They pick your blueberries and peppers. But NJ doesn’t protect farm workers from rising heat.

Beyond the high-rises of New Jersey’s cities and the sprawling suburbs that make it the most densely populated state in the U.S., large swaths of the Garden State are dedicated to agriculture.

Yet there are no heat-specific federal or state laws regulating conditions for the roughly 25,000 farmworkers in New Jersey — even as state environmental experts expect the number of heat-related deaths to double over the next three decades. This year is on track to be the world’s hottest on record and climate experts agree scorching summers will only get worse.

New Jersey's $1 billion farming industry depends on seasonal and migrant workers during the hottest months of the year. But unlike a handful of other states, New Jersey doesn’t have requirements for employers to provide paid breaks and access to shade during excessively hot days — or any proposed legislation to do so. The Biden administration in 2021 began developing a federal heat safety standard that could ultimately limit working hours or mandate breaks when temperatures climb beyond a specific threshold, but that process generally takes seven years.

Until that happens, labor organizers have limited tools to leverage local change.

Farmworkers are excluded from some of the most basic labor protections nationally, such as the right to unionize. Unlike New York, New Jersey does not extend bargaining protections to farm workers, making it harder to organize a socially isolated, transient workforce that doesn’t always speak English and generally cannot vote in the state.

But as New Jersey’s annual average temperatures rise even faster than the global average, there's renewed urgency to prevent heat-related illnesses and deaths.

“People are going to have more and more issues from heat because we need to eat. We need to grow food,” said Dr. Lori Talbot, who recently retired after providing health care to South Jersey farmworkers since 1982. “We need to figure out how to work within the limits that the extra heat is causing.”

Farmworkers are 35 times more likely to die of heat-related illnesses than other workers, according to a 2022 peer-review study published in the journal Frontiers in Public Health.

“We're not talking about an ice castle. We're not talking about air conditioning the outdoors,” said Elizabeth Strater, director of strategic campaigns at United Farm Workers, the nation’s largest farmworkers union. “We're talking about cool water, shade and rest.”

‘The sun weakens you’

For the last six summer harvests, Edgar Gonzalez Murillo has worked on a South Jersey farm, picking melons for 10 hours a day. His life between April and October is largely confined to a radius of a couple miles in Salem County: the farm where he works six days a week and the labor camp where he sleeps at night.

The farthest he’s gone is the Jersey Shore.

“I went to the beach, Atlantic City for July 4,” Murillo, 23, said in Spanish, as he chewed on a watermelon slice after one of his shifts in August. His co-workers call him “el grillo,” which translates to “the cricket,” because he’s always singing on the job.

“I’m on a work visa, not a tourist visa. If I was on a tourist visa, I’d be going to concerts, singing,” said Murillo.

Murillo said the money he earns in New Jersey is helping him build his beekeeping business back home in Mexico, where he already owns 70 bee boxes.

“I want to live independently, have my house and depend on myself,” Murillo said.

In New Jersey, many farmworkers are undocumented immigrants, seasonal workers from other states, or migrants on special work visas from Mexico or Central America.

Murillo is on a H-2A visa, which lets U.S. employers bring foreign workers to fill temporary agriculture jobs and requires them to provide housing. He lives in a single-story building with 17 others. The labor camp is overgrown with grass and discarded watermelon rinds; old furniture sits under torn nursery tarps. The handful of women who live on the camp sit in cars talking to their families back home. Workers take turns showering, talking to their children on WhatsApp and cooking before their next early shift.

Imagine working at a temperature of 120 degrees and then get home and not be able to sleep because of the heat.

Manuel Guzman, a lead organizer with CATA

As Murillo waited for his turn to shower, he scratched at swelling mosquito bites on his arms and ankles. He said that the heat and humidity get worse every year he returns to the farm.

“It’s obviously worrying because you are going to be putting in more energy into work and every day will feel heavier. You’re going to get weaker because the sun weakens you,” Murillo said.

He said he tries not to think about the weather, even on days where the heat is so suffocating that he prays for a cloud to cover the sun.

Those on H-2A visas are paid by the hour but other workers get paid by the piece — by how much they harvest — which means they have little incentive to take extra breaks. Drinking more water means taking more bathroom breaks, which could also earn them less money.

