territory of the United States, which makes it especially vulnerable to environmental disasters such as hurricanes—particularly for the local farmers who live and work on the island year-around. These weather events increase the level of food insecurity in the country, which is detrimental to the local farmers who call Puerto Rico home. Hurricanes that cause food insecurity can hinder the livelihoods of local farmers and their families. It is difficult to obtain culturally appropriate, healthy, local food when environmental disasters occur, causing many people, including farmers, to suffer.
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 the total (hired plus family) labor in the horticulture sector. In the 27 states, the average wage of farm workers was €6.34. 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.
Careers
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. (2025). 9789251382622, FAO Food and Agriculture Organization of the United Nations. . ISBN 9789251382622
Farm Worker Justice Movement
The two most notable advocates in the history of the farmworker justice movement are Cesar Chávez and Dolores Huerta. Huerta was the co-founder of the United Farm Workers Union alongside Chavez. Huerta grew up in California, where she witnessed immigrant labor firsthand in restaurants and hotels where her mother worked. This helped to foster her passion for social justice. In 1955, she started working with the Community Service Organization (CSO), where she met Chávez. That organization focused on advocating for voting, education, and quality of life in underprivileged communities.
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