“As California’s water crisis looms over the agricultural industry, conversations have focused on the threat to big growers while often overlooking the devastating potential impact to the laborers and small migrant communities,” writes Carolina Wilson at Peninsula Press, a Stanford Journalism project. “Agricultural laborers face not only work shortages but also the increased potential of contaminated water supplies. This threatens both their health and their economic stability, as a disproportionate amount of their budgets is spent on private water supplies and other basic needs.” Some workers travel for hours to work, or live away from home for three to four weeks at a time.
Check out FERN’s piece, with media partner Pacific Standard, about how the drought is affecting farmworkers in California.