Farmworker
hired agricultural worker on a farm that works for the farmowners
A farmworker or farmhand, is someone employed for labor in agriculture. In labor law, the term "farmworker" is sometimes used more narrowly, applying only to a hired worker involved in agricultural production, including harvesting. Agricultural work varies widely depending on context, degree of mechanization and crop. Low wages for farmworkers have been associated with farmworker shortages and delayed adoption of agricultural technology.
Agricultural labor is often affected by the human health impacts of environmental issues related to agriculture, such as health effects of pesticides or exposure to other health challenges such as valley fever. To address these environmental concerns and marginal working conditions, many labor rights, economic justice and environmental justice movements have been organized or supported by farmworkers.
Worldwide
In the United States
In Canada
Canada as of 2010 had 297,683 agricultural employees; 112,059 were year-around and 185,624 were seasonal or temporary. Qualifying employers in Canada can hire temporary foreign farmworkers from participating countries for periods of up to 8 months per calendar year for on-farm primary agriculture in specified commodity sectors, if the work involved totals at least 240 hours within a period of 6 weeks or less. This Seasonal Agricultural Worker Program, established in 1966, brings about 25,000 foreign workers to Canada each year. About 66% of those work in Ontario, 13% in Québec, and 13% in British Columbia.
The public source identifies “Farmworker” as hired agricultural worker on a farm that works for the farmowners. This brief keeps that definition visible, then builds a research path around Farmworker, hired and agricultural.
Why this record matters
A short description can identify a subject without explaining its stakes. For “Farmworker”, the useful work is to connect “hired agricultural worker on a farm that works for the farmowners” to the records capable of establishing context and consequence.
Named sources, stable identifiers and responsible institutions provide the strongest route from overview to verifiable evidence. The source revision retrieved here is dated Jul 13, 2026. The linked authority identifier is Q5060555. None of the 0 selected statements returned an explicit reference. The first chronological checks are 2010 and 1966.
Overview language is designed for orientation and should not be treated as a substitute for the evidence cited beneath it. The lead is largely declarative, so disagreement and counter-evidence require a deliberate search beyond the opening account. Authority statements aid reconciliation but still require their own references, qualifiers and ranks to be checked.
How to read it
Use the entry as an orientation point, then follow its citations and revision history. Names, dates and institutional relationships should be checked against the original record.
- Subject orientation
- Search vocabulary
- Locating named sources
The closest primary source, responsible institution and strongest cited specialist reference.
Three-step research path
- Establish the record: confirm the title “Farmworker”, its source revision and the description used here.
- Expand the search: follow Farmworker primary sources, Farmworker archive and Farmworker research across catalogues and specialist indexes.
- Test the account: compare the strongest cited source with the responsible institution’s current record and note any disagreement.
Questions for further research
- Which source most directly establishes the central claim about “Farmworker”?
- Which institution is responsible for the underlying evidence?
- What terminology or title could unlock a more precise catalogue search?
Search terms from this dossier
This entry incorporates text from “Farmworker” on English Wikipedia. Contributors are listed in the page history. Text is available under the Creative Commons Attribution-ShareAlike 4.0 License. Selected authority identifiers and statements are retrieved from Wikidata under CC0; their references and qualifiers remain part of the verification path.