Precarious Protection

Executive Summary

Everyone deserves a workplace that prioritizes their health and safety. Unfortunately, farmworkers seldom find themselves in such a work environment. Pesticide exposure is one of the major threats these workers encounter, with health impacts ranging from the acute to the chronic. These risks extend beyond the fields. Pesticide residue frequently travels home with workers and exposes their families.

The Worker Protection Standard (WPS) is the main federal regulation intended to address the risks associated with pesticide-related illness and injury among farmworkers. The Environmental Protection Agency (EPA) established and enforces the regulation.

Compliance with the WPS should reduce pesticide risks to workers. Unfortunately, many farms do not comply with the WPS. The actual rate and quality of compliance is difficult to assess. As detailed in Exposed and at Risk, state and federal enforcement data are unreliable. Still, the reported data provide some insight into compliance rates. In 2021, states inspected 3,092 facilities and recorded 1,491 violations; tribes inspected 40 facilities and noted one violation; and the EPA inspected no facilities. Surveys and qualitative research also indicate that many employers do not fully comply with the WPS, though much more research is needed. There are also shortcomings with the WPS. No evaluation of the standard’s effectiveness has ever taken place.

The EPA supports and monitors compliance through a variety of cooperative agreements with universities, community-based organizations, and state enforcement agencies. Stakeholders have critiqued the execution of some of these functions, and there are opportunities for improvement.

Acknowledgments

This report was produced by the Center for Agriculture and Food Systems at Vermont Law and Graduate School, the Harvard Law School Food Law and Policy Clinic, and Farmworker Justice. The lead authors of this report are Emma Scott and Gray Norton of the Harvard Law School Food Law and Policy Clinic, with Eric Sugarman and Hazel Spires, Summer Honors Interns with Center for Agriculture and Food Systems at Vermont Law and Graduate School, and Jenny Dorsey, Kyla Duffy, Chloe Dyer, and Kristi Tanaka, Clinical Students with the Harvard Law School Food Law and Policy Clinic.

The report was written in partnership with Laurie J. Beyranevand, Professor of Law and Director of the Center for Agriculture and Food Systems, Lihlani Skipper Nelson, Deputy Director and Senior Researcher, Center for Agriculture and Food Systems, and Mayra Reiter, Project Director, Occupational Safety and Health at Farmworker Justice, all of whom served as thought partners, editors, and reviewers.

We thank the following people for reviewing this report: Renée AboAmshe, Program Manager, Migrant Clinicians Network; Becca Berkey, Director of Community-Engaged Teaching and Research, Northeastern University; Lisa Blecker, Pesticide Safety Educator, Colorado State University & Administrator, Pesticide Regulatory Education Program (PREP); Jeannie Economos, Coordinator, Pesticide Safety and Environmental Health Program, Farmworker Association of Florida; Anne Katten, Director, Pesticide + Worker Safety Project, California Rural Legal Assistance Foundation; Melanie Forti, Health & Safety Programs Director, Association of Farmworker Opportunity Programs; Andrés Kenney, New England Farmworker Attorney, Pine Tree Legal Assistance; Amy Tamayo, National Policy and Advocacy Director, and Mily Treviño Sauceda, Executive Director, Alianza Nacional de Campesinas.

Thanks also to the following individuals for speaking to us about their work: Alexis Luckey, Caitlin Ryland, David Morales, Derek Brinks, Edgar Franks, Kaci Buhl, Laurie Manning, Lisa Palumbo, Lynn Hamilton, Margaret Reeves, Mary Jo Dudley, Mike McCullough, Pat Farquhar, Phoebe Gooding, Roberto Rosales, Sara Quandt, Thomas Arcury, and those who wished to remain anonymous. Their generosity with their time and expertise greatly increased our understanding of the practices and dynamics at issue in this report.

The reviewers and interviewees did not review the final document and do not necessarily agree with the report’s arguments and recommendations but provided enormously thoughtful guidance and feedback on its content.

This report would not have been possible without the tremendous editing, production, and communications support of Claire Hermann, Senior Communications Manager with the Center for Agriculture and Food Systems.

This report was made possible with support from the USDA’s National Agricultural Library.

Finally, and most importantly, we express our sincere gratitude to the farmworkers across the country who put themselves and their families at risk to feed, nourish, and sustain us.