Workers usually wear boots, pants, and sometimes long-sleeved shirts and gloves when they're out in the field. Those in charge of spraying pesticides wear another layer of protective clothing, which can be even hotter, said Manuel Guzman, a lead organizer with CATA, a nonprofit that advocates for migrant farmworkers in New Jersey, Maryland and Pennsylvania.

Guzman said the heat is worse for those who work in nurseries during the height of summer.

“If the temperature outside is 95 degrees, it can be 15 or 20 degrees higher,” he said. “Imagine working at a temperature of 120 degrees and then get home and not be able to sleep because of the heat.”

Guzman said that while most of the labor camps he visits don’t have air conditioning, he’s starting to see window units more frequently, in some cases, because workers have pitched in to purchase them.

The U.S. Department of Labor said housing for migrant workers needs to be sanitary and free of debris. Windows must also have screens and the ability to be opened for proper ventilation. But there are no specific regulations regarding temperature inside housing units and no requirement to provide air conditioning or fans during particularly hot days.

Murillo has an air conditioning unit in the room he shares with five others. He said for him, it’s mostly the consecutive days of heat that are insufferable.

“It’s an effort that you’re doing to help your family or help yourself,” he said. “That's the only thing you hold on to.”

Prioritizing climate change

Annual temperatures in New Jersey are expected to rise by more than 5 degrees Fahrenheit by 2050, according to a state report, but local lawmakers aren’t considering regulating outdoor working conditions. Labor leaders say that’s partly because farmworkers remain in the state for a few months and then leave, and without any collective bargaining rights it’s hard to gain momentum to demand change.

Talbot, who was the medical director of Complete Care in Cumberland County and then ran a walk-in clinic for farmworkers, said there’s a group of local advocates that meets regularly to discuss farmworker issues, but heat hasn’t been its top priority. She said worker needs are vast and there are few resources.

“Frankly, heat and climate change are a long-term issue and the group tends to work on more urgent, today problems,” Talbot said. “There's 10,000 workers picking blueberries in Hammonton and there's only housing for 3,000 workers. What are we going to do? There's kids out in the field that can't get into the migrant day care center because there's no transportation. What are we going to do?”

There's also scant data available from the state to help drive reform. New Jersey doesn’t track heat deaths or injuries for farmworkers. Many are uninsured and they don’t always seek medical care. Though data from the U.S. Bureau of Labor Statistics show 436 workers in the U.S. died in the last decade due to heat exposure, labor advocates say the number is likely higher.

United Farm Workers has successfully pushed for worker protections against extreme heat in Western states but hasn’t focused on New Jersey since farmworkers can’t unionize in the state.

In California, for example, regulations require that employers provide workers access to shade when temperatures reach 80 degrees, and paid 10 minute breaks every two hours when the mercury tops 95 degrees. Washington, Colorado and Oregon recently passed similar measures.

Locally, efforts to extend unionization rules have sputtered.

Former Assemblymember Eric Houghtaling, a Monmouth County Democrat, chaired the Assembly Agriculture Committee in 2021 when he introduced a bill that would give farmworkers in New Jersey the right to collectively bargain. But the bill never got a vote. Houghtaling lost his re-election bid later that year, and the bill has not been reintroduced.

New Jersey’s Interagency Council on Climate Resilience, a group of 22 state branches, is working on the state’s first “extreme heat resilience action plan.” Chief Resilience Officer Nick Angarone said it’s not clear whether a standard similar to California’s heat illness workplace protections would be included. Angarone said farmworkers are among the groups they’re hoping to prioritize but acknowledged it’s been difficult to gather their input.

We wouldn't have an economy if it wasn't for these people who come to work very long hours and very difficult jobs.

Dr. Emma Cortes, a physician in emergency medicine and family medicine

A vulnerable workforce

New Jersey has more than 10,000 farms spanning 750,000 acres, which makes it a challenge to reach farmworkers in the most rural pockets of the state.

On a late August afternoon, Dr. Emma Cortes, a physician in emergency medicine and family medicine, stopped at three farms in Hammonton, Atlantic County — the heart of the state’s $80 million per year blueberry industry — dispensing supplies and medical advice. She had barely popped open the trunk of her car, which was stuffed with paper bags of donated toothpaste, cotton bandanas, clothing pins and soap, before a crowd of workers formed around her.

