Health of Mexican Migrant Farmworkers: Critical elements of social responsibility in grape and vegetable production in Northern Mexico

Of the four million migrant farmworkers in Mexico, an estimated 80 thousand are contracted by one of 300 agri-businesses located in 4 specific regions of Sonora, Mexico. The majority of farmworkers come via contractor from as far away as Chiapas, Oaxaca, Guerrero, Veracuz and Puebla. In 2006, a Sonora-Arizona, binational, interdisciplinary working group was formed to focus on the health and development issues facing these migrant farm workers and their families. The binational working group explored four complementary research components to provide a composite picture of the critical elements in the development and implementation of a model of social responsibility in Sonoran agro production. Research is based on a previous five year study of the region and focuses on grape and vegetable producers exporting to US, Europe and Asia. This triangulation study involved Sonoran agribusiness owners; public and private frontline health care workers and migrant farm workers. The presenter will discuss qualitative results from in-depth interviews with private and public health care providers and semi-structured interviews with migrant farm workers about their experiences with health care practice, utilization and challenges to access among migrant farmworkers. Results from semi structured interviews with agro business owners will offer insight into the knowledge, attitudes and beliefs about elements of socially responsible agro production and the agro producer's response to the viability of such a model in Northern Mexico. Strategies to engage early adopters in critical elements in socially responsive agro production will also be introduced.