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{{Short description|Performs agricultural labor}} |
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[[Image:Farmworker.jpg|thumb|180px|Farmworker in Puerto Rico, c. 1940]] |
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{{Redirect|Farmhand}} |
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A '''farmworker''' is a person hired to work in the agricultural industry. This includes work on farms of all sizes, from small, family-run businesses to large [[industrial agriculture]] operations. The farmworker may or may not be related to the individuals who own or run the farm, but his or her job entails a more formal relationship than a family member or neighbor who might do occasional chores on the farm. Depending on the location and type of farm, the work may be seasonal or permanent. Seasonal, or [[migrant worker]]s, are often low-wage workers, who may or may not be working in their country of origin. Permanent workers may have a particular set of skills or educational background that allow them to earn higher wages, and are often found on farms where there is year-round production, such as on dairy or beef cattle farms. Farmworkers usually earn a wage, however, the work can be done on a volunteer basis or for educational reasons. Many programs exist, such as World-Wide Opportunities on Organic Farms ([[WWOOF]]) that facilitates 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. Farm workers may be from the country where they are employed, or may be immigrants, as is often the case in the United States. |
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{{Use dmy dates|date=November 2022}} |
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[[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 ]] |
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{{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]].]] |
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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 picking fruit. |
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==Farm Workers in the United States== |
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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. |
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===United States Farm Structure=== |
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[[File:عامل من السودان.jpg|thumb|left|Sudanese farmer reviews cantaloupe production, south of [[Khartoum]]]] |
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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>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> |
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[[File:02 Jean Claude at work.jpg|alt=A picture of a man in a cabbage farm|thumb|A Rwandan farmworker]] |
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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. |
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==Worldwide== |
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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>USDA Agricultural Fact Book ’98:Chapter 2, http://www.usda.gov/news/pubs/fbook98/chart2.htm</ref> 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>Philpott, Tom. Your Food Doesn’t Come From the Grocery Store: A journey into the heart of industrial agriculture. Grist Environmental News and Commentary, Oct. 9 2007 http://www.grist.org/feature/2007/10/09/ednote/</ref> As farm production has largely moved away from the family farms and towards an [[industrial agriculture]] model, there is an increased need for wage labor. 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]]s and [[vegetable]]s.<ref>Kandel, William. Hired Farmworkers a Major Input for Some U.S. Farm Sectors. Amber Waves, April 2008 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>Kandel, William. Hired Farmworkers a Major Input for Some U.S. Farm Sectors. |
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Amber Waves, April 2008 http://www.ers.usda.gov/AmberWaves/April08/Features/HiredFarm.htm</ref> Increased competition among agricultural producers and consolidation have created a need for a large, inexpensive, temporary workforce that increasingly comes from abroad. |
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=== |
===In the United States=== |
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{{excerpt|Farmworkers in the United States}} |
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===In Canada=== |
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The agricultural labor force is largely foreign-born [[Hispanic]]s of which 81% are foreign born, 77% are from [[Mexico]],<ref>BOCES Geneseo Migrant Center, Migrant Farmworkers in the United States. http://www.migrant.net/pdf/farmworkerfacts.pdf</ref> and it is estimated that 52% of all farm workers are undocumented immigrants.<ref>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> They are usually young, married males.<ref>UDSA Economic Research Service, Briefing Rooms. Rural Labor and Education: Farm |
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[[File:Nanton Alberta.jpg|thumb|Small town in Canada with farming history and heritage]] |
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Labor. March 31 2008 http://www.ers.usda.gov/Briefing/LaborAndEducation/FarmLabor.htm</ref> Every year many of these farmworkers leave their homes and families to cultivate, harvest, and package fruit, nut and vegetables in the U.S., while others work in the fishing, meat packing and dairy industries.<ref>BOCES Geneseo Migrant Center, Migrant Farmworkers in the United States. |
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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> |
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http://www.migrant.net/pdf/farmworkerfacts.pdf</ref> In the past, the rise in [[immigration]] to the U.S., usually of unauthorized workers, has increased the population of migrant farmworkers. However, in the 1990’s, a new trend began with the development of more year-round production methods resulting in a larger population of settled farmworkers.<ref>Kandel, William. Hired Farmworkers a Major Input for Some U.S. Farm Sectors. Amber Waves, April 2008 http://www.ers.usda.gov/AmberWaves/April08/Features/HiredFarm.htm</ref> |
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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>). |
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===Issues Facing Farm workers=== |
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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> |
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Farm workers face many challenges globally and in the United States, and are among the most marginalized labor group in the world. The increasing prevalence of multinational corporations and a consolidated agricultural supply chain puts downward pressure on producers and thus wages and working conditions for labor.<ref>Guthman, Julie (2004). Agrarian Dreams: The Paradox of Organic Farming in California. Berkeley: University of California Press.</ref> The [[International Labor Organization]] argues that the large scale restructuring of agriculture contributes to violations of the four fundamental worker rights: the right to join [[unions]] and bargain collectively, the elimination of forced labor, the ending of [[child labor]], and the reduction of discriminatory hiring.<ref>Rural Migration News. 2003. ILO: Global Farm Issues. October 2003; v9 no. 4. http://migration.ucdavis.edu/rmn/more.php?id=785_0_5_0</ref> Farm workers are more vulnerable to these abuses because of the precarious nature of their employment. |
