The human cost of the Yuma’s vegetable empire

• Crop planes drop thousands of pounds of pesticides over Yuma’s agricultural region at night • Farmworkers in Yuma face high rates of adverse health effects due to pesticide exposure • Farmworkers face retaliation risks when speaking up about unsafe working conditions

YUMA – As night falls over the 121-square-mile stretch of land at the corner of California, Arizona and Mexico – land almost twice the size of Washington, D.C. – crop planes and helicopters boot up.

Under the cover of darkness, pilots drop thousands of pounds of pesticides over fields in one of the nation’s most productive agricultural regions growing lettuce, wheat, melons, lemons and dozens of other crops.

A few hours later, legions of farmworkers head to these same fields to plant, irrigate, pick, cut, bag and run