migrant farm labor

A worker harvests cherries in the early hours of the morning on a farm near Sunnyside, Wash., on June 14.

Politics & Government

America's farms are desperate for labor. Foreign workers bring relief and controversy

5:28am July 27, 2023

The number of H-2A visas for seasonal farmworkers issued each year has more than quadrupled over the past decade. The growth has alarmed labor advocates. Farmers don't love the program, either.

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San Diego high school students await a bus ride to Blythe, Calif., to go pick cantaloupes in the summer of 1965. They were recruited as part of the A-TEAM, a government program to replace migrant farm workers with high school students.

National

When The U.S. Government Tried To Replace Migrant Farmworkers With High Schoolers

10:41am August 23, 2018

by Gustavo Arellano

In 1964, a program that brought migrant Mexican laborers to the U.S. ended. So the U.S. recruited American students to pick crops instead. When they saw their living conditions, strikes ensued.

Workers place the berries directly into the plastic clamshell packages that shoppers will find in stores.

National
Arts

In Florida, Strawberry Fields Are Not Forever

6:35pm March 21, 2016

by Dan Charles

March is a pivotal time in the world of strawberries. Production shifts westward, to California. In Florida, thousands of men and women who pick strawberries are moving on to other work.

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