Planning for the “new normal”: Farmworker support organizations’ experiences of climate change impacts and adaptation

Abstract

Farmworker support organizations (SOs) in central Washington state are experiencing climate change–related impacts. To understand the challenges these organizations are facing, how they observe tree-fruit farmworkers navigating these impacts, and what gaps exist in farmworker support, we carried out a multimethod qualitative case study, interview­ing 24 staff from community health clinics and centers, community-based organizations, and research and training organizations. The analysis found that SOs are providing essential support related to climate change, and that need for these services in increasing. Several factors converge to make it challenging for SOs to effectively contrib­ute to long-term, sustainable solutions: limited capacity, staff burnout and, in some cases, the fact that staff do not make the connection between increasing heat and smoke events and climate change. We propose that three principles could strengthen efforts to agree upon and implement long-term climate resilience strategies for the bene­fit of farmworkers’ health and safety and the sus­tainability of tree-fruit production: (1) addressing the systemic inequalities that contribute to farm­workers’ vulnerability, rather than focusing nar­rowly on individual preparedness and reducing exposure; (2) bringing together diverse players to propose solutions for protecting workers within the context of farm economic viability, so as to reduce the potential for unintended consequences to the tree-fruit production system; and (3) incor­porating adaptive strategies that attend to how cli­mate change impacts people differently, unevenly, and disproportionately.