SOCECOL E8 Lecture Notes - Lecture 2: Alternet, Farmworker
26 May 2016
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Document Summary
California"s farm towns are losing jobs and dying of thirst. The farms in and around mendota are dying of thirst. Orchards with trees lying on their sides, as if shot. Land and cattle for sale, cheap: no doubt everyone in california, and the other west coast states suffering this drought, will feel the lack of water sooner rather than later. One of the poorest towns in the poorest region in california, mendota, Cantaloupe center of the world, has a poverty rate of over 40 percent. It is also one of a handful of towns in fresno county almost completely dependent on farming for its lifeblood: mendota already has the worst unemployment rate in california, somewhere between 35 and. That doesn"t include the undocumented workers, whose numbers are significant. Chris schneider, executive director of the fresno-based central california legal services, inc. , with many farmworker clients, estimates their numbers at anywhere from 30 to 60 percent of the workforce.
