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Sebastian Ibarra

Dr. Rosenthal

HIST 3452/ENVS 3998

15 December 2022

Central California Valley Farmworkers and Environmental Justice Activism

The California Central Valley’s location provides its farms with beneficial conditions that

allow for a longer growing season and high yields. As a result, the Central Valley has been a

vital source of agricultural production since the early 20th century. Despite the advantageous

environmental conditions in terms of crop production, farmworkers in the Central Valley

throughout the 20th century experienced harmful working and living conditions that adversely

impacted their health, making the conditions of farmworkers an environmental justice issue.

Furthermore, by the 1960s figures such as Cesar Chavez led efforts by farmworkers to protest

and reform working conditions, illustrating environmental activism in the face of these

inequalities. Yet despite achievements made to ensure better environmental and working

conditions for farmworkers, the emergence of climate change in recent years has meant

marginalized communities in the Central Valley are currently experiencing intensified and

disproportionate environmental and socioeconomic negative effects. Such developments show

that environmental inequalities shift over time and activism to address it must also be persistent

and adaptive.

The California Central Valley is a vast terrain consisting of mountain ranges, bodies of

water, and large swaths of open space. Also known as the “Great Central Valley” it is

approximately 18,000 square miles and surrounded by the Klamath Mountains in the north, the

Tehachapi Mountains in the south, the Sierra Nevada mountains in the east, and finally the
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Pacific Coast Ranges in the west. The Central Valley is divided into the San Joaquin Valley in

the south and is roughly three-fifths of the region, and the northern Sacramento Valley. It

receives water directly by the San Joaquin and Sacramento rivers, which receives water through

precipitation and melting snow of the Sierra Nevada Mountains. The Central Valley began to

experience significant development and changes following the 1849 Gold Rush. As the arrival of

many laborers and farmers resulted in continual agricultural expansion.1

The California Central Valley has experienced developments to ensure agricultural

prosperity, which in return has had a major influence on the communities that live in the valley.

Following the Gold Rush, agriculture began to establish itself as a dominant industry during the

late 19th and 20th centuries. For instance, starting from 1945, the San Joaquin Valley has

converted upwards of two million acres of once native wetland, scrubland, and riverine forest

into irrigation heavy agriculture to produce crops in the dry climate with nutrient rich soil. The

expansion and environmental conditions have resulted in the San Joaquin Valley to be vital in

agricultural production as it produces 25% of fruit and vegetable crops that the United States and

the rest of the world consumes and generates approximately $30 billion dollars annually.2

Agriculture is still the primary source of business for the Central Valley. The combination of

environmental conditions and the economic benefits have affected several Central Valley

communities. Exemplified by the agriculturally based city of Fresno. The city of Fresno,
1
Britannica, T. Editors of Encyclopaedia. "San Joaquin Valley." Encyclopedia

Britannica, January 17, 2011. https://www.britannica.com/place/San-Joaquin-Valley.

2
H. Scott Butterfield, T. Rodd Kelsey, and Abigail K. Hart, Rewilding Agricultural

Landscapes: A California Study in Rebalancing the Needs of People and Nature (Washington,

DC: Island Press, 2021), 6-7, https://search.ebscohost.com/login.aspx?

direct=true&db=nlebk&AN=2760026&site=eds-live&scope=site.
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influenced by the agriculture industry has had a substantial part of population consist of

migratory agriculture laborers that derive from Latin American countries such as Mexico.

Fresno’s economy has been based predominantly on agriculture as it and other counties in the

San Joaquin Valley have and continue to produce two hundred distinct crops annually. However,

the main crop produced in Fresno has been grapes due to the dry climate that supports its growth.

Additionally, dairy and cattle farming are also important agriculture-based aspects of Fresno’s

economy.3

A significant percentage of labor on Central Valley farms during the mid-to-late 20th

derived from seasonal farmworkers migrating from Mexico. Beginning in 1942, the United

States introduced the Emergency Farm Labor Agreement, or better known as the Bracero

program. The program granted Mexican farmworkers the opportunity to legally migrate to the

United States to work for a period of time. The program lasted for 22 years from 1942-1964 and

resulted in substantial number of seasonal farmers migrating from Mexico and working on

Central Valley farms despite the environmental inequalities they experienced, as wages were

higher than in Mexico. Following the program’s termination, in 1965 the United States passed

the Immigration and Nationality Act of 1965, which set a limit on legal immigrants entering the

