• Home > United States > Thousands of farmworkers in California can’t make a living

Thousands of farmworkers in California can’t make a living

by David Bacon

The home of the family of Alberto Martinez and Rufina Perez, Triqui migrant farm workers, in a plywood shack in the fields outside Hollister. Photo: David Bacon  

At the end of the 1970s California farm workers were the highest-paid in the U.S., with the possible exception of Hawaii’s long-unionized sugar and pineapple workers. Today their economic situation is not much different from that of their coworkers elsewhere around the country. California’s agricultural laborers are trapped in jobs that pay the minimum wage and often less, and are mostly unable to find permanent year-round work.

  • World Hunger Education
    Service
    P.O. Box 29015
    Washington, D.C. 20017

  • About WHES & Hunger Notes
    For the past 40 years, since its founding in 1976, the mission of World Hunger Education Service is to undertake programs, including Hunger Notes, that
    • Educate the general public and target groups about the extent and causes of hunger and malnutrition in the United States and the world
    • Advance comprehension which integrates ethical, religious, social, economic, political, and scientific perspectives on the world food problem
    • Facilitate communication and networking among those who are working for solutions
    • Promote individual and collective commitments to sustainable hunger solutions.