The Effects Of Pesticides On Our Lives

Over the past couple decades the number of undocumented immigrants involved in American agriculture has increased by the hundreds. They have dominated the fields on the west coast and have been put to work in some very harsh conditions. Many people in the US believe that these men, women, and even children are occupying jobs that legal citizens could have. We realize that even though much of our agriculture these days is harvested by modern technologies, a big part of the agriculture’s economy is made up of labor intensive from people, such as harvesting grapes, strawberries, pistachios, raspberries, etcetera. As we dig deeper into this topic we will realize why our agricultural

In a column written by Nicholas D. Kristof, he quotes a 19-year-old girl, “I’d love to get a job in a factory, at least that work is in the shade.” (120) This 19-year-old girl is striving for a job that many outsiders are striving to eradicate. In these impoverished countries families bring in so little money they are forced to ask their children to seek work so their families can survive.

Lucas Benavidez came from Mexico and became a farmer at 17. Lucas observed how the job was ripe with mistreatment and he wanted to do something about it. “As founder of the Coalition of Immokalee Workers (CIW), Benitez has become a leader in the struggle to end exploitation in America’s agricultural fields.” (Dreier). Lucas was able to found the CIW to help benefit farm workers. “So far, 11 giant retail food chains and supermarkets — including Aramark, Bon Appetit, Burger King, Chipotle Mexican Grill, Compass Group, McDonald’s, Sodexo, Subway, Trader Joe’s, Whole Foods and Yum Brands — have signed binding agreements with CIW that require growers to

The “Struggle in the Fields” has always been a controversial issue. In the PBS series, we get to learn how many obstacles came along, when many Filipino farm workers along with Mexican American workers began to demand a change in the fields.

The link between Mexico and poverty is a large reason why children are forced to work in factories. Poverty began to be an issue for Mexico starting many years ago. In the 1940s, when industrialization began taking place, Mexico’s economy was growing at a rate of 6 per cent per year (Latapi and Gonzalez). This increase in the economy created two new social classes: the urban middle class and the new working class. By the late 70s, at least half of the working middle class held jobs related in manufacturing (Latapi and Gonzalez). This employment gave wages high enough to allow one worker the

In a column written by Nicholas D. Kristof, he quotes a 19-year-old girl, “I’d love to get a job in a factory, at least that work is in the shade.” (120) This 19-year-old girl is striving for a job that many outsiders are striving to eradicate. In these impoverished countries, families bring in so little money they are forced to ask their children to seek work so their families can survive.

Throughout the era of the great depression, migrant farm workers were put at unfair labor. A man named Cesar Chavez helped migrant farm workers by boycotting the fruit companies they worked for and forming unions for them. The beginning of Chavez’s life, striking and boycotting fruit companies, and his new projects were the biggest impact in changing farm worker’s lives.

To elaborate, the farmworkers have been laboring day and night, even when their bodies are in pain. As stated by a young girl, named Carmen, “‘She (mom) doesn’t want to see me work there (in the fields), … she says because it’s a lot of work, … She doesn’t want me to go through what she goes through (in the fields). She says it’s really painful, hard work. Every night I massage her back so that she can feel better in the morning.’” As migrant worker, children who work and go to school, never have the chance to have a full education or experiences with friends. We know this because NBC’s Child Labor: Young Hands Picking Our Food states, “Critics of current U.S. labor law say these childhood dreams are jeopardized by a relentless cycle where young workers drop out of school to follow their families and the crops for work and then remain stuck in the fields because the children never finish their high school education.” Also, the Braceros during WWII worked hard, however, their paychecks seem to always show signs of deduction. We know this from the article, The Realities of Life and Labor, in which a man stated, “‘Sometimes the check stubs indicate the deduction and sometimes they

Farm labor can be one of the most difficult job to handle. From the low wages to the horrible weather and health conditions. Most of these farm labor workers are immigrants who are here in the United States seeking for a better job, and providing for their children’s. However, they do not have a good job and are struggling so bad for their children. The average pay for a field worker is ten dollars per hour. There must be a change to these wages since many workers are working in extremely hot weather conditions that no one can imagine or are willing to work like that. Not only that, but the farmers benefit from them dramatically. In the 1984 address by Cesar E. Chavez, president of the United Farm Workers of America, AFL-CIO, to the Commonwealth Club of California, uses different appeals to present the unfairness a farm worker faces. His main point is to

Holmes’ purpose in conducting his fieldwork with the migrant workers (specifically the Triqui of Mexico) of California and Washington fruit agriculture was to gain understanding from a perspective many do not consider and that has not been assessed in this way before. Similarly, the goal of this book was to pass that understanding to the common reader, the average American, those who are affected directly and those who are believe they are unaffected by the migrants of American agriculture—and to distinguish that they are not unaffected. Doing so creates the potential for change, even if by only a small factor like

According to the Cesar Chavez Foundation, “Some 800,000 under-aged children work with their families harvesting crops across America and as much as 30 percent of Northern California's garlic harvesters are under-aged children” (Chavez Foundation 1). All those children are being of an education because they are too busy working all day to go to school. Also because they are working all day farm workers have no time to teach their kids how to read and write so the kids never really develop the skills necessary to be able to communicate with other people. In addition the Cesar Chavez Foundation affirms that, “Babies born to migrant workers suffer 25 percent higher infant mortality than the rest of the population. Malnutrition among migrant worker children is 10 times higher than the national rate. Farm workers' average life expectancy is still 49 years --compared to 73 years for the average American” (Chavez Foundation 1). Most of those infant deaths are because the migrant workers don’t have the time or access to the medical attention required to raise infants. Farm workers' average life expectancy is probably so short due to the strenuous work they do on a daily

Way before Cesar Chavez even existed, the Southwestern United States, where there was a significant amount of agriculture work, was in desperate need of agricultural unions. The life of the average farm worker wasn’t a luxurious one. Working in crops often involved harsh working conditions which were filthy or dangerous and negligible pay.(Source N) With over 3 million farm workers in the United States, 72% were from a foreign

America the Beautiful! So why are we destroying it everyday with the use of pesticides? It has been proven that pesticides have affects on it's surrounding, although made to improve earths resources, they typically take there negative effect on the environment in time. Pesticides affect more than the environment; they also affect the animals and humans living in the environment. There are alternative, to this major problem but, we as the caretakers of earth must act fast. In the following paper I'm going to share with you what pesticides are. I'll tell you why they are not safe to use and some of the affects of pesticides. Last, I will talk about some new alternatives there are

The chemicals that are sprayed on the ground, even household weed killers, have a tendency to wash into local streams and rivers with the first rain. This has caused many incidents of fish, numerous miles down a river, to be found dead due to the toxins in the water. Carson states that the best way to eliminate a pest problem is to use natural predators, which are non-toxic, and a better long-term solution then pesticides, since many pests will become immune to most chemicals.

The U.S.- Mexico Bracero program was originated in Stockton, Ca., on August 4, 1942. The immigrant workers also faced harsh conditions, most of the work that was left for the immigrants was work that no one else was willing to do. Summarized best, “During the United States– Mexico Bracero Program, 1942-1964, U.S. agribusiness employed a coercive factory regime, introduced mechanization and increased work hazards, and employed a dual wage structure to keep Mexican contract workers at a serious disadvantage to advance their own collective well–being”(Mize). Although the immigrant workers faced harsh working conditions, the Bracero program stimulated economic growth in the western farming industry, and was deemed a success for the American agriculture business.