The Michigan Farmworker Project: Development and Implementation of a Collaborative Community-Based Research Project Assessing Precarious Employment and Labor Exploitation

Abstract

Farmworkers are among the most underserved and marginalized populations of workers despite their essential role in the U.S. food supply chain. The Michigan Farmworker Project (MFP) evolved as a collaborative, community-based participatory project among state and regional service entities, legal service organizations, and the university. The overarching goal of the project was to study the relationship of precarious working conditions and labor exploitation with occupational and environmental health inequities and social justice for farmworkers in Michigan. We employed critical race theory and community-based participatory research approaches to guide the development and implementation of the MFP. We describe the development of the participatory process with community partners and discuss implementation challenges and lessons learned from the field. Throughout the research, we reflect on how farmworkers’ social and working environment goes beyond precarity, revealing labor exploitation as an important deterrent of farmworker health and well-being. Despite entrenched systems of structural oppression, farmworkers contribute to and improve our society with their rich cultural backgrounds, their work, and their resilience. The diverse composition of this community-university partnership amplified collaboration, enriched our understanding of the role of precarity and labor exploitation among farmworkers, and contributed to the study’s success. The MFP will continue strengthening the community-university partnership with the goal of continuing to address health inequities in the farmworker population.