The worst of the storm is expected to hit California’s most vulnerable eastern desert communities around 2 a.m., said Brian Ferguson, spokesman for California's office of Emergency Services. Some of those areas are east of San Diego and Los Angeles, including ones in the Coachella Valley, Imperial Valley and near Death Valley. by oumya KarlamanglaReporting from San Francisco @nytimes https://www.nytimes.com/live/2023/08/20/us/hurricane-hilary-california-mexico/f2e34a9f-850a-527d-80cf-cb40782c6aef?smid=url-share #hilary #hurricane #southerncalifornia #deathvalley #imperialvalley #coachella

Desert agriculture. Brushed chili field. Replanting chili plants on a #Japanese-owned ranch. #ImperialValley, #California

https://www.loc.gov/pictures/item/2017769719/

Desert agriculture. Brushed chili field. Replanting chili plants on a #Japanese-owned ranch. #ImperialValley, #California

https://www.loc.gov/pictures/item/2017769720/

Desert agriculture. Brushed chili field. Replanting chili plants on a #Japanese-owned ranch. Sticks, palm leaves and paper are used for protection against wind and cold. Tomato plants are cultivated by the same method. #ImperialValley, #California

https://www.loc.gov/pictures/item/2017769710/

#Mexican gang of migratory laborers under a #Japanese field boss. These men are thinning and weeding cantaloupe plants. Wages thirty cents an hour. These young plants are "capped" with wax paper spread over a wire wicket to protect against cold and to accelerate growth. #ImperialValley, #California

https://www.loc.gov/pictures/item/2017769717/

#Mexican gang of migratory laborers under a #Japanese field boss. These men are thinning and weeding cantaloupe plants. Wages thirty cents an hour. These young plants are "capped" with wax paper spread over a wire wicket to protect against cold and to accelerate growth. #ImperialValley, #California

https://www.loc.gov/pictures/item/2017769716/

On Tuesday, the only #abortion clinic in #California’s #ImperialValley burned down. The #PlannedParenthood served that part of Southern California, as well as some residents of #Arizona who are trying to escape the state’s 15-week ban. It is also an already underserved area, with the second poorest population and one of the highest rates of teen #pregnancy in California. This is devastating. https://jezebel.com/abortion-clinic-near-california-arizona-border-burns-do-1850749037

#Brawley, #ImperialValley. In #FarmSecurityAdministrationFSA) migratory labor camp. Family of mother, father and eleven children, originally from near Mangrum, #Oklahoma, where he had been tenant farmer. Came to #California in 1936 after the drought. Since then has been traveling from crop to crop in #California, following the harvest. Six of the eleven children attend school wherever the family stops long enough. Five older children work along with the father and mother. February 23, two of the family have been lucky and "got a place" a day's work) in the peas on the #Sinclair ranch. Father had earned about one dollar and seventy-three cents for ten-hour day. Oldest daughter had earned one dollar and twenty-five cents. Form these earnings had to provide their transportation to the fields #twentymiles away. Mother wants to return to #Oklahoma, father unwilling.She says, "I want to go back to where we can live happym live decent, and grow what we eat." He says, "We can't go the way I am now. We've got nothing in the world to farm with. I made my mistake when I came out here."

https://www.loc.gov/pictures/item/2017771594/

In #FarmSecurityAdministrationFSA) migratory labor camp. Family, mother, father and eleven children, originally from #Oklahoma, where he had been a tenant farmer. Came to #California in 1936 after drought. Since then have been traveling from crop to crop in #California following the harvest. Six of the children attend school wherever the family stops long enough with mother and father. February 23, two of the family had been lucky and "got a place" a day's work) in the peas on #theSinclairRanch. Father had earned one dollar and seventy-three cents for ten hours a day. Oldest daughter had earned one dollar and twenty-five cents. From these earnings had to provide transportation to the fields #twentymiles away. Mother wants to return to #Oklahoma, father unwilling. She says, "I want to go back home where we can live happy, live decent, and grow what we eat." #Brawley, #ImperialValley, #California

https://www.loc.gov/pictures/item/2017771620/

Waiting for the semimonthly relief checks at #Calipatria, #ImperialValley, #California. Typical story: fifteen years ago they owned farms in #Oklahoma. Lost them through foreclosure when cotton prices fell after the war. Became tenants and sharecroppers. With the drought and dust they came #West, 1934-1937. Never before left the county where they were born. Now although in #California over a year they haven't been continuously resident in any single county long enough to become a legal resident. Reason: migratory agricultural laborers

https://www.loc.gov/pictures/item/2017769789/

Drought and depression refugee from #Oklahoma now working in the pea fields of #California. #ImperialValley

https//www.loc.gov/pictures/item/2017769839/

#California migratory farm laborers-drought refugees from #Oklahoma-camped in the brush on the river bottom with no water or sanitation. On the outskirts of #Brawley, #ImperialValley, #Calif.

