We rely on our country ’s farmworkers for near all of the fruit and vegetable that grace our tables , yet they are among the poorest of the working short .
Often live in sub - standard conditions and with little access to healthcare , many farmworkers locomote from job to job , give chase the harvest home across America ’s heartland . exploit long hours in the subject , they ’re forever exposed not only to hardship and severe weather , but also to dangerous pesticides .
As Amy Snipes puts it , “ Farm piece of work is more than an occupation . It is a term of risk . ”
Snipes should be intimate . As an adjunct prof of biobehavioral wellness at Penn State , she spends months at a time with farmworker household , observing and record their lives and business organization as she works alongside them in the field . Trained as an anthropologist , Snipes has built her career on the use of descriptive anthropology ( the field of study and taxonomic recording of human cultures ) as a means for improving farmworker health .
The U.S. Environmental Protection Agency estimates that between 10,000 and 20,000 pesticide poisonings occur annually among the commonwealth ’s 2 million farming workers , with intense effects ranging from rashes and nausea to respiratory problems and expiry . Cumulative long - terminus exposure increase the risks of cancer , birth mar and neurological impairment .
As a primary safety measure , the EPA mandate the use of personal protective equipment , or PPE , to minimize pesticide exposure . Yet the enjoyment of PPE — glove , goggles , lid , coveralls and boots — is humble among farmworkers , and intervention exertion have had only circumscribed success in improving compliancy .
“ There are many grounds for this , ” Snipes says . Protective equipment can be difficult or uncomfortable to endure . It can slow the work in a business where speed is essential . Plus , protective farm gear is n’t always render by employers , and even when it is , its use is n’t always apply .
Below the surface , Snipes say , are other , ethnical rationality . More than 80 pct of U.S. farm workers are Hispanic , most coming from Mexico , so language can be a substantial barrier . But it ’s authoritative to at least understand farmworkers ’ shared beliefs about risk , she enunciate .
“ anthropologist know that risk response are embedded in a ethnic fabric , ” she excuse . “ I always recount this level about my grandmother . She taught me as a young girl that it ’s risky to lave your hands with cold-blooded water , that cold water is somehow associated with subsequently develop arthritis . I ’m an adult now and moderately well - educated , and I know in my head that this is not the case . But if you ask me what I apply to wash off my hands , it ’s hot water . Because this is part of my belief system , something that was passed on to me . And it impacts my demeanor .
“ I ’m concerned in the same sort of phenomena among farmworkers . What are the far-flung beliefs that are passed down regarding pesticide and exposure , and how do they impact behaviour and , ultimately , wellness ? ”
snipe begin as a grad pupil at the University of Washington , follow apple pickers in the Yakima Valley . presently Snipes works mostly in the Rio Grande Valley in Texas . For periods of three calendar month to a year , she latches on with a group of farmworker families as a participant observer , moving along with them from crop to crop .
“ I have picked just about everything , ” she says . “ Apples , cherry , hops , edible asparagus , broccoli , raspberries , onion , squash , watermelon , cotton . ”
Along with cull green goods , she gathers data point : bear interview and sharpen groups , administering surveys and epidemiologic assessments , and collecting biomarkers of pesticide exposure . “ I want to have a comprehensive view of what ’s happen in their lives , ” she says .
Snipes brings a limited understanding to the field that goes beyond her donnish grooming . “ My own grandmother crop picking cotton wool , ” she enjoin , “ so I have some savvy of the hardships , and I have those stories to share . ”Among her findings is a common belief that danger attaches to the strong-arm shape that a pesticide takes and not needs to the chemical compound itself . “ So if it ’s blotto , a spraying that people can feel landing on their cutis , it ’s see as harmful , and there is smashing business concern . If it ’s dry , however , there is little or no concern . They call it ‘ powder , ’ and moot it almost like shit . ”
A similar differentiation is made between live and cold . “ Just like my grandmother , many farmworkers consider that if you wash your hands with dusty water you ’ll end up with arthritis , or rheumatoid arthritis , ” Snipes says . “ This type of belief is very common crabby - culturally , but in this circumstance , it may have wellness shock . ”
In the field , she explains , where workers are hold stale piss both to drink and to wash the residues of pesticide powder from face and hands , they might rather wait until they get home to a hot shower , trust that inhuman pee is to be avert , and that powder are n’t really harmful anyway . “ That decision means eight to 12 hour of extra exposure . ”
Two sources of divine guidance flank Snipes on the wall behind her : a small photo of herself with Dolores Huerta , Centennial State - founding father of the United Farm Workers , and a big , bright tinge rendering of Our Lady of Guadalupe , patron saint of campesinos , painted by a farmworker ’s son .
Her ultimate goal , she say , is to translate her finding into an intervention strategy that improves farmworker health . “ It ’s really about supplying masses with practical solution . ”
That means taking into write up not only the cultural backstory but also the gritty realities of fieldwork .
“ Our population is sternly below poverty floor , ” she says . Federal poverty point is $ 23,500 for a family of four ; farmworkers average $ 10,000 to $ 15,000 . “ And in many guinea pig they are paid by how much they pick , ” she cover . “ A strong enticement , even for me , is to take off the supererogatory apparel that slow you down — because if you ’re slow you ’ll get raise and somebody else will replace you . ”
It can be asphyxiate bust protective gear under the hot sun , she tote up . And safety glasses be given to fog , create it difficult not only to see what you ’re picking but also to avoid ophidian and other threats . “ People are balancing these risk against the risk of pic . ”
With a squad of Penn State fellow , Snipes recently tested a new multipronged scheme target at improving worker compliance . As Snipes explains , the intervention supplied workers with better PPE — cool down framework , touch - sensitive glove , non - fog lens system — and also with orient pesticide safety messages : frequent reminders about specific exposure risks . “ We want to see how this combination might change behavior , ” she enunciate .
One major challenge was how to communicate in effect with a mobile , low - literacy universe . The response , not surprisingly , was to take on a mobile political program . The investigator gave farmworkers cellular phone phones , enabling timely , two - way communion of information . “ We can apply the phones not only to deliver messages , ” Snipes explain , “ but also to receive wellness - interrelate data from subject study in their surround , and in veridical - time . We ’re the first to do this in this universe . ”
The response has been gratifying : “ Our farmworkers are using those phones , and they ’re using them daily . They ’re getting our messages and yield us back their data . And not just closed - end data ; they ’re founder us ideas . They are basically part of our inquiry team . ”
resultant of the study are still preliminary , Snipes stresses . “ But we ’re very excited about what we ’re seeing so far . ” Use of PPE has amend across the board , she says , and the approach itself has stirred interestingness among other investigator eager to learn more — even from as far as South Africa . “ They have similar exposure problems there and are really interested in using this methodology . ”
If it works , Snipes says , she would wish to see the intervention scale up to other , big farmworker populations . Eventually , she hop , it will inform public health insurance policy across the U.S. and beyond .
For the moment she sit in her quiet place in University Park , but in a month or two she ’ll be back , quite literally , in the theatre .
“ When I began this work I was very humiliate to take heed farmworkers say that they sleep together their jobs , ” she speculate . “ They love this study that is so tough and dangerous and does n’t pay much because , they say , ‘ Our hands feed the human race . ’ I take that with me . ”