United States. Despite low wages, poor working conditions, the end of the Bracero program, and

the new immigration law, the demand for agriculture labor continued to attract large numbers of

undocumented migrants to enter the U.S. and migrate to the Central Valley.4
3
Kristoff, Rob. 2021. “Fresno.” Our States: California. https://search-ebscohost-

com.electra.lmu.edu/login.aspx?direct=true&db=f5&AN=11975799&site=eds-live&scope=site.
4
California Office of Historic Preservation, Latinos in Twentieth Century California:

National Register of Historic Places Context Statement (California: California State Parks,

2015), 9-10.
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With the rapid expansion of the Central Valley’s agricultural industry after World War

Two, conditions for farmworkers were particularly harsh and included environmental justice

issues such as environmental inequalities in the form of environmental hazards. Despite the

Bracero program's termination in 1964, farm industries continued to exploit migrant

farmworkers through poor pay and working conditions. Grape farming, for example, was

especially significant in the Central Valley. Yet in 1965, farmworkers in the grape industry only

made $0.90 per hour and an added $0.10 for each basket they filled. California state labor laws

that specified standards in working conditions were often ignored by farms owners. Farms did

not provide portable restrooms to farmworkers in the fields, housing for farmworkers were

racially segregated, and charged at least $2.00 daily for metal shacks that did not provide heat

and were infested with insects and lacked cooking and plumbing capabilities. Furthermore, farms

often employed minors to pick crops in brutal conditions and did not adhere to safety laws,

which often caused injuries and deaths revealing the environmental inequalities that farmworkers

endured. Due to the excruciating conditions, in the 1960s the life span of a farmworker was

roughly forty-nine years.5 The environmental inequalities that farmworkers in the grape industry

experienced relates to the theme of environmental justice. Farmworkers were denied equal

treatment in environmental conditions and were forced to accept environmental conditions that

disproportionately impacted them. Thus, the farmworkers experienced environmental injustice

through the environmental inequalities they experienced.

While working outside and living in substandard housing without consistent access to

clean water raised environmental justice issues, so did continuous contact with pesticides

sprayed on fruit crops such as grapes. In the early 20th century, Central Valley farm owners relied
5
Kim, Inga. “The Rise of the UFW,” UFW, April 3, 2017, https://ufw.org/the-rise-of-the-

ufw/.
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on pesticides such as the hydrocarbon DDT to prevent insects from destroying crops. It was

effective until the 1950s when insects began to develop natural immunity to hydrocarbon

pesticides. Due to the decreasing effectiveness of hydrocarbon pesticides, Central valley growers

began to use organophosphate pesticides (OP). Originally created to be used as a chemical

weapon during the Second World War, farmers began to use it in the 1950s due to its brief

period of duration and its prominent levels of toxicity. The intense effects of OP also increased

the risk of farmworkers experiencing pesticide poisoning.6 The effects of OP usage by farmers

resulted in farmworkers experiencing significant adverse impacts to their health. In the 1950s-

1960s, the usage of OP on Central Valley farms caused farmworkers to experience issues with

their nervous systems. Farmworkers began to endure respiratory issues such as cardiac arrest and

paralysis, abdominal cramps, bodily convulsions, stomach illnesses that caused vomiting, and

heart rate issues. Additionally, heavy usage of OP on crops caused farmworkers to develop

neurological issues and only increased the likelihood of multiple types of cancer. The vast

production of fruit crops in the California Central Valley and the usage of OP pesticide resulted

in the ordered rate at which farmworkers experienced pesticide related poisonings and deaths in

the mid-20th century.7 Farmworkers’ disproportionate experiences with harmful pesticides

illustrates the environmental justice issues they endured. The harmful effects of OP and other
6
Gordon, Robert. “Poisons in the Fields: The United Farm Workers, Pesticides, and En-

vironmental Politics.” Pacific Historical Review 68, no. 1 (1999): 56–57. https://doi.org/

10.2307/3641869.

7
Nash, Linda. “The Fruits of Ill-Health: Pesticides and Workers’ Bodies in Post-World

War II California.” Osiris 19 (2004): 205. http://www.jstor.org/stable/3655240.

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pesticides on farmworkers health and yet its constant usage reveal the environmental inequalities

they experienced out in the fields. The denial to fair and safe environmental conditions resulted

in farmworkers experiencing severe harmful effects that costed their bodily health and their lives

and illustrates how farmworkers in the grape industry experienced environmental injustice.

