National Farm Worker Ministry

06/10/2026

Farm workers in Texas and across the country continue to face serious health risks from pesticide exposure while doing the essential work that helps feed our communities.

This week, The Monitor featured concerns about pesticide exposure affecting farm workers and nearby communities in the Rio Grande Valley. The article includes insights from our Director of Farm Worker Advocacy, Elizabeth Rodriguez, who works alongside farm worker communities and partners to raise awareness of these ongoing health risks.

We are grateful to be part of this collective work alongside organizations doing vital advocacy across the country, including Farmworker Justice, the Farmworker Association of Florida, and Alianza Nacional de Campesinas, whose voices and work are also featured in the article. Their work continues to push for stronger protections, healthier communities, and greater accountability.

Behind every meal are people whose labor is too often invisible and whose stories deserve to be heard.

Thank you for standing with farm workers.

Read the article here:
https://myrgv.com/alerts-vms/2026/06/03/parkinsons-disease-is-consistently-linked-to-pesticide-exposure-farmworkers-and-nearby-communities-are-at-risk-in-rio-grande-valley/

06/01/2026

Please join us in welcoming Kathleen Wood as NFWM’s next Executive Director! 💚

Kathleen brings nearly 20 years of experience in farm worker justice, faith-based organizing, nonprofit leadership, and community-centered food systems work.

In her own words: “I am honored to be organizing with farmworkers, people of faith and consciousness and the team at NFWM to cultivate farm worker dignity and justice.”

We are grateful to welcome Kathleen into this role, and look forward to this next chapter in NFWM’s work of standing in faith-rooted solidarity with farm workers organizing for justice and empowerment. 🌿

Read more here:
https://nfwm.org/news/nfwm-welcomes-new-executive-director/

05/28/2026

Did you know May 29th is 🥵 National Heat Awareness Day? 🥵

This annual observance raises awareness about the dangers of extreme heat and the importance of protecting outdoor workers.

For farm workers, that danger is especially urgent.

☀️ Farm workers are 35x more likely to die from heat-related stress than workers in other industries.

🍓 They harvest the food we depend on, often in dangerous temperatures and conditions that put their health at risk.

As we continue our 2026 focus on farm worker health, this is a good opportuntiy for us to pause, learn, and better understand what extreme heat means for the people who harvest our food.

🎥 Check out our recent webinar on heat stress here:
https://nfwm.org/news/webinar-too-hot-to-work-farmworker-heat-protections/

05/28/2026

🌱 This spring, NFWM members, partners, staff, and allies continued showing up across the country in support of farm worker justice.

From honoring farm worker women and centering survivors, to joining May Day actions, housing justice conversations, listening sessions, food system panels, and partner campaigns, this season reminded us that the work of justice continues in many places and through many hands.

We are grateful for every person who continues to listen, learn, organize, and stand in solidarity with farm worker communities.

💚 We invite you to read our latest reflection here:
https://nfwm.org/news/spring-solidarity-farm-worker-women-survivors-justice/

05/23/2026

This weekend, we pause to remember and honor those who gave their lives in military service.

We hold space for reflection, gratitude, and the ongoing work of building a more just and peaceful world.

Our office will be closed in observance of Memorial Day. We will reopen Tuesday, May 26.

05/20/2026

📢 Bring Dolores Home!

Dolores is a farm worker, mother, grandmother, and community organizer who has spent more than 20 years helping harvest the food that feeds our communities.

Now, our partners are asking us to stand with Dolores and her family.

Dolores was detained during a routine check-in. Though a judge ordered that she not be deported or removed from Western New York while her case proceeds, she was transferred away from her community.

Our friends at Alianza Nacional De Campesinas , Rural & Migrant Ministry, Inc. & CHIRLA , and others are calling on supporters to take action.

Here’s how you can help:

☎️ Call Governor Kathy Hochul at (518) 474-8390 and Senator Kirsten Gillibrand at (202) 224-4451 to urge them to support Dolores’ release.

📍 Join our partners in showing up for Dolores:
May 26 at 11 AM
100 State Street
Rochester, NY

05/19/2026

This Thursday evening, we’ll join our friends at Church Women United, Inc for their 🙏 Call to Prayer through the Fellowship of the Least Coin.

Elizabeth, NFWM’s Director of Farm Worker Advocacy, will be sharing about farm workers, and the group will come together in prayer.

We invite you to join us in support. 💚

Details below:

Thursday, May 21
8:00 p.m. EDT / 7:00 p.m. CDT

Zoom: https://us06web.zoom.us/j/86321703634?pwd=7uazHbNfb8AXL2BMwXEHECttDbqbj2.1

Meeting ID: 863 2170 3634
Passcode: 605141

05/08/2026

Farm workers help feed our communities, yet many labor in environments where repeated pesticide exposure is part of daily life.

Glyphosate—the most widely used herbicide in the United States—is commonly sprayed in agriculture, placing many farm workers and rural communities on the front lines of potential health risks.

The No Immunity for Glyphosate Act would help ensure companies cannot avoid responsibility for harm linked to their products.

We invite you to stand with farm workers and support healthier, safer communities by adding your name today. 💚

👉 https://www.panna.org/action/urge-congress-to-support-the-no-immunity-for-glyphosate-act/

EPA used flawed research to approve registration of glyphosate-based herbicides, but Trump’s latest executive order claims that glyphosate production is necessary for “national security” and bestows lawsuit immunity to one of the largest agrichemical manufacturers in the world. We must not all...

05/07/2026

This Mother’s Day, let’s honor the mothers behind the flowers, too. 🌿

Many plant nursery workers in Florida — most of them immigrants, and many of them mothers — help grow the houseplants and flowers sold across the country. Too many face unsafe heat, pesticide exposure, wage theft, discrimination, and retaliation for speaking up.

Our partners at are leading the Planting Justice Campaign to call for stronger protections and accountability in the houseplant industry.

Add your name to the pledge and stand in solidarity with plant nursery workers:
https://shorturl.at/6wGRA

05/05/2026

We’re proud to celebrate Elizabeth Rodriguez, NFWM’s Director of Farm Worker Advocacy, for co-authoring newly published research on climate change and farm worker realities. 💚

The study explores how farm workers experience rising heat and changing climate conditions—and how those risks are often shaped by the daily realities workers already face.

This kind of leadership helps NFWM stay informed, connected, and rooted in the real issues impacting farm worker communities every day.

📖 Read the research here:
https://www.sciencedirect.com/science/article/pii/S0959378026000440?ref=pdf_download&fr=RR-2&rr=9ec43c1968611859