Untitled photo, possibly related to: #Texas woman in carrot pullers' camp. #ImperialValley, #California. This sunbonnet is typical of women who came from #Texas

https://www.loc.gov/pictures/item/2017771480/

Untitled photo, possibly related to: #NearMeloland, #ImperialValley. Large scale agriculture. Gang labor, #Mexican and white, from the #Southwest. Pull, clean, tie and crate carrots for the eastern market for eleven cents per crate of forty-eight bunches. Many can barely make one dollar a day. Heavy oversupply of labor and competition for jobs keen

https://www.loc.gov/pictures/item/2017771569/

Untitled photo, possibly related to: #NearMeloland, #ImperialValley. Large scale agriculture. Gang labor, #Mexican and white, from the #Southwest. Pull, clean, tie and crate carrots for the eastern market for eleven cents per crate of forty-eight bunches. Many can barely make one dollar a day. Heavy oversupply of labor and competition for jobs keen

https://www.loc.gov/pictures/item/2017771562/

Untitled photo, possibly related to: Migratory field worker pulling carrots. #ImperialValley, #California

https://www.loc.gov/pictures/item/2017771732/

Untitled photo, possibly related to: Migratory field worker pulling carrots. #ImperialValley, #California

https://www.loc.gov/pictures/item/2017771731/

As the #SaltonSea Shrinks, #Agriculture’s Legacy Turns to Dust

As drought dries up the shallow sea, near a half-million farmable acres in the #ImperialValley, #farmworkers living nearby are exposed to #toxic dust and airborne #pollution from algae blooms. Asthma, allergies, and other health impacts are rising at alarming rates.

By Virginia Gewin, July 17, 2023

"Building on findings from a recent study documenting the health impacts of poor air quality around the Salton Sea, California’s largest inland lake, López was one of 15 mothers who subsequently agreed to photograph their children and their environments. Three-quarters of the 36 caregivers in the study identified as Hispanic or Latino, and 24 percent identified as #Purepecha, an #Indigenous group from the Mexican state of Michoacan. Over half of them are #farmworkers, as is common in the small, unincorporated communities that surround the sea.

"On bad air quality days, López keeps her 8-year-old son and 4-year-old daughter inside to protect them from a cascade of symptoms that she says worsen with outdoor exposure, including congestion, skin allergies, and shallow, labored breathing that makes sleep elusive. A 2019 survey found that 22 percent of children have asthma in the region, almost three times the national rate of 8.3 percent.

"Imperial County residents were exposed to over 1,200 pounds of #pesticides—via the air, water, and on the plants themselves—per square mile from 2017-2019. That exposure rate is over 90 percent higher than the rest of #California. On top of that, the region is the hottest in the state—with over 117 days over 100 degrees, according to a 2022 Hazardous Heat report.

"Farmers around the Salton Sea have worked to use water more efficiently and reduce field burning. But they also use intensive, conventional practices that rely on chemical inputs. And there is little if any conversation about changing those practices for the good of the Salton Sea or the area’s residents.

"In the last few years, the long-neglected region has been dubbed #Lithium Valley as it has received unprecedented attention due to its precious lithium reserves needed to fuel the state’s clean energy economy. But residents, scientists, and public health advocates worry that this new gold rush will further an extractive dynamic without adequately addressing community health. And new science about the connection between water pollution and air quality suggests more investment is needed."

#LithiumMining #BigAg #Farming

https://civileats.com/2023/07/17/as-the-salton-sea-shrinks-agricultures-legacy-turns-to-dust/?utm_source=pocket-newtab

Untitled photo, possibly related to: Migratory field worker pulling carrots. #ImperialValley, #California

https://www.loc.gov/pictures/item/2017771730/

Untitled photo, possibly related to: Migratory field worker pulling carrots. #ImperialValley, #California

https://www.loc.gov/pictures/item/2017771834/