Cesar Chavez and Dolores Huerta led efforts to establish a union consisting of a diverse

range of farmworkers that all experienced the difficult conditions of growing crops in the Central

Valley to engage in environmental activism to achieve environmental justice. Both Huerta and

Chavez previously had experience in being activists for farmworker rights. As the Agricultural

Workers Association (AWA), an organization made to help merge farmworkers towards a

common goal, was founded by Huerta. The organization would later evolve into the Agricultural

Workers Organizing Committee (AWOC) in 1959. Additionally, Huerta was a member of the

grassroot activist group called the Community Service Organization (CSO). Cesar Chavez was

also a member of the grassroots group and eventually became the group’s national director.

However, Chavez discovered that the CSO did not want to focus on the struggles of

farmworkers. The CSO’s refusal prompted Chavez to leave the organization. Following his

departure from the CSO, Chavez and Huerta co-created the National Farm Workers Association

(NFWA) in 1962 in Delano. Chavez attempted to establish a network with other farmworkers by

traveling across the Central Valley for three years and created connections with other

farmworkers that have faced similar poor workplace experiences.8 Recognizing the

environmental injustices that farmworkers experienced in the fields, Chavez and Huerta

understood that only a strong network of farmworkers could successfully engage in effective

environmental activism. Through a unified collaboration between environmental activists,

farmworkers would be able to attain environmental justice in the grape industry.

8
Kim, “The Rise of the UFW.”
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Grapes were a staple crop in the Central Valley and in 1965 and an activist movement to

protest grape farms’ low pay and the abysmal working conditions it offered to farmworkers in

Delano, united grassroots activist groups to achieve environmental justice. The Filipino

American farmworkers of the Agricultural Workers Organizing Committee (AWOC) on

September 8, 1965, began to strike and walk out against Delano grape farms over the inadequate

pay they had received and the terrible working conditions they had endured. The AWOC asked

Chavez and the NWFA to support their efforts and join the strike. Despite members of the

NWFA’s leadership feeling apprehension due to how young their union was, the NWFA

nevertheless agreed to join the strike. The NWFA joined the AWOC’s protest on September 16,

1965, as it coincided with Mexico’s Independence Day. The decision established a union

between the Filipino and Latino based organizations.9 To combat against the environmental

injustices that farmworkers experienced, the union engaged in public forms of environmental

activism to improve working environmental conditions and wages that farmworkers received.

The union’s establishment acted as one method in which environmental activist farmworkers

utilized to achieve environmental justice.

The partnership between the NWFA and the AWOC created a unified activist movement

that supplied grape farmers in the Central Valley a public coherent voice that demanded

environmental justice through better working conditions and pay that activist organizations prior

to the 1950s were not able to achieve. To solidify the partnership between Filipino and Latino

grape farmers of the NWFA and AWOC, the United Farm Workers Organizing Committee

(UFWOC) was formed in 1966. The committee created connections to individuals and

organizations outside the strike to generate support and attention from the public. Civil rights
9
Kim, Igna. “The 1965-1970 Delano Grape Strike and Boycott,” UFW, March 7, 2017,

http://test.ufw.org/1965-1970-delano-grape-strike-boycott/.
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activists, student groups, and notable figures such as Martin Luther King Jr. and Robert Kennedy

offered their support to the activist movement and only generated more attention to the cause.10

Utilizing the national attention provided by the civil rights movement, the UFWOC engaged in

outreach by asking the public to take part in a boycott by exclusively purchasing grapes that

abided to union interests and carried a union label. UFWOC members traveled to major cities

across the United States and established ties with churches, union-friendly groups, and local

community organizations to reach additional attention and support. The UFWOC’s efforts

resulted in grape growing companies losing profit due to consumers across the country refusing

to purchase table grapes to support the movement.11The UFWOC’s strategy of conducting public

outreach to consolidate support and spread awareness of the environmental injustices that

farmworkers experienced functioned as an effective form of environmental activism. The method

of environmental activism publicized the environmental injustices such as pesticide impacts on

farmworkers and unfair working conditions that occurred on grape farms and allowed the

UFWOC to be noticed and begin to achieve environmental justice by forcing grape farms to

recognize their workers’ demands.

