Farmworker

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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

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Farm workers on a field near Mount Williamson in Inyo County, California. This photograph is by Ansel Adams.

A farmworker or farmhand, 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. Agricultural work varies widely depending on context, degree of mechanization and crop. Low wages for farmworkers have been associated with farmworker shortages and delayed adoption of agricultural technology.[1]

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

File:Farm Ridges.webm Agricultural labor is often 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 and marginal working conditions, many labor rights, economic justice and environmental justice movements have been organized or supported by farmworkers.

Worldwide

In the United States

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In Canada

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.[2] 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.[3] This Seasonal Agricultural Worker Program, established in 1966, brings about 25,000 foreign workers to Canada each year. About 66% of those work in Ontario, 13% in Québec, and 13% in British Columbia.[4]

Workers in the Seasonal Agricultural Worker Program, being citizens of Mexico and various Caribbean countries,[3] 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.[5] 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% were Punjabi speaking"[5] (British Columbia did not participate in the Seasonal Agricultural Workers Program until 2004.[6]).

Many of the issues noted for farm workers in the US also apply in Canada.[6] 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".[7]

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.[8]

In Cuba

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Farmer plows his field with oxen at Cuba-Vinales.

Prior to social changes in the 1960s, the all-important Cuban sugar-growing economy had an integrated rural-urban workforce—each season, town-dwellers helped to bring in the harvest.[9] Subsequently, mechanisation ensued, causing agricultural employment to fall.[10] In 2023, an estimated 17.1% of the Cuban workforce was employed in agriculture.[11]

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, Baja California Norte, and Sur, are 400,000 to 600,000.[5]

Several issues, particularly low pay and harsh working conditions have been identified that pertain to some farmworkers in Mexico.[12] Many of these issues are pursued by farmworker organizations, with resulting labor action, e.g. strikes occurring in 2015.[13][14]

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.[15] 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.[16] 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% of the cases.[17]

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.[18]

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.[19] According to data from the Institute for Agriculture and Trade Policy, “From 1992 through 2012 the U.S. lost 245,288, or 22%, of small-scale farmers (under $350,000 annual gross farm income) and 6,123, or 5% of mid-sized farmers”.[20] 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.[21]

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.[22] 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.[23] 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.[24] Without these workers, the U.S. food system would be placed in jeopardy.

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.[25]

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.[25] 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.[25]

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.[25]

Organic soybean farm in Veneto, Italy

In the European Union

For the 27 member states of the European Union in 2009, 77 % 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.[26] 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.[27]

Careers

The share of employment in agriculture, forestry and fishing in total employment declined globally by 13 %age points between 2000 and 2021, to 26.6%. Yet, agriculture remains the second largest source of employment worldwide after the services sector.[28]

In 2023, the wage for a farm worker was $17.55, which is the lowest paid job in the United States.[29] According to Joan Lo and Ariel Jacobson, “five out of the eight lowest paying jobs in the country are in the food system."[30] Farm workers in the United States make up only 1% of workers, even though they are an important part of the food system.[31] 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.

