Pesticide Safety Knowledge Among
Michigan Migrant Farmworkers
by Ann V. Millard
Isidore Flores, Nancy Ojeda-Macias,
Laurie Medina, Lawrence Olsen and Sandy Perry
Michigan State University
Working Paper No. 55
May 2004
Abstract:
A survey of residents of farm labor camps in Michigan shows that
they bring different kinds of knowledge to bear on issues of pesticide
safety. A survey of 188 migrant agricultural workers shows that those
who are the most knowledgeable are specialists in farm work, favor
Spanish over English, and participate in out-of-state migration to
jobs in Florida and Texas. Those who know less about pesticide safety
had worked outside agriculture as well as on farms in Michigan. Education
and gender were not related to knowledge of pesticide safety, but they
were dimensions of variation in different parts of the migrant stream.
Statistical analysis and ethnographic information suggest that both
formal and practical knowledge create the differences among workers
in their levels of knowledge of pesticide safety.