In response to the growing protests from the UFWOC demanding environmental justice

through better working conditions and pay, Schenley, one of the largest grape farms in the

Delano area began to punish farmworkers that supported the strike and boycott, which promoted

a response from Chavez and the UFWOC to engage in a significant form of environmental

activism. Due to the growing pressure caused by the protest, Schenley began to spray striking

farmworkers with pesticides. The attack on striking farmers led to the UFWOC to stage a
10
“1962 United Farm Workers Union,” Library of Congress,

https://guides.loc.gov/latinx-civil-rights/united-farm-workers-union.
11
Kim, “The Rise of the UFW.”
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massive public protest to garner the public’s and state government’s attention to the poor

conditions that farmworkers endured and demand change. Starting on March 17, 1966, Chavez

and approximately one hundred farmworkers from the UFWOC staged a 300-mile march from

Delano to the capital of California in Sacramento. The march attained public and media attention

as it was broadcasted on television. The march strategically passed through the grape vineyards

in which the protesting farmworkers experienced atrocious environmental conditions and

inadequate pay. The march ended on April 11, 1966, as the NFWA and 10,000 supporters

reached the capitol in Sacramento.12 The result of the UFWOC’s public form of activism resulted

in the Schenley company conceding to protestors’ demands. The company acknowledged and

recognized the UFWOC union. Signifying first time that a major farming company validated the

existence of a farmworkers’ union. Furthermore, Schenley conceded to the UFWOC’s demands

by guaranteeing that its farmworkers would receive better compensation and experience safer

environmental conditions in the fields. The results of the march provided a crucial first step for

the UFWOC union and thousands of protesting farmworkers to fulfill their goals of improving

working conditions and receiving better pay.13 The UFWOC’s success over Schenley illustrates

how the union engaged in decisive forms of environmental activism to achieve environmental

justice. The march through the vineyards to the capital and the massive coverage it had received

allowed environmental activist farmworkers to publicize the environmental injustices they had

endured and reveal the exact locations where it took place. The public attention and pressure

from the march were effective in forcing Schenley to concede to environmental activists’

demands and allowed farmworkers in the grape industry to experience a form of environmental

justice.
12
Kim, “The Rise of the UFW.”
13
“1962 United Farm Workers Union.”
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Despite the victory over the Schenley industries, Chavez and the UFWOC continued to

pressure grape farms to recognize and fulfill the union’s demands of better pay and

environmental justice. The UFWOC began in 1967 to strike and boycott the largest grape

farming company, Giumarra Vineyards, by demanding a better working environment and pay.

The result of the UFWOC’s protest caused other grape farms in California to provide the

Giumarra company the opportunity to take advantage of their labels. The UFWOC responded

with a state-wide boycott of all California grape farms.14 In February 1968, Chavez decided to

further promote the UFWOC’s actions and organize the protests into being solely peaceful by

starting a fast. The form of activism of the fast functioned as a powerful tool to get public

attention to farmworkers’ poor experiences in the Central Valley fields. The fast also convinced

UFWOC’s members into agreeing to only take part in peaceful protests in demanding better

compensation and working conditions. The fast lasted 25 days and acquired the attention of

prominent figures such as Dr. Martin Luther King Jr and Senator Robert F. Kennedy and the

from the public.15 The fast and the state-wide boycott acted as effective methods of

environmental activism. Both methods dramatized the struggles that farmworkers experienced,

brought awareness to the environmental injustices that farmworkers experienced, and help

stabilize and unify the UFWOC’s efforts to achieve better pay and environmental justice.

Through the combination of public forms of environmental activism that included strikes,

protests, and the decisive approach of a national boycott of all grape products from the California

Central Valley, Chavez and the UFWOC were able to pressure the major agriculture related
14
Kim Igna, “UFW Chronology,” UFW, April 3, 2017, http://2.ufw.org/ufw-chronology/.
15
Kim Igna, “Today in history: Cesar Chavez began his 25-day water-only fast in

Delano, Calif. On Feb. 15, 1968,” UFW, March 7, 2017 https://ufw.org/today-history-cesar-

chavez-began-25-day-water-fast-delano-calif-feb-11-1968/.
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industries to fulfill their demands due to the increasing costs the union was creating and achieve

environmental justice. The usage of the national boycott united striking farmworkers and

volunteers that supported the UFWOC’s efforts into an effective force that organized the union’s

actions and allowed for outside members that were not facing similar conditions to nevertheless

play a critical role in forcing agricultural industries to recognize and give into farmworkers’

demands. Through the boycott, farmworkers in 1970 were successful in forcing companies to

hear their demands and begin a negation process.16 By December 1970 the UFWOC was able to

have their demands met. Approximately 150 grape growing companies agreed to sign labor