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

Old woman cleaning olives

References

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  1. ^ Page Module:Citation/CS1/styles.css has no content.Win, Myat Thida; Rutledge, Zachariah; Maredia, Mywish K. (2025). "Labor shortages and farmer adaptation strategies". Applied Economic Perspectives and Policy. 47 (3): 896–913. doi:10.1002/aepp.13527. ISSN 2040-5790.
  2. ^ Page Module:Citation/CS1/styles.css has no content."Paid agricultural work in the year prior to the census". www150.statcan.gc.ca. 24 November 2014. Retrieved 12 November 2019.
  3. ^ a b Employment and Social Development Canada. Hiring seasonal agricultural workers. http://www.esdc.gc.ca/eng/jobs/foreign_workers/agriculture/seasonal//index.shtml Script error: No such module "webarchive".
  4. ^ Page Module:Citation/CS1/styles.css has no content."Migrant workers: Who they are, where they're coming from". CBC News. Retrieved 12 November 2019.
  5. ^ a b c Page Module:Citation/CS1/styles.css has no content."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.
  6. ^ a b Page Module:Citation/CS1/styles.css has no content."Farmworker Health and Safety: Challenges for British Columbia" (PDF). Retrieved 12 November 2019.
  7. ^ Page Module:Citation/CS1/styles.css has no content."International Migration Research Centre" (PDF). imrc.ca. Archived from the original (PDF) on 4 March 2016. Retrieved 12 November 2019.
  8. ^ Page Module:Citation/CS1/styles.css has no content.Immigration, Refugees and Citizenship Canada (26 March 2008). "Understand your rights as a foreign worker". aem. Retrieved 12 November 2019.
  9. ^ Page Module:Citation/CS1/styles.css has no content.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.
  10. ^ Page Module:Citation/CS1/styles.css has no content.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.
  11. ^ Page Module:Citation/CS1/styles.css has no content."Employment in agriculture (% of total employment) (modeled ILO estimate)". World Bank Data360. Retrieved 28 July 2025.
  12. ^ Page Module:Citation/CS1/styles.css has no content."Hardship on Mexico's farms, a bounty for U.S. tables". graphics.latimes.com. 7 December 2014. Retrieved 12 November 2019.
  13. ^ Page Module:Citation/CS1/styles.css has no content."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.
  14. ^ Page Module:Citation/CS1/styles.css has no content."North America's fruit industry feeling effect of farm workers' strike in Mexico". Retrieved 12 November 2019.
  15. ^ 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]
  16. ^ de Jesús Chain-Castro, T. et al. 1998. Pesticide poisoning in Mexican seasonal farm workers. Int. J. Occupational Env. Health 4:202-203
  17. ^ 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
  18. ^ Page Module:Citation/CS1/styles.css has no content.Zabin, Carol (1997). "U.S.-Mexico Economic Integration: Labor Relations and the Organization of Work in California and Baja California Agriculture". Economic Geography. 73 (3): 337–355. doi:10.2307/144488. ISSN 0013-0095. JSTOR 144488.
  19. ^ Page Module:Citation/CS1/styles.css has no content.Zabin, Carol (1997). "U.S.-Mexico Economic Integration: Labor Relations and the Organization of Work in California and Baja California Agriculture". Economic Geography. 73 (3): 337–355. doi:10.2307/144488. ISSN 0013-0095. JSTOR 144488.
  20. ^ Page Module:Citation/CS1/styles.css has no content."We work to create sustainable food agriculture systems | IATP". www.iatp.org. Retrieved 8 May 2025.
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  22. ^ Page Module:Citation/CS1/styles.css has no content.Erwin, Anna (1 February 2016). "Pondering Farmworker Justice: The Visible and Invisible Borders of Social Change". Journal of Agriculture, Food Systems, and Community Development. 6 (2): 29–33. doi:10.5304/jafscd.2016.062.007. hdl:10919/89578. ISSN 2152-0801.
  23. ^ Page Module:Citation/CS1/styles.css has no content."We work to create sustainable food agriculture systems | IATP". www.iatp.org. Retrieved 8 May 2025.
  24. ^ Page Module:Citation/CS1/styles.css has no content.Erwin, Anna (1 February 2016). "Pondering Farmworker Justice: The Visible and Invisible Borders of Social Change". Journal of Agriculture, Food Systems, and Community Development. 6 (2): 29–33. doi:10.5304/jafscd.2016.062.007. hdl:10919/89578. ISSN 2152-0801.
  25. ^ a b c d Page Module:Citation/CS1/styles.css has no content.Rodríguez-Cruz, Luis; Álvarez-Berríos, Nora; Niles, Meredith (4 April 2022). "Social-ecological interactions in a disaster context: Puerto Rican farmer households' food security after Hurricane Maria". Environmental Research Letters. 17 (4): 044057. Bibcode:2022ERL....17d4057R. doi:10.1088/1748-9326/ac6004. Retrieved 8 May 2025.
  26. ^ Page Module:Citation/CS1/styles.css has no content."EU farm economics 2012" (PDF). Retrieved 12 November 2019.
  27. ^ Page Module:Citation/CS1/styles.css has no content."How many people work in agriculture in the European Union?" (PDF). Retrieved 12 November 2019.
  28. ^ Page Module:Citation/CS1/styles.css has no content.World Food and Agriculture – Statistical Yearbook 2023. FAO | Food and Agriculture Organization of the United Nations. 2023. doi:10.4060/cc8166en. ISBN 978-92-5-138262-2. Retrieved 13 December 2023 – via FAODocuments.
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  30. ^ Page Module:Citation/CS1/styles.css has no content.Lo, Joann; Jacobson, Ariel (2011). "Human Rights from Field to Fork: Improving Labor Conditions for Food-sector Workers by Organizing across Boundaries". Race/Ethnicity: Multidisciplinary Global Contexts. 5 (1): 61–82. doi:10.2979/racethmulglocon.5.1.61. ISSN 1935-8644. JSTOR 10.2979/racethmulglocon.5.1.61.
  31. ^ Page Module:Citation/CS1/styles.css has no content."Farm Labor | Economic Research Service". www.ers.usda.gov. Retrieved 9 May 2025.

Sources

 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 2023Template:Zwsp, FAO, FAO.


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