ABSTRACT
Migrant farm workers are the most pitied but least understood component of the American work force. The federal government began programs in the mid-1960s to help migrant workers and their families. At that time, according to the best of chronically uncertain estimates, there were almost 500,000 US citizen migrant workers, many of whom traveled across state lines to harvest crops. The most prominent myth is that poor farm workers are the price that the society must pay for cheap food. Two-thirds of the nation's farm work is done by farmers and their families, leaving only one-third to be done by hired workers. Migrant farm workers are probably the largest needy work force in the United States. Although data are scanty, between 800,000 and 900,000, or about or 45 percent of the nation's 2 million crop workers, migrate a significant distance from their usual homes to help produce crops on the nation's farms each year.
