*It stated that children as young as 4 work along side of parents because of their small hands and flexibility.
*300 of these children die yearly due to farming related deaths a high number due to no supervision and drowning in ditches
* these workers only make $5000 per year compared to the national average of $40,000.
*life expectancy is only 49 where as the national average is 73
*only 20% of these children ever graduate from high school and continue to live in poverty
*there are over 2.8 million children of migrant farm workers
*The high number of eligibility for subsidized programs but such a low number actually served due to funding
*the living conditions they live in, run down farmhouses, cars, and even boxes
these are just some examples. I never really knew the importance of their work or never really think as I'm eating my produce everyday. The article made me think about about this. Without all those migrant farm workers what would do? would the average amercian work in those conditions, with that pay, in that weather? No.
I worked in the berry fields one summer to make extra money my 6th grade year. I remember how miserable it was but i had my friends and it was just for a few weeks and something we choose to do. I can't imagine a lifetime of this work.
What I would like to see is more people reaching out to these children. I did agree that you hear and see so much discrimination against these farm workers yet we need them. These children didn't choose this life yet are kinda stuck without the support of the community to reach out.
I learned a lot of new information about migrant workers from this article as well. Although I had some idea of how hard they worked because my cousin owns a berry farm near Ferndale. I also worked in the berries around the age of 14 and I absolutely hated it. It was nice because at the time my family rented a house from him that was on the same property so I could walk for a few minutes and be there but it was tough putting in all those hours and especially in the canary just staring at the belt picking all the rotten berries out, it was definitely the worst first summer job I had ever had. I couldn't imagine working in that field of work everyday but am sure thankful.
ReplyDeleteThis article was devastating. Not only is the freedom that comes along with childhood ripped away so early, these children are subjected to hard manual labor and have to work among all those pesticides! I am so paranoid about chemicals I try not to clean with anything but vinegar and water (besides the occasional bleach for toilets and really icky things). I can't imagine having my child in constant contact with pesticides. It's so sad.
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