“These all seem very basic, but for someone who is on a rural farm, who does not have their own transportation and does not speak the language, it actually can be quite difficult to just go down the street to the pharmacy to get these basic needs,” she said. “It's not exactly walkable, I mean, you can walk it, but it's not close at all. There's no sidewalks.”

While finishing her residency last year, Cortes founded the Migrant Health Collaborative of South Jersey, a nonprofit that works to boost health care access for the state’s migrant workers.

During her recent farm visit, as soon as workers learned Cortes was a doctor, they peppered her with questions. One worker touched the tips of his fingers and rubbed his wrists. He said they hurt constantly. Cortes told him it’s from overworking them and instructed him to take two Tylenol three times a day. Another worker said he had pain shooting down his leg and the sole of his foot was numb. Cortes told him to take three Advil, Motrin or Ibuprofen three times daily, and showed him how to stretch before starting his day.

When Cortes arrived at another farm, most of the workers had left for the season. Only a handful were left to do the backbreaking work of pruning blueberry bushes. They sat with Cortes outside their temporary housing provided by the grower — a collection of beige single trailers with broken window frames, rusty edges and no air conditioning units in sight.

“New Jersey is an agricultural state, and we wouldn't have an economy if it wasn't for these people who come to work very long hours and very difficult jobs. While they're here, it's inexcusable and not acceptable for them to not have better conditions,” Cortes said.

‘A preventable death’

Exposure to extreme heat can adversely affect health, increase injuries or lead to death. But experts say little data exists to measure the scope of the problem.

“Nobody really knows how many people are being killed by heat,” said Strater, from United Farm Workers. “Nobody knows how many people are being injured by heat and really we do not have a meaningful way to track those injuries and illnesses and deaths in this country because this is a population that is really operating in social isolation. These folks are living in the shadows.”

Most farmworkers don’t seek medical care for heat exposure or don’t identify heat as the cause of their symptoms, doctors who work with farmworkers said.

“It's never the thing they come in complaining about. ‘It was hot today.’ Well, of course it's hot today. This is what they do,” said Talbot.

Dr. Adrienne Rigueur, an emergency department doctor for Virtua Health, a health care system in South Jersey, said heat illness can range from heat rash or sunburn, to more serious conditions like heat exhaustion, which causes symptoms like headaches, nausea, lethargy and dizziness. Untreated, it can ultimately lead to heat stroke.

Sometimes you feel like puking. Your feet are real tired — your hands, too. You can’t work too much.

Martin Vera Aguilar, farmworker (translated from Spanish)

“The body temperature can get up as high as 106 [degrees],” Rigueur said. “You can see them having altered mental status, which could be something like confusion, hallucinations, all the way to seizures associated with all this heat that their body isn't able to get rid of.”

Extreme heat can also cause kidney failure due to severe dehydration and muscle breakdown. Chronic kidney disease among Central and South American farmers has risen dramatically since the 1990s, and experts have theorized that repeated heat exposure and dehydration from hard work in hot, humid climates may be the reason.

A 2022 report from New Jersey’s health and environmental protection departments warns that this trend could foreshadow similar patterns here — and already, the limited record-keeping shows heat-related illnesses are spiking.

Between 2004 and 2013, heat-related hospital admissions in South Jersey tripled, according to a 2017 report by Rutgers University. There was also a significant rise in the average number of days the Atlantic City area in the southern end of the state has experienced high temperatures of above 90 degrees. The greater Atlantic City area now experiences an average of 15 more days of such extreme heat than it did in 1970, according to Climate Central, a nonprofit research organization.

Heat-related illness can also cause people to make mistakes on the job that result in injury or death. The IZA Institute of Labor Economics published a 2021 study that found injuries and accidents increased in California by as much as 7% when temperatures reached 90 degrees. Injuries increased by as much as 15% on days where the temperature exceeded 100 degrees, the study said. It also estimated heat-related injuries were severely undercounted and could be 19 times the yearly number of injuries reported.

Talbot said she’s personally known five farmworkers in New Jersey who died from heat.

“It was devastating because that's a preventable death and these were typically young people that had families back home,” she said.

Making improvements

Agriculture is New Jersey’s third-largest industry. The Garden State is among the country’s top 10 producers of blueberries, cranberries, peaches, tomatoes, bell peppers, eggplant, cucumbers, apples, spinach, squash and asparagus.

Tom Sheppard runs Sheppard Farms and Eastern Fresh Growers in Cumberland County, which sits at the bottom of the state. Farming has been in Sheppard’s family since 1683.

