Letters to the Editor: As child farmworkers toil, California needs to do a better job of enforcing labor laws

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To the editor : After reading this article, my first thought was that it boggles the mind that California’s $61-billion agricultural industry could fail on so many levels to protect the most vulnerable among its workforce, children ( “California’s child farmworkers: Exhausted, underpaid and toiling in toxic fields,” Nov. 20). Then it occurred to me: Maybe that is precisely the driving force behind the industry’s wealth and profit in the first place.

The article points out the systemic failures of various oversight agencies that have allowed the industry to turn a blind eye to regulations like work permits, heat illness training, access to shade and cool water and exposure to