For many seasonal and migrant farmworkers who plant, harvest and process produce for stores, stands, farmers markets and festivals across Michigan, living conditions can be unsafe and unhealthy, University of Michigan researchers say.

In interviews conducted as part of the Michigan Farmworker Project, workers described crowded housing, being provided dirty mattresses, sewage and other odors from bathrooms. They detailed common areas such as living rooms often doubling as bedrooms and a lack of air conditioning.

Additionally, some said they experienced food insecurity, fears of polluted drinking water, high rents, low wages and a general lack of safe, affordable and quality housing—not unlike the situation many U.S. residents are facing.

The five-year-old community-engaged research project led by Lisbeth Iglesias-Rios and Alexis Handal of the U-M School of Public Health has examined a variety of topics related to treatment by farm owners and supervisors over time…

“This is about basic human rights, and it’s also about treating these workers as the valuable contributors to the state’s $104.7 billion agricultural economy that they are. They are not afforded the same protections as other workers with federal and state occupational health and safety rules, and the treatment reported by some is dehumanizing and unhealthy,” Iglesias-Rios said…