contracts. Farmworkers were provided healthcare services, an increase in pay, and crucial

protection from environmental hazards such as constant exposure to pesticides that caused

negative effects to their health. The largest grape growing company, Giumarra Vineyards, that

once resisted the UFWOC’s demands agreed to the newly formed labor contracts. Illustrating

how the UFWOC cemented itself as a recognized union that could influence major corporations

to respect and agree to the demands of its farmworkers.17 The UFWOC recognized and

understood the environmental inequalities that farmworkers in the grape industry endured and

engaged in effective forms of public environmental activism to garner attention and demand

change. Through strikes, protests, and boycotts, the UFWOC was able to generate financial and

public issues for grape growing companies and have their demands met. Environmental activist

farmworkers in the grape industry were able to finally achieve environmental justice by forcing

16
Garcia, Matt. “A Moveable Feast: The UFW Grape Boycott and Farm Worker Justice.”

International Labor and Working-Class History, no. 83 (2013): 146. http://www.jstor.org/

stable/43302714.
17
“1962 United Farm Workers Union.”
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companies to reduce pesticide usage on farmworkers, secure better working conditions, and grant

farmworkers healthcare services and environmental protections.

Despite the successful efforts of the UFWOC in attaining farmworkers in the California

Central Valley safer environmental conditions, increased pay for their labor, and establishing a

forceful union that companies could not ignore, farmworkers in the Central Valley in the present

continue to experience environmental inequalities because of climate change. Climate change

has increasingly negatively affected Central California residents due to extending a dangerous

drought and producing severe heat waves. Additionally, the lack of rain has placed additional

burdens on Central California residents. As climate change is forcing Central California residents

to continuously create additional wells, which place further strain on California’s aquifer by

preventing aquifer recharge. Furthermore, the process has forced Central Valley residents to rely

more heavily on contaminated ground water. Which Central Valley residents of color and from

lower socioeconomic backgrounds faced a greater rate due to climate change exacerbating

regional environmental and socioeconomic inequalities.18 Therefore, due to climate change,

Central Valley residents and farmworkers now experience new forms of environmental injustices

that will continue to worsen unless the dangers of climate change can be mitigated and

companies provide additional services to their employees most severely impacted.

Looking into the future, farmworkers in the California Central Valley are most at risk in

experiencing the dangerous environmental conditions produced by climate change. The Central

Valley will experience longer and more excessive heat waves and droughts. Farmworkers in the
18
Haley Smith, “Dirty water, drying wells: Central Californians shoulder drought

inequities,” Los Angeles Times, September 2, 2022,

https://www.latimes.com/environment/story/2022-09-01/central-california-shoulders-drought-

inequities.
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Central Valley will be disproportionately affected due to experiencing negative health effects

such as heat-related injuries or deaths caused by excessive heat, smoke produced by wildfires,

and the drought creating dry harmful conditions. Specifically, people of color from low

socioeconomic backgrounds that make up much of the agricultural workforce will experience the

adverse effects to their health. Due to working long hours outside, farmworkers will experience

greater occupational hazards that will continue unless farming companies in the Central Valley

recognize and adapt to environmental dangers caused by climate change and provide additional

crucial services to their workers.19

By placing the issue of farmworkers in the California Central Valley and their struggle to

achieve better and fair working conditions in a historical perspective with the overarching theme

of environmental justice, the farmworkers efforts through activism to address the severe

inequalities they were experiencing are viewed and understood differently. The efforts of

protesting farmworkers and various forms of activism they engaged in to be recognized and have

their demands met can be understood as acts of environmental activism to protest the harsh and

dangerous environmental inequalities they experienced in the fields. Environmental inequalities

such as dangerous exposure to pesticide, unsanitary conditions, and excessive hours of work for

abysmal pay supplied the motivation for Central Valley farmworkers to engage in numerous

forms of environmental activism such as protests, strikes, and boycotts to resolve the inequalities

they experienced and achieve environmental justice. The historical perspective that employs the

environmental justice framework offers a deeper understanding of the experiences of

farmworkers in the Central Valley in the past. Additionally, the framework provides a deeper
19
Eunice Roh and Chas Alamo, “Climate Change Impacts Across California Workers

and Employers,” Legislative Analyst’s Office, April 5, 2022,

https://lao.ca.gov/Publications/Report/4587.
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understanding of the present as it contextualizes what environmental and socioeconomic

inequalities farmworkers are currently experiencing and how they are simultaneously intensified

by climate change.