California Farmworkers Were Already Struggling Before the Half Moon Bay Shooting

KQED's Forum

The recent mass shootings in Half Moon Bay put a spotlight on the decades long plight of farmworkers in California who often earn low wages and live in substandard housing. The shootings are only the latest in a particularly hard year for farmworkers. Severe storms damaged crops and livelihoods up and down the state as climate change continues to worsen conditions such as wildfires, extreme heat and flooding that threaten California’s agricultural industry. Meanwhile, many laws aimed at protecting farmworkers are not enforced. We’ll talk about the various challenges farmworkers face and efforts to help them when disasters hit.

Guests:

Daniel Costa, director of immigration law and policy research, Economic Policy Institute; former senior advisor on immigration and labor to the California Attorney General

Vanessa Rancaño, housing reporter, KQED News

Marisa Kendall, covers housing, the Bay Area News Group

Michael Méndez, assistant professor, School of Social Ecology, University of California, Irvine; author, “Climate Change from the Streets: How Conflict and Collaboration Strengthen the Environmental Justice Movement”

Farida Jhabvala Romero, reporter, KQED

Javier Zamora, owner, JSM Organics farm in Royal Oaks, CA