Farmworker Housing

Farmworkers perform essential labor that ensures Americans have convenient and reliable access to fruits, vegetables and other products. But, for decades, they have endured substandard housing and working conditions.

To better understand those conditions, Investigate Midwest has obtained housing inspections from dozens of states. View our map of housing inspections — including violations inspectors noted — and our additional coverage below.

This project has been generously funded by the Pulitzer Center for Crisis Reporting.

Hover or click on the dots in the map on the right to see more detailed information, including the violations inspectors found. This is an ongoing project, and this map will be updated as more records become available.

_{The amount of information collected by each state varies. The names of companies and the content of the comments are as described by each state agency; they have not been edited and may contain spelling or other errors.}

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our latest

In the Midwest, state oversight has forced some employers to provide better housing for migrant farmworkers. But regulations remain spotty.

While oversight of H2A farmworker housing is enforced by the federal government, migrant farmworker housing is state jurisdiction. Some Midwestern states inspect twice — others not at all.

Selected stories from our archives

The US labor department added new farmworker protections, but agency needs more resources ‘to do what we need to do,’ agency head says

Labor officials and farmworker advocates praise the new rules, which aim to hold farmworker employers who violate workers’ rights accountable. But the acting secretary of labor says the agency needs more resources to get more ‘boots on the ground.’

Dairy workers on Wisconsin’s small farms are dying. Many of those deaths are never investigated.

OSHA sometimes investigates deaths on small farms if they provide housing to immigrant workers. Other times the agency says it can’t take action.

Michigan dairy farm housing: ‘Invisible’ workers suffer, state looks other way

Housing for immigrant workers on dairy farms is often tucked away and largely exempt from inspections. Advocates say that can lead to poor conditions. ‘You have no one to protect you,’ one worker says.

A new network of attorneys fights the abuses of industrial agriculture. First up, Colorado.

FarmSTAND focuses resources on specific cases that can change precedent on agricultural issues in the courts, working in collaboration with grassroots organizations from local to national levels.

Las deficientes salvaguardias normativas dejan a los trabajadores agrícolas asfixiados ante el aumento de las olas de calor.

Una quinta parte de las muertes de trabajadores relacionadas con el calor registradas entre el 2017 y 2022 fueron de trabajadores agrícolas, según datos de la OSHA. Académicos, especialistas en salud ocupacional y grupos de defensa llaman la atención sobre el impacto poco reportado del cambio climático en este grupo debido a las olas de calor.

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Still Harvesting Shame

An investigation by In These Times and The Midwest Center for Investigative Reporting reveals how today’s migrant farmworkers are still living in deplorable housing reminiscent of “Harvest of Shame.”

September 22, 2016January 23, 2023

Blighted Housing: Inspections fail to stem poor conditions for migrant farmworkers

An ongoing investigation by The Midwest Center for Investigative Reporting has found the oversight of migrant housing is a fractured and ineffective system despite decades of reforms.

April 13, 2016July 5, 2023

These farmworkers were forced to labor on empty stomachs

During an incident in Kennett, Missouri, in summer 2018, H-2A workers labored through high temperatures while denied breakfast and with little access to water. Their legal status was supposed to protect them.

August 21, 2019June 29, 2023

GRAPHIC: Use of the H-2A program more than tripled in past decade

As labor pool shrinks, Illinois farmers turn to foreign workers

Farms across the Midwest are struggling to hire domestic employees. In Illinois, the number of foreign agricultural workers has increased more than 250% in the past five years.

Carolina del Norte está impulsando gran parte del crecimiento del programa de visas H-2A. Eso significa más exposición a lo que los trabajadores llaman el “monstruo verde”.

El salpullido -también conocido como urticaria-, los dolores de cabeza y los vómitos, son problemas de salud asociados a la intoxicación pornicotina que los trabajadores agrícolas pueden padecer en los cultivos de tabaco de Carolina del Norte.

North Carolina is driving much of the H-2A program’s growth. That means more exposure to what workers call the ‘green monster.’

Workers said they’ve experienced dehydration, headaches and vomiting from harvesting tobacco in North Carolina.

Missouri’s housing inspections for H-2A workers missed deficiencies for years

The lax inspection process led to an incident in summer 2018 where workers lived in a former jail, a motel with bed bugs and a house with a leaking toilet.