We are working with the Public Health Institute (Tracking California and Roots of Change), the Terra Bella School District, and the Central California Environmental Justice Network on an extreme heat resiliency project in the San Joaquin Valley (SJV), funded by the California Governor’s Office of Land Use and Climate Innovation.

In the summer of 2025, we conducted surveys with over 150 farmworkers and led open-ended semi-structured interviews with 16 farmworkers in the SJV to understand their experiences working in extreme heat; measures they take to protect themselves from heat; barriers and facilitators to implementing these strategies; availability of water, rest, and shade at the workplace; and recommendations for interventions to mitigate heat stress. We are currently conducting interviews with employers, Farm Labor Contractors (FLCs), and other industry representatives to understand their concerns regarding the impacts of heat on farmworkers, strategies they are implementing, and feedback on the feasibility of interventions proposed by farmworkers. We will be using this information to develop farmworker- and employer-informed interventions and evaluating the impact of these interventions in mitigating heat stress among a small cohort of farmworkers in summer 2026.