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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> |
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Not all farms and agricultural systems exhibit the following abuses and may respect the dignity of farm labor. The Swanton Berry farm for example “was the first strawberry farm in the United States to sign a contract with the [[United Farm Workers]] of America/[[AFL-CIO]]. The farm workers’ contract includes the highest pay scales in the industry, health care, vacation and holiday pay.”<ref>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> Nonetheless, there are many prevalent abuses within the agricultural labor industry. |
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=== In Cuba=== |
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Agricultural [[manual labor]] is often seasonal employment, which increases job insecurity among farm workers and can inhibit them from effectively organizing for better working conditions. For some, pursuing farm labor as a [[migrant worker]], or following the crops, is an attempt to secure more regular employment but this incurs traveling costs that may not be made up upon arriving at the destination. Dairy farms and other animal operations require year-round, daily and around-the-clock labor which farm workers may feel unable to challenge. Farm workers in any context are additionally vulnerable to abuse when they are undocumented immigrants and isolated physically, socially, or linguistically. |
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{{expand section|date=November 2019}} |
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[[File:Farmer plows his field with oxen at Cuba-Vinales.jpg|thumb|Farmer plows his field with oxen at Cuba-Vinales]] |
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Prior to [[Cuba under Fidel Castro|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> |
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{{cite book |
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| last1 = Pollitt |
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| first1 = Brian H. |
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| chapter = The technical transformation of Cuba's sugar agroindustry |
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| editor1-last = Pérez-López |
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| editor1-first = Jorge F. |
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| editor2-last = Alvarez |
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| editor2-first = Jose |
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| title = Reinventing the Cuban Sugar Agroindustry |
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| url = https://books.google.com/books?id=reSXX-8OMVwC |
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| series = Rural economies in transition |
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| year = 2005 |
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| publisher = Lexington Books |
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| publication-date = 2005 |
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| page = 47 |
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| isbn = 9780739110003 |
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| access-date = 30 November 2019 |
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| 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. |
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}} |
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</ref> |
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Subsequently, mechanisation ensued.<ref> |
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{{cite book |
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| last1 = Pollitt |
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| first1 = Brian H. |
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| chapter = The technical transformation of Cuba's sugar agroindustry |
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| editor1-last = Pérez-López |
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| editor1-first = Jorge F. |
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| editor2-last = Alvarez |
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| editor2-first = Jose |
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| title = Reinventing the Cuban Sugar Agroindustry |
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| url = https://books.google.com/books?id=reSXX-8OMVwC |
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| series = Rural economies in transition |
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| year = 2005 |
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| publisher = Lexington Books |
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| publication-date = 2005 |
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| page = 48 |
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| isbn = 9780739110003 |
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| access-date = 30 November 2019 |
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| quote = Complementing extension of the harvest was an ambitious program to mechanize the cutting and loading of the sugarcane. |
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}} |
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</ref> |
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===In Mexico=== |
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The many problems with farm working around the world compel immigration, both from rural to urban areas and internationally. Global trade and the depression of crop prices across the developing world contribute to agricultural workers seeking employment outside of their home country. [[Undocumented workers]] are subject to the worst abuses since they have no recourse and may be more dependent on their current employment. Workers documented under the '''H-2A agricultural visa program''' may also be unwilling to make demands since producers are only required to pay for their return home if the worker completes the growing season.<ref>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> |
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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" /> |
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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> |