Advocates say that Sheppard bucks the trend as an employer. In 2013, he built new housing for his workers that came equipped with central air conditioning, satellite TV, and washers and dryers. “We want to treat our men well. They work hard for us,” Sheppard said. He said when workers get overheated, they go home to cool off.

His longtime farmworker Martin Vera Aguilar, 60, said excessive heat makes workers less productive and that it helps them to take breaks.

“Sometimes you feel like puking,” he said in Spanish, referring to what it’s like to work in the heat. “Your feet are real tired — your hands, too. You can’t work too much.”

Sheppard said modern housing is easier to maintain but because he was building new, he was subject to new housing codes, which meant having to install a fire suppression system that cost $160,000 across four camps — an expense that can disincentive farmers. He said other growers have come to ask about the labor camps and inquire about costs.

“As [it] gets harder to get crews, you're going to have to do things like that,” he said. “We have all these people crossing the border and getting bused to wherever. Give them a work visa, because they want to work … everybody, truck drivers, the lumber mills, everybody is looking for labor.”

Rich VanVranken, the Rutgers agriculture and natural resources agent for Atlantic County, said some growers are operating on the margins and there’s little financial incentive to invest in upgrading housing camps. Still, he is seeing more labor camps equipped with air conditioning units as growers try to retain their workforce.

“How can they comply and at the same time, and not face a major expense for a system that would only be in operation for six weeks of the year?” he said, referring to facilities for the blueberry workers who come for a short stint. “It’s a major financial tradeoff to figure out when they could make those improvements. And if you have a couple of bad years you’re not likely to make improvements.”

Prospects for change

First-term Assemblymember Michael Torrissi — a Republican serving Atlantic, Burlington and Camden counties — has proposed creating the state’s first dedicated standards for farmworker housing, including requirements like a minimum number of doors and a maximum distance to bathrooms. The bill, however, lacks provisions for ventilation or requirements for air conditioning. Torrissi didn’t respond to multiple requests for comment.

The New Jersey Farm Bureau, the state’s largest agricultural lobby, urged growers this summer to prevent heat stress among the workforce. The organization said in an online post that growers could be dinged by federal safety officials under the Occupational Safety and Health Administration’s general duty provision, a catchall for hazardous work conditions, even though there are no outdoor heat rules. The Farm Bureau encouraged farmers to give their workers water every 15 minutes, adjust their schedules so strenuous parts of the job are done during the cooler parts of the day, and look out for signs of heat illness.

We have all these people crossing the border and getting bused to wherever. Give them a work visa, because they want to work.

Tom Sheppard, owner of Sheppard Farms and Eastern Fresh Growers in Cumberland County

OSHA’s effort to develop federal standards for worker protections in excessive heat is still in its early stages, despite the launch of the rulemaking process in 2021. The result could be an enforceable rule that mandates paid breaks or limits to working hours when temperatures climb beyond a specific threshold, but the rule is still being written.

Earlier this summer, OSHA began soliciting the input of small businesses that would potentially be affected by such a rule, opening a new public comment period that runs through late December. In general, OSHA’s rulemaking process moves slowly. A report from the Government Accountability Office in 2012 found OSHA takes on average more than seven years to write and issue new health and safety rules.

The U.S. Department of Labor this month also proposed a new rule to protect workers from retaliation if they advocate for better working conditions, opening the door for more worker mobilization, particularly for those on H-2A visas, whom the department describes as “among our nation’s most vulnerable to workplace abuses.” Officials proposed strengthening anti-retaliation rules to protect workers seeking better conditions and expand their rights to accept guests in employer-provided housing.

“It’s about damn time,” said Teresa Romero, president of United Farm Workers. “The H-2A program has long facilitated the creation of a de facto underclass of legally vulnerable workers kept in a permanent state of exclusion from U.S. citizenship and labor law.

“We are hopeful that these proposed rules indicate a real commitment by the Biden administration to begin empowering farmworkers on H-2A visas to stand up to employer retaliation, unsafe working conditions and illegal recruitment practices,” Romero said.

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This story is a collaboration between NJ Spotlight News and WNYC/Gothamist, examining the intersection of climate change and agriculture.

See the video documentary from NJ Spotlight News: Rising heat is making NJ farmworkers' jobs more dangerous