Over the past decade, California has become more prone to weather extremes, including increased frequency and severity of heat waves, droughts, and wildfires.
How have these weather extremes affected the work, health, and safety of agricultural employers and farmworkers? How are they preparing for the future?
Agricultural workers experience high rates of stress-related psychiatric conditions and one of the highest suicide rates of any industry and yet the stressors and mental health of this population are not well understood.
Earlier this year, WCAHS accepted proposals for short-term projects that address research, outreach, or educational issues of agricultural health and safety in Arizona, California, Hawaii, and/or Nevada.
Biological, lifestyle, and environmental factors all affect obesity, both in the general population and among farmworkers. However, less is known about the relationship between mental illness, such as depression, and obesity in the agricultural workforce.
This summer, seven agricultural health and safety projects will be carried out around the Western Region with funding from the Wester Center for Agricultural Health and Safety (WCAHS).
In California, home to the largest population of immigrant farmworkers in the nation, a third of farmworkers are members of Indigenous communities from Southern Mexico. Many speak only an Indigenous language like Mixteco, Zapoteco, or Triqui, and research suggests they are denied access to trained interpreters and face discrimination.
Although we might think that legal vulnerability would lead to poorer physical health, a new study finds that unauthorized farm workers reported better physical health than legal permanent residents and naturalized citizens.
WCAHS small grant recipient Seth Holmes, PhD, MD, was recently named a William T Grant Scholar. With this prestigious award, he will receive explore the experiences of second‐generation indigenous Mexican farmworker youth.