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There are many working conditions that can be of concern to farm workers and their advocates including adequate wages, housing, food, working conditions, access to health care, and the quality of life for their families. Farm wages fell by 10% between 1989 and 1998.<ref>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> Additionally, in the agricultural sector [[overtime]] pay and [[minimum wage]], depending on the man-hours employed by the farm, is not required in the United States. Many farm workers live below the [[poverty line]], making an average of $10,000 per year.<ref>National Farm Worker Ministry website. |
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http://www.nfwm.org/fw/povertywages.shtml</ref> Access to adequate food and housing compound the problem of low wages. Housing may be rented by the farmworker or provided for free; however, much of the housing provided is inadequate and overcrowded. Extremely low wages can prohibit farmworkers, who feed our great nation, from buying enough food to feed their families. |
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[[File:Mexican farmer on his dugout.jpg|thumb|left|Mexican farmer on his dugout]] |
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Information about health hazards and access to [[health care]] is extremely important and limited for farm workers. Agricultural workers perform a dangerous job- working with animals, pesticides, heavy machinery, and doing physically demanding tasks. Safety training is required in the [[United States]] but is not always performed or may be inadequate due to the seasonal time frame and language barriers. Chronic back injuries, serious respiratory problems in [[Confined animal feeding operations]], and [[pesticide]] poisoning are common. The problem of pesticide exposure is increasingly recognized as one which occurs not only during the employees workday, but due to [[pesticide drift]] both workers, their families and whole neighborhoods are also exposed when the wind carries pesticides into nearby communities.<ref>Harrison, Jill. 2008. "Abandoned bodies and spaces of sacrifice: Pesticide drift activism and the contestation of neoliberal environmental politics in California". Geoforum.</ref> There have even been reports of farm workers drowning in [[manure]] lagoons.<ref>Sustainable Table website. |
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http://www.sustainabletable.org/issues/workers/</ref> In instances where farm workers may be hurt on the job, they may not know their right to health care or they may be reticent to report injuries for fear of losing their jobs. Meanwhile, in the United States, 95% of farm workers have no health insurance for non-farm related injuries which makes healthcare access for the family of farm workers and for illness very difficult to obtain.<ref>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> |
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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> |
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While farm workers are mainly young men, the structure of farm work affects the entire family. When families do not travel together, parents, particularly fathers, are away from their children and families for long periods of time. On the farm site, many other issues confront women and children. Sexual harassment and abuse, inadequate educational opportunities, and the need for child labor for wages or for lack of [[childcare]] are serious concerns as well as exposure of pregnant women and children to many of the health hazards listed above. Women also face discriminatory hiring practices and often significantly lower wages, especially for piece-rate harvest work.<ref>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> |
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[[File:" 13 - ITALY - soy farm - BIO ITA - soybean field organic agricolture in Veneto.jpg|thumb|Organic soybean farm in Veneto, Italy]] |
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The following poem shows some of the difficulties faced by farmworkers: |
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===In the European Union=== |
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We have fed you all for a thousand years-<br/> |
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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> |
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For that was our doom, you know,<br/> |
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From the days when you chained us in your fields<br/> |
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To the strike a week ago.<br/> |
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You have taken our lives, and our babies and wives,<br/> |
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And we're told it's your legal share,<br/> |
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But if blood be the price of your lawful wealth,<br/> |
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Good God! We have bought it fair!<ref>"An Unknown [[Proletarian]]", 1908 http://www.farmworkers.org/strugcal.html</ref> |
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==Careers== |
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===Farm Worker Organizing in the United States=== |
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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 {{!}} FAO {{!}} Food and Agriculture Organization of the United Nations |url=https://www.fao.org/documents/card/en?details=cc8166en |access-date=2023-12-13 |website=FAODocuments |language=en |doi=10.4060/cc8166en}}</ref> |
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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. |
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As compared to other workers, organization attempts on the behalf of farm-workers face a double challenge. First, [[labor laws]] that apply generally do not apply to agricultural workers. The [[National Labor Relations Act]] of 1935, for example, which protects most workers who organize and form [[trade unions]] from employer retaliation (like firing etc.) and sets up a framework for unions and employers to negotiate in good faith, does not extend to farm workers. 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. 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]]. 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. |
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==See also== |
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Some of the main organizations associated with the farm workers movement are the [[United Farm Workers]] the Farm Labor Organizing Committee, and the [[Coalition of Immokalee Workers]]. Many of the issues around which farm workers organize relating to [[occupational health and safety]] and labor rights are also socially important issues that affect society more broadly. These include issues such as immigration rights or pesticide use in American agriculture (wiki) . These leads to collaborations between farm workers organizations and other groups. [[United Farm Workers]], Pesticide Action Network and [[Earthjustice]], for example, have worked together to present a [[petition]], supported by 24 organizations in total, to the [[US Environmental Protection Agency]] to push for a ban of the pesticide [[endosulfan]]. |
