OCCUPATIONAL AND ENVIRONMENTAL-HEALTH RISKS IN FARM-LABOR

This essay provides an introduction and overview for this special them atic section. We discuss the general occupational and environmental he alth risks that those who provide farm labor - farmers, farm families, and farmworkers - experience as a result of commercial agriculture. W e first briefly review some of the farm safety research literature, hi ghlighting the important trend of listening to those who perform farm labor as they speak for themselves about their health and safety conce rns. We then introduce the individual articles in the collection and h ighlight their common themes: (2) control; (2) economic stress; (3) be liefs; and (4) access to information. We conclude that applied anthrop ology has a key role to play in reducing occupational and environmenta l health risks for farm labor by conducting the research that indicate s the most proximate causes of farm injury and illness, and by develop ing appropriate interventions to address these causes.