About Us
We are a group of researchers, students, community members, and advocates conducting research and outreach to mitigate the health impacts of climate change among agricultural and food systems workers across California. We focus on conducting mixed-methods and community-engaged research.
Examples of current projects include evaluation of farmworkers’ experiences working during wildfires in Sonoma County and the implications of the Ag Pass program; identifying workplace interventions to mitigate heat stress among farmworkers in the San Joaquin Valley; and evaluating the effectiveness of pesticide safety training, including facilitators and barriers to farmworkers reporting pesticide safety concerns. Our group also focuses on reporting back study findings to participants and communities
We believe that farmworkers serve one of the most important roles in our society, and their health is a clear indicator of the overall health and wellbeing of our communities. In addition to research, we focus on translating research to relevant policies to promote farmworker health and wellbeing, such as the expansion of unemployment insurance to excluded workers, developing pathways to citizenship for farmworkers, and re-expanding MediCal eligibility for those without documentation status. You can read an example of a recent op-ed co-authored by Dr. Carly Hyland and Ezequiel Guzman advocating for the expansion of unemployment insurance to excluded workers here.
Across these projects, one of the cross-cutting themes we have identified is the tension that farmworkers face between protecting their health and maintaining their livelihood, particularly during increasing climate disasters. For example, in research we conducted examining farmworkers experiences working in agriculture during wildfires, many shared sentiments that they must continue working during times of poor air quality to afford basic needs such as rent and groceries. Most farmworkers are paid “piece rate”, or by how much they harvest, incentivizing them to continue laboring during hazardous conditions. Most farmworkers in California also earn well below what is considered a living wage, forcing them to choose between their health and livelihood during increasing wildfires, heat waves, and other climate disasters. Further, farmworkers have been systematically excluded from many labor protections afforded to nearly all other occupational groups, exacerbating existing health disparities in this population.
