CRLAF Celebrates the Release of Statewide Farmworker Health Study

CRLAF is pleased to announce that earlier this year, UC Merced released the study, “Farmworker Health in California: Health in a Time of Contagion, Drought, and Climate Change,'' funded by the California Department of Public Health. CRLAF sponsored the successful $1.5 million dollar budget request championed by Senator Caballero and Assembly Member Robert Rivas that funded this work. The complete study may be accessed here.

Throughout the research period, we participated in the study’s advisory steering committee with other partners including: Alianza Coachella Valley, California Rural Legal Assistance Inc., Californians for Pesticide Reform, Campesinas Unidas del Valle de San Joaquin, Central Coast Alliance United for a Sustainable Economy, Centro Binacional para el Desarrollo Indígena Oaxaqueño, Central California Environmental Justice Network, Center for Farmworker Families, Central Valley Empowerment Alliance, Central Valley Immigrant Integration Collaborative, Cultiva La Salud (Fresno and Merced), Dolores Huerta Foundation, Fresno Asian Business Institute & Resource Center, Lideres Campesinas, Mixteco Indigena Community Organizing Project/Proyecto Mixteco Indigena, The Center on Race, Poverty & the Environment, Training Occupational Development Educating Communities Legal Center, United Farm Workers of America, United Farm Workers Foundation, Valley Voices, Vision y Compromiso, West Modesto Community Collaborative, Westside Family Preservation Services Network, and Women’s Farmworker Association.

The Farmworker Health Survey updates 20-year old data, and collected information from 1,242 agricultural workers in six languages, across five California regions, from August 2021 to June 2022, and highlights the ongoing need for our continued advocacy for and attention to greater health care access and coverage, as well as increased awareness of [migrant] farmworkers’ workplace, housing, and other legal rights in the United States. The data will serve to support and enhance advocacy efforts toward expanding both access and services to protect the overall well being of California’s farmworkers and their families.

CRLAF will utilize this survey to bolster our administrative and legislative advocacy, as we continue to serve as fiscal agent for a statewide initiative, facilitating and supporting work among six other organizations to collectively address chronic drought, climate change, and protections for impacted farmworker families and other isolated communities. We will also actively work to reverse current data outcomes through providing regular outreach and resources on Medi-Cal eligibility, and other healthcare coverage options for farmworkers and other rural immigrant communities throughout the state, as part of advancing greater health equity.

In appreciation of Joel Diringer, of Diringer and Associates, and Noe Paramo, CRLAF’s Director of the Sustainable Rural Communities Project for their faithful advocacy during the budget proposal and approval process, and throughout the data collection and organization of the study through their participation on the Advisory Committee.