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California Farmworker Communities Win the Right to Be Notified of Pesticide Applications in Advance
After decades of pressure from farmworkers and their allies, California launched a statewide system to warn communities before they’re exposed to toxic pesticides. But health concerns remain.
By Liza Gross
On a sweltering August morning in 1988, Cesar Chavez ended a 36-day water-only fast to protest high rates of cancer and birth defects among California grape workers and their children, which he blamed on the profusion of pesticides in the fields, water and air around farming towns.