Toxic freedom: how middle-class seasonal fruit pickers perceive and manage agrochemical exposures

ABSTRACT

In a global agricultural context that is more chemically dependent than ever, occupational exposure to pesticides typically maps onto entrenched inequalities. Existing research has documented the health hazards of agrochemical exposure facing predominantly low-income, racialized farmworkers. Yet some young middle-class people in wealthy countries are intentionally pursuing informal seasonal farm jobs. How do workers in social positions that typically protect against workplace vulnerability manage the uncertainty of toxic exposures? This study draws on ethnographic observations and in-depth interviews with French, English and Spanish-speaking domestic and international farmworkers in British Columbia, Canada. I identify three pathways by which farmworkers perceive and manage agrochemical exposure: informal bodily evidence, individually managing risks and rationalizing exposure. This article introduces the concept of ‘toxic freedom’ to show how workers may downplay workplace risks by framing pesticide exposure as a reasonable trade-off for personal autonomy, countercultural idealism and temporary youthful adventure. This research underscores why individual-level agricultural health and safety interventions may be limited in protecting workers from harmful agrochemical exposures. Rather, it signals the opportunity for policy interventions such as stronger pesticide regulation, proactive spot inspections, higher penalties for non-compliance, and clearer channels for farmworkers to have a collective democratic voice in the workplace.

KEYWORDS:

• Farmworkers
• freedom
• pesticides
• political ecology
• risk perception

Acknowledgement

I am deeply grateful to Merin Oleschuk and Sarah Elton along with two anonymous reviewers; your feedback strengthened the quality of this article. Thanks also to research participants for sharing your time and insights, and to Josée Johnston for supervising the PhD fieldwork that this article draws upon.

Disclosure statement

No potential conflict of interest was reported by the author(s).

Statements and Declarations

The research leading to these results received doctoral scholarship funding from the Pierre Elliot Trudeau Foundation, as well as the Social Sciences and Humanities Research Council of Canada Joseph-Armand Bombardier Canada Graduate Scholarship. The author has no competing interests to declare that are relevant to the content of this article.

Additional information

Funding

This work was supported by the Pierre Elliott Trudeau Foundation; Social Sciences and Humanities Research Council of Canada.

Notes on contributors

Anelyse M. Weiler

Anelyse M. Weiler is an Assistant Professor of Sociology at the University of Victoria. Her research explores the convergence of social inequalities and environmental crises, with a focus on struggles for decent work across the food chain. She actively contributes to the B.C. Employment Standards Coalition, Worker Solidarity Network, and the Migrant Worker Health Expert Working Group. Her recent research has been published in journals such as Rural Sociology and Agriculture, Food, & Human Values.