In May 2017, we set out to tell a story of pesticides in agriculture: if they are used correctly, what effects pesticide exposure has on farmworkers, and what is the legal atmosphere around pesticides. To tell this story fairly, we aimed to talk to farm owners, farm workers, medical doctors, researchers, pertinent government agencies, and activist organizations. Below are the hurdles we faced in telling this story.

 

Do farm owners understand the effects of pesticides on farmworker health?

 

May 11 - 25: We tried to contact all of the migrant labor camps in the North Central and Central Florida area, as well as farms in the North Central and Central Florida area, to understand what role farm owners felt pesticides played in the agriculture industry and what effects they believed it could have on farmworker health. For the farms, we were shut down several times. For the majority of the migrant labor camps, the addresses listed on the Florida Department of Health website, did not match up to the address found through an internet search.

 

May 15: We emailed the Florida Department of Health to ask if there was someone we could speak to about migrant labor camps in the state and were directed to the assistant manager. Some farm owners told us the peak season for their crops had already passed, although this was not true for the crops they grew, or that it was peak season so they did not have time to speak with us. One farm told us we would have to pay their workers in order to interview their workers, because they would not pay them as long as they weren’t on the fields working.

 

May 16: We email the assistant manager asking for the contact information for all of the migrant labor camps in North Central Florida. We received no response.

 

May 23: We sent an email with the same info to the assistant manager once again and are forwarded to the program manager.

 

May 24: The program manager replies with the same information found on the website and tell us to contact the camps directly.

 

Most commonly, farm owners told us they would call us back and then never replied to any follow up emails or calls. Farmowners only began agreeing to meet with us once we revised our approach by saying we were interested in learning about the agricultural industry.

 

What criteria does the Environmental Protection Agency (EPA) use to approve pesticides? Why don’t farmworkers have stronger protection from pesticides in their jobs?

 

One of the key points that was brought up throughout our interviews is that regulation exists to protect farmworkers from the effects of pesticides, but farmworkers and farmworker advocates said these regulations are weak and ill enforced. We also learned that some pesticides are banned for residential use, but not for commercial use.

 

June 6: We make initial contact with the EPA

 

June 8-13: The contact replies saying they are a media officer, not a subject expert and that they would not give us comments for attribution. The media officer goes on to ask us if we have a already looked at the agency’s website for answers to our questions. They also list their phone number so we can call them. We call several times, and don’t receive an answer. We reply with an email asking if there is a specific day and time we could speak about the interview by phone. We receive a reply saying they will reply instead by writing, because of staff schedules. They end the email saying they’ll follow up soon. We tell them we have a hard deadline of June 23.

 

June 19: We reach out to the contact again on the status of a statement and/or interview, but receive an automatic reply saying the contact would be out of the office until June 26. We contact the EPA’s press email in their absence.

 

June 21: New media contact replies with links to different parts of their website, they believe we could find the answers to all of our questions in. They also mention if we want attribution, we’d need to speak to an agency spokesperson.

 

June 21: We express our deadline is that Friday, that the previous media contact confirmed it with us, and that he was working on getting us an email statement/phone interview, but the new contact says the links to the EPA website would cover everything we wanted. We reply explaining why we wanted a video or audio interview. We never hear from this person again.

 

June 26-27: We follow up with our initial contact; he apologizes for the delay, says he is still working on it, and ask if we received links from their colleague. He then sends us additional links and says if we still have questions, they could try to chat on the phone with us, but that their specialists believe everything we need is in the links they sent.

 

What do inspections for pesticide safety look like and what kinds of violations are found?

 

While farmworkers receive protection from pesticides through the Worker Protection Standard (WPS) issued by the EPA, it is enforced by a state governing agency.

 

June 20: We reached out to the Florida Department of Agriculture to get access to inspection reports for an understanding of how many are completed each year and what violations are typically found. After clarifying what reports we were looking for, the department forwarded our request. We receive an email from a staff member saying they have received our requests and money may be involved. We ask if the cost would be over $25.

 

June 23: They reply saying the cost would be $336.12 because, they said, it had taken then 12 hours to compile the report. Once they received the payment, they would process our request. We reply saying the amount is suppose to be legally fair as students we could not afford it. We even go on to ask how many pages are in the report.

 

June 28: They reply saying they apologize the cost is high, but that the amount is based on the amount of hours it took to put the records together for us. They reiterate their last email saying once payment is received, they’ll move forward with our request.

 

Why is the data from inspections of migrant labor camps on the Department of Health’s web page inconclusive?

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

Looking at the Florida Department of Health's website, we found that on several inspection dates, the migrant labor camp would be considered unsatisfactory, then the same date would appear showing satisfactory.

 

 

May 15: We reached out to the department to ask about this and other migrant labor camp topics, but were repeatedly redirected in trying to acquire contact info for these camps.

 

June 20: We reached out to request inspection reports for migrant labor camps from 2014-2016.

 

June 21: They replied saying the report will include violation numbers, and that it would only be for the housing units, not the farms themselves. We confirmed this was what we wanted, then never received a reply or email since about the request.

 

Where’s the proof?

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Farmworkers have historically been excluded from most labor protections, including the right to unionize. Today, most farmworkers are immigrants and many are undocumented. While the WPS gives farmworkers the right to report pesticide exposure, many are afraid to do so because supervisors threaten them with deportation. Guest workers are also afraid of not being allowed to return to work through the guest worker program. There is no comprehensive data on just how many farmworkers are affected by this issue. The lack of concrete evidence makes the issue invisible to policy makers.

 

Through our reporting, we also met former farmworker Linda Lee, who worked on the Lake Apopka farms before they were shut down. On April 27, she attended a forum at the Zellwood Historical Society (ZHS) hosted by ex-farm owners from the area. The farm owners were only reflecting on happy memories and did not speak of farm workers and their experiences. She decided to stand up at the event and share her own experience, such as getting pesticides sprayed on her body by overhead planes and working while lightning struck the fields. We reached out to ZHS on June 9, 2017 and they directed us to video footage of the forum. The video is on YouTube, but Linda Lee’s testimony is not included.

 

Why can’t doctors address pesticide related issues?

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Pesticide related illnesses, we learned, are hard to pinpoint. Short-term symptoms mimic a cold and long-term consequences, like cancer or lupus, could have been caused by anything. Dr. Croker, staff pathologist at UF’s VA Medical Center, said that there is no test to effectively conclude if an illness or condition was directly caused by pesticides. Dr. Croker even went on to say if there was a test, all that can be done at that point is treat the resulting disease or condition. He said that makes the issue a societal and economic problem, not a medical one.