California immigrant farm workers bore the brunt of this winter’s extreme weather – yet have scant resources to put their lives back together
The same mucky runoff that wrecked homes and businesses and stores submerged the flowering strawberry fields where she and most of the community work.Most of the US’s summer strawberries are grown in the Pajaro valley and nearby Salinas, as are a number of other berries and greens. But without urgent government intervention and investment, the immigrant farm workers who pick them could become climate migrants.
“This could be the beginning of a great climate displacement,” said Michael Méndez, assistant professor of environmental planning and policy at the University of A few days after the storms passed, more than 500 people lined up for a food and clothing distribution, hosted out of Ernestina Solorio’s back yard in Watsonville. The long-running monthly event organised by Solorio, a farm worker herself, regularly draws hundreds who come to stock up on pantry staples, diapers and other supplies. But the queue this time was especially long.