This aired in the 11/04/26 episode of Crosscurrents and was paired with the audio feature: A new view on farmworker health: How a scientist is using drones to study climate pollution
Farmworkers in Monterey County’s Pajaro Valley are exposed to dangerous air pollution in the fields. California has laws meant to protect them, but agricultural work remains one of the most hazardous jobs in the nation. And because of things like wildfires growing more frequent due to climate change, those dangers are only getting worse.
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HANA: Hi, Wendy
WENDY: Hi, Hana
HANA: California has some of the strongest legal protections for farmworkers in the country. What rights and protections do workers have under state law?
WENDY: So currently under state law, agricultural workers have protections under employment law and labor law, and so these are two very different things. Employment law, which are rights that you and I have access to as well, Hana, are things like rights to minimum wage, to overtime pay, paid sick leave, workers' compensation, protection against harassment and discrimination at work. Farmworkers also have access to things like basic workplace safety standards. This includes access to clean drinking water, bathrooms, and rest breaks.
HANA: Okay, so that is employment law. What about labor law? What does that cover?
WENDY: So this is one thing that makes California a little unique. It's really one of the few states that extends labor law protections to agricultural workers, and what that means is that they have the right to organize. They have the right to participate in unions, and this is not something that's guaranteed nationwide.
HANA: And California is a warm state, and climate change is making it more dangerous to be outside and to work outside. So what specific protections are in place to help farm workers stay safe on the job from, from those risks?
WENDY: So California has a few protections related to climate. These include the Heat Illness Prevention Standard enacted in 2005, the first law of its kind in the nation. It requires employers to provide things like access to shade, drinking water, and more frequent breaks when temperatures exceed 80 degrees Fahrenheit. There are practices happening on farms that growers are doing now, like shifting working hours to earlier in the day in order to reduce heat exposure, but it's not generally required by the heat standard.
In addition to that, there’s the 2019 Protection from Wildfire Smoke regulation.What it does is, its whole intention is to reduce the exposure to smoke to farmworkers. And so at work, employers are required to provide PPE, that's personal protection equipment, something like an N95 mask, or they adjust work schedules, or maybe they move workers to fields that are further away from the smoke. They're also required to provide additional rest breaks. Now, the thing with this law, Hana, is that it doesn't stop work altogether, so workers are still having to work in the field while there are active wildfires happening.
And just about two years ago, California did expand its paid sick leave so that farm workers could take time off, but only during designated emergencies.
HANA: So Wendy, it sounds like there are protections for farmworkers during declared, as you mentioned, emergencies, but there seem to be more and more disasters that are not declared emergencies or like long stretches of really hot days or wildfire smoke. What happens to people then? What are the health consequences of that?
WENDY: People still have to go to work, and it’s not good for their health. There’s research that suggests that exposure to fine-particle air pollution combined with extreme heat can double the risk of fatal heart attacks compared with exposure to either hazard alone. Extreme heat has been linked, long term, to acute kidney injury and chronic kidney disease, short term, we’re talking heat strokes on the job
Heat forces the body to work harder to regulate its internal temperature, placing additional strain on the heart, lungs, and kidney.bClimate change is expected to intensify these risks. One study projected a 35% increase in wildfire smoke exposure days for California farmworkers under future climate conditions
This is also an aging workforce. There’s a common practice, where employers often pay workers per piece harvested, meaning you need to move fast to earn more. These older farm workers are already straining their bodies to keep up.
HANA: So California has laws meant to protect farmworkers from these hazards, and the health risks are serious. Are these enough?
WENDY: Well, that depends on enforcement. I spoke with Matthew Sparke, a professor of politics at UC Santa Cruz and co-director of the Global and Community Health program, who has been working closely with agricultural communities. He says, Cal/OSHA, the state’s occupational safety and health administration, is supposed to enforce these rules.
SPARKE: So Cal OSHA ought to be able to enforce the basic rights farm workers have, but it doesn't have funding to employ enough staff to really reach out into all of California's communities.
WENDY: Enforcement becomes even more complicated when multiple companies and contractors are involved in hiring and managing workers. For example, large companies such as Driscoll’s will contract with smaller farms to grow their crops, those small farms will then hire workers through FLC’s, farm labor contractors.
This structure can make it tricky to determine who is ultimately responsible for worker safety.
SPARKE: So those kinds of growers are not going to be doing much and don't do much to protect their workers.
WENDY: We’ve been talking about the state level, but on the ground, these protections aren’t enough when workers are unwilling to report violations
HANA: We know farmworkers are especially vulnerable because so many of them are immigrants, that probably makes it harder for them to speak up, right?
WENDY: More than 80% of farmworkers are immigrants, and approximately half are undocumented. Immigration status can make workers more vulnerable to wage theft, discrimination, harassment, and unsafe working conditions. Workers may fear retaliation if they challenge their employers.
I spoke with a United Farm Workers’ communications director, Antonio De Loera, who described something called “soft retaliation.” The example he shared is common in the fields: a worker who asks for a break because they feel unwell may be told to go home without pay.
These practices can discourage workers from exercising their rights, even when the law is on their side.
HANA: And for immigrant farmworkers, the challenges don't necessarily end when they leave the field. How do immigration concerns, financial insecurity, and limited access to healthcare affect their lives and their ability to stay safe?
WENDY: Fear of deportation creates additional stress and can make workers feel unsafe even while on the job. Jesus Padilla, is a local farmworker in the town of Pajaro, he’s picked strawberries for over 30 years. Here he is describing the stress surrounding immigration enforcement.
JESUS: Pues yo creo que ahorita como anda la incertidumbre de la migración por donde quiera, eh, está uno nomás cuidando las entradas de las, de los ranchos por donde entra uno, a ver a qué horas llega la, la, los agentes. Es lo que trabaja uno con un poquito de estrés, por eso.
WENDY: He says, there’s a lot of fear at work. Workers spend a lot of their time watching the entrances of the ranches, fearful that ICE will show up.
In addition to that challenge, many struggle to afford food and household expenses, and many go without health insurance. Undocumented workers are excluded from unemployment benefits, leaving many dependent on private organizations and mutual aid when disasters interrupt their income.
HANA: What is being done, or not being done, to help farmworkers manage the financial risks of extreme weather and unsafe working conditions?
WENDY: There are grassroots organizations, including North Bay Jobs with Justice, who are advocating for hazard pay: additional compensation for working in hazardous conditions. Some smaller farms in places such as Sonoma County are already providing hazard pay when the Air Quality Index reaches or exceeds 150 AQI.
On a smaller scale, there’s a professor in Santa Cruz using drone technology to track air quality on farms, and is working closely with locals to share that information so that they can make informed decisions about their health.
On that same campus, Matthew Sparke has developed an app alongside his students, called Camp Sano. This app is meant to connect farmworkers across the region, so that they know they’re not alone in the challenges they face at work.
There’s innovation happening amongst farmworkers addressing these issues. And ultimately Hana, it’s gonna take everyone, from policymakers, to growers, farmworkers, and community organizations to improve working conditions