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[[File:Old woman cleaning olives.jpg|thumb|Old woman cleaning olives]] |
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* [[Agroecology]] |
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* [[Farmer]] |
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* [[Manual labor]] |
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* [[Migrant worker]] |
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* [[Grower (disambiguation)]] |
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* [[Environmental Justice]] |
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* [[Peasant]] |
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* [[Subsistence agriculture]] |
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==References== |
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Given the reduced right to organize and bargain as workers, two approaches are commonly used. The first is targeting [[regulation]] changes by pressuring the government. The UFW, for example, often run [[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. 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 [[McDonalds]] 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. |
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{{Reflist}} |
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==Sources== |
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{{Free-content attribution |
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*[[Farmer]] |
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| title = World Food and Agriculture – Statistical Yearbook 2023 |
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*[[United Farmworkers]] |
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| author = FAO |
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*[[Manual labor]] |
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| publisher = FAO |
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*[[Migrant worker]] |
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| documentURL = https://www.fao.org/documents/card/en?details=cc8166en |
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| license statement URL = https://commons.wikimedia.org/whttps://commons.wikimedia.org/wiki/File:World_Food_and_Agriculture_-_Statistical_Yearbook_2023.pdf |
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| license = CC BY-SA IGO 3.0 |
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}} |
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==Further reading== |
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[[Category:People in food and agriculture occupations]] |
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* Flores, Lori A. ''Grounds for Dreaming: Mexican Americans, Mexican Immigrants, and the California Farmworker Movement'' (Yale University Press, 2016). xvi, 288 pp. |
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[[Category:Agricultural labor]] |
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==External links== |
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{{job-stub}} |
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* [https://web.archive.org/web/20130216092130/http://www.doleta.gov/agworker/naws.cfm National Agricultural Workers Survey] |
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* [http://usda.mannlib.cornell.edu/MannUsda/viewDocumentInfo.do?documentID=1063 USDA National Agricultural Statistics Service] |
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* [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.] |
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* [http://www.fwjustice.org/ Farmworker Justice website] |
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* [https://www.un.org/apps/news/story.asp?NewsID=16109&Cr=&Cr1 Hundreds of millions of agricultural workers face poverty, hunger. UN report. 2005.] |
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* [https://www.cdc.gov/niosh/topics/agriculture/ National Institute for Occupational safety and Health: Agriculture] |
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* [https://web.archive.org/web/20131212102322/http://www.ncfan.org/storage/Close%20to%20Slavery.pdf Guest Worker Programs in the U.S.] |
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*[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] |
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{{Agriculture footer}} |
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{{Authority control}} |
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[[Category:Agricultural occupations]] |
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==Notes== |
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[[Category:Agricultural labor]] |
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{{reflist|2}} |
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[[Category:Farmworkers| ]] |
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==References== |
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Afarmworker, farmhandoragricultural 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.
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.
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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[update], 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.
Canada as of 2010[update] had 297,683 agricultural employees; 112,059 were year-around and 185,624 were seasonal or temporary.[8] 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.[9] 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.[10]
Workers in the Seasonal Agricultural Worker Program, being citizens of Mexico and various Caribbean countries,[9] 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.[11] 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"[11] (British Columbia did not participate in the Seasonal Agricultural Workers Program until 2004.[12]).
Many of the issues noted for farm workers in the US also apply in Canada.[12] 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".[13]
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.[14]
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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.[15] Subsequently, mechanisation ensued.[16]
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.[11]
Several issues, particularly low pay, and harsh working conditions have been identified that pertain to some farmworkers in Mexico.[17] Many of these issues are pursued by farmworker organizations, with resulting labor action, e.g. strikes occurring in 2015.[18][19]
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.[20] 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.[21] 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.[22]
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.[23] 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.[24]
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.[25]
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.
[...] 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.
Complementing extension of the harvest was an ambitious program to mechanize the cutting and loading of the sugarcane.
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.
