This is an increase from 1990 when only half were living in poverty. Seventy percent of farmworkers are foreign born. Many workers live apart from their families for the agricultural season, but increasingly entire families travel together during a season. Approximately three-fifths of all farmworkers who are 18 years or older are married. The challenges faced by migrant farmworkers include isolation, language-barriers, lack of transportation and lack of access to important services.
Farm labor consists of long hours of fast-paced repetitive tasks, usually without breaks.
Most farmworkers lack toilets and drinking water in the fields. Many do not speak English and cannot write in their native language. For more detailed information about farmworkers, please read the Farmworker Fact Sheet .