Farm worker

A farmworker is a hired agricultural worker on a farm that works for the farmers. However, in discussions relating to labor law application, the term "farmworker" is sometimes used more narrowly, applying only to a hired worker involved in agricultural production, including harvesting, i.e. not to a worker in other on-farm jobs, such as packing.

The development of a particular kind of agriculture is dependent on the characteristics of the farming region. The soil type, climate, slope, and distance to markets all help in shaping the type of agriculture that thrives in any particular region. For instance, the Midwestern United States has rich, fertile soil, and so it produces corn, soybeans, cattle, hogs, and dairy products and has become known as the Corn Belt of America. In contrast, agriculture in California’s Mediterranean and moderate climate produces more than half of the nation’s fruits, vegetables, and nuts, which require hand-harvesting and a large labor force.

Over the last century the amount of farmland in production has remained relatively steady, but the number of operating farms has continually dropped, signifying a consolidation of farm enterprises. Around the 1930s hard economic times hit the country with the Great Depression and the Dust Bowl era, forcing some farmers off the land. From 1950 to 2001 the amount of U.S. farm land used for major commodity crop production has remained about the same while over half of the farms are gone. A farm’s reliance on farmworkers greatly depends on the quantity and the type of crop in production. Some crops require more labor than others, and in California, any labor-intensive crops are produced such as dairy products, fruits, tree nuts and vegetables. Although the domestic farm labor force has decreased in the last century, the proportion of hired workers has grown. Increased competition among agricultural producers and consolidation have created a need for a large, inexpensive, and temporary workforce that increasingly comes from abroad.

The US had 1.063 million hired agricultural workers in 2012, Hired workers currently account for about one-third of agricultural workers. The remainder of agricultural workers are farm owners and members of their families. Agricultural service workers (which include labor provided by labor contractors) make up 27 percent of the hired workers. A household survey of US hired farmworkers found that 45 percent are Hispanic and 64 percent are US citizens. However, of US hired farmworkers doing crop-related work (excluding workers with H-2A visas), about 50 percent lack legal authorization to work. However, Mexico also brings in the most legal immigrants, with the Department of Homeland Security reporting in 2003 that Mexicans consist of 16.4% of immigrants into the United States. There are many undocumented farmworkers in California. In 2012, of hired farmworkers other than agricultural service workers, 26 percent were employed in farm work for part of the year, rather than being year-round employees. Also In 2012, of hired crop workers, about three-quarters were not "migrant", i.e. they worked at a single location within 75 miles of home.

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