ABSTRACT
Farm workers have limited protection under United States (US) labor laws and face health threats from exposure to pesticides, heat-related diseases, and living in substandard housing. The US Environmental Protection Agency estimates that between 10,000 and 20,000 physician-diagnosed pesticide poisonings occur every year among US farm workers, with acute effects ranging from rashes and nausea to serious respiratory conditions and death. The price of gross economic and social inequality is the rising rates of mental health problems, a significant level of infant mortality, high rates of teenage births, mass incarceration, loss of social mobility, and daily uncertainty about an imperiling future. A key element in the appeal of sugary drinks and foods, and calorie-heavy diets generally, among the poor is food insecurity, a concept developed from work by the Food and Agriculture Organization of the United Nations. In 1995, the US Department of Agriculture incorporated food insecurity into its Population Survey.
