By Olivia Wynkoop. Bay City News
Photography: Manuel Ortiz
As the world faces an increase in the duration, frequency and intensity of heat waves, a panel of Stanford scholars and other experts discussed the risk of extreme heat as a threat to farmworkers in a webinar on climate resilience on Thursday.
The average number of days American farmworkers will spend working in unsafe conditions will double by mid-century, according to a 2020 study by a research scientist at Stanford. Coupled with a lack of federal protections, extreme heat can be deadly for farmworkers exposed to the outdoors all day, panelists said.
Lead researcher Noah Diffenbaugh said a small amount of warming can lead to a big change in both the frequency and severity of heat waves.
Places are getting warmer overall, and the atmospheric pressure patterns that create heat waves are occurring more frequently and with greater intensity. That's why summers have felt much warmer than they did 10 or 20 years ago.
"The kinds of events we've seen this summer and in previous summers, it's not just our imagination or the effects of social media and mainstream media making us aware that it's hot in many different places at once," Diffenbaugh said. "It's actually true."
And the gap between what is happening and what communities are prepared for is growing ever larger, he said. With more heat comes fewer water resources, more wildfires and poorer air quality due to changes in atmospheric circulation. Low-wage farmworkers are often at the mercy of the elements, despite the health consequences, simply because there is no other option.
“I used to be a real adaptation optimist. A decade ago… I was very optimistic that by investing in economic development and human development, we could generate the resources that would follow, but I was wrong about that,” he said.
Stanford health expert Michele Barry said this is a health equity issue at its core.
“Low-wage outdoor workers whose jobs could be cancelled due to climate impacts cannot necessarily withstand many days without pay, and people may continue to work due to financial necessity, even if it is not a healthy choice,” Barry stressed in a Q&A session ahead of the event.
“Many low-wage outdoor workers also lack access to the same health care resources as higher-income populations, which is especially unfair given the outsized impacts of climate change on their health,” she added.
Eriberto Fernandez of the farmworker advocacy group United Farm Workers Foundation said there has been progress in the state, with tents and shade trucks now next to fields where there were none a decade ago.
There is also a state policy to ensure employers respond effectively to symptoms of heat illness, which occurred after a pregnant 17-year-old died of heat exhaustion while picking grapes in Lodi in 2008.
"Her story, unfortunately, is not unique to her. It is a story that many people in the rural community know, because it is not an isolated incident," said Fernandez.
She still sees heat as the number one killer facing farmworkers, because despite state regulations, safety violations go largely unreported. Fernandez calls on oversight agencies to improve staffing of outreach teams and provide resources in multiple languages to be a competent resource for the community.
"Farmworkers, most of whom are undocumented, have a real fear of the authorities. These agencies, however well-intentioned, are seen as the authorities," he said.
Fernandez also believes state policy should be backed by federal standards. As it stands, there is no federal heat standard that protects farmworkers from extreme conditions.
“It’s mind-boggling to think that at this stage, with the increasing impacts of climate change, we still don’t have a federal standard that ensures farmworkers and all outdoor workers have meaningful workplace protections,” he added.
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