Wisconsin Needs to Lead on Farm Workin Protection

This Opinion piece was originally published by The Cap Times on November 14, 2025. You can read the original publication here.

BY Grace Voss

What can Wisconsin agriculture learn from California’s policy? A lot when it comes to farmworkers and climate change justice.

Record-breaking heat waves swept across the U.S. this past summer, with scorching temperatures disrupting daily life. Uncomfortable for most Americans, such conditions can be life-threatening for farmworkers laboring long hours outdoors without guaranteed access to shade, water or rest. As extreme weather becomes more frequent and federal protections weaken, it falls on states and consumers to step up for worker safety.

Wisconsin, with its large agricultural workforce and few state-level farm labor protections, has a unique opportunity to lead. By learning from California, a state that has already begun to reckon with extreme heat and its consequences for farmworkers, Wisconsin could establish standards that put farmworkers’ health first through both state action and consumer advocacy.

California has developed the country’s strongest labor standards for extreme heat, pesticide exposure and wildfire smoke. Its Heat Illness Prevention Standard, implemented in 2005, requires employers to provide access to water, shade and rest during high-heat conditions. These protections were later expanded to include wildfire smoke and pesticide exposure.

Enforcement, though, remains inconsistent. Despite the policies, heat-related illnesses and pesticide poisonings persist. One study estimated that over one-fifth of California employers never monitor for heat illness, which is proof that strong policies fail without strong enforcement.

Almost 20 years after California’s first heat standard, only six other states have adopted similar protections. In most of the U.S., states rely on the agricultural labor policies of federal agencies like OSHA and the Department of Labor, which have historically excluded farmworkers from basic rights such as overtime pay, unionization and consistent safety enforcement.

Under the first Trump administration, budget cuts and rollbacks were common even in non-agricultural sectors, weakening enforcement of labor standards for all workers. With Trump back in office, his administration has quickly acted to return to weakened federal programs. In June of this year, the National Institute for Occupational Safety and Health (NIOSH), an agency responsible for research to inform OSHA policymaking, was eliminated. Additionally, the Trump administration has permanently closed 11 OSHA offices.

Wisconsin, like most Midwestern states, depends on federal OSHA standards to regulate agricultural labor. Although the Biden administration had started drafting a federal Heat Injury and Illness Prevention rule, the process has since been paused.

Wisconsin currently has no state-specific heat protections like rest breaks, shade, or water access standards. Undocumented workers often also fear reporting unsafe conditions, and small farms are rarely inspected since OSHA does not routinely oversee operations with fewer than 10 employees. This stress is paired with rising temperatures, extreme rainfall and shifting crop seasons, affecting the state’s agriculture and placing workers at heightened risk of heatstroke, dehydration and stress-related health issues.

In Wisconsin, implementing heat protections and improving reporting mechanisms would safeguard workers and model proactive leadership. Including small farms in regulatory oversight and, especially, providing them with the resources to comply are key steps in this process. Stronger labor protections, fair labor certification programs and coalition-driven sustainability efforts could bridge the gap between farmworker safety and small-farm viability.

In an interview with the Soil Health and Agroecological Living Lab (SHALL), one farmworker noted: “Farming is unpredictable. With more climate variability, traditional work standards are difficult to apply, especially when there isn’t much support for smaller farms employing farmworkers.”

Even well-intentioned farms may struggle to meet new requirements without adequate funding or training. State leadership and consumer engagement must go hand in hand to make protections both effective and practical.

Many Americans remain unaware of the harsh conditions behind the food they eat, like piece-rate pay (compensation by units harvested rather than time worked), pesticide exposure and dangerous heat. Yet, most Americans are unconsciously supporting these risks every time they go to the grocery store.

A fair and sustainable food system depends on stronger state policies and informed consumer action. As climate change worsens and federal protections weaken, Wisconsin has the opportunity and the responsibility to act. Protecting farmworker health through climate-responsive labor standards is not only a moral imperative, it’s essential for the resilience of Wisconsin’s agricultural future.

Grace Voss is a UW-Madison student majoring in Community and environmental sociology.