It is difficult not to view poverty-stricken farmworkers as victims and pesticide manufacturers (and those of us who benefit from them) as perpetrators. Yet, my reporting demonstrated the complexity of the issues involved, leaving me with the uneasy sense that there was no clear-cut solution.
The U.S. locks up more individuals per capita than any other country in the world. We have 2.2 million people behind bars – up 500% from 30 years ago. This situation raises important questions for policy makers, and it’s a rich area for journalistic exploration.
Virginia houses approximately 30,000 inmates annually in state prisons, making the Department of Corrections the most expensive agency in Richmond, with a billion dollar annual budget. It spends $160 million on healthcare, but critics say that care is inadequate.
More than a decade of research in the Salinas Valley of California - one of the most thriving agriculture regions in the world - has shed light on environmental hazards and their potential health risks.
Unyque Jackson started kindergarten in Oakland. Her parents divorced when she was five. And Unyque moved to the San Joaquin Valley where she lived in her father’s house and was raised by her grandmother.
One out of four adults in California is a high school dropout. "Class Dismissed" takes an up-close look at the crisis through the lives of four young people from the Central Valley. The stories reveal what’s at stake for their future and ours.
As he tells it, Geronimo Garcia was on the path toward dropping out by the time he started school.
Three cohort studies in the United States are tracking the long-term consequences on the developing brain of pesticide exposure during pregnancy and the early years of life. The studies are finding troubling effects, such as IQ deficits and ADHD-like behavioral problems.
Researchers are growing increasingly aware that the prenatal period and early childhood are exquisitely sensitive to external insults such as environmental contaminants.
Before the next chicken-processing plant is built in southern Delaware, or prior to approving 200 new homes in the next town over, some health experts say it makes sense to pause for a moment and evaluate the overall impact on a community.
