High Country News

A literary organization tackles California gang violence

The National Steinbeck Center in Salinas, Calif., is honoring the Nobel Prize-winning author by helping at-risk youth in the community he wrote about.

by Taylor Wiles, May 01, 2012
In the orchards, questions about immigration reform

In Yakima County, Wash., the California-based labor contractor Global Horizons is stirring up controversy among local Latino farmworkers by bringing in hundreds of guest workers from Thailand to pick fruit

by Tony Barboza, Sep 19, 2005
Abandonment

Small Mexican farming towns such as Francisco Villa in Sonora are emptied of their young men when the lack of good-paying local jobs sends them north of the border

by Michael Marizco, May 15, 2006
Aspiring farmers find creative ways to succeed

Sarahlee Lawrence and Amy Ridout are part of a wave of young farmers determined to remake the American food system.

by Sarah Gilman, Nov 27, 2011
Farm incubators help would-be farmers succeed on their own

Viva Farms is a "farm incubator" in Washington's Skagit Valley that helps aspiring cash-poor farmers like Nelida Martinez start and successfully operate their own businesses.

by Jennifer Langston, Nov 28, 2011
Hope

After 16 years of living in the shadows in Pasco, Wash., Wendy and Erendira Santana finally win legal residency

by Melissa Hoyos, May 15, 2006
Guest farmworkers get a new deal

The United Farm Workers has signed a contract with agricultural labor-supply company Global Horizons protecting the rights of guest farmworkers

by Brett Wilkison, May 01, 2006
Follow-up

Gale Norton blasts environmentalists; California farmworkers sprayed with pesticides; ranchers have to keep paying beef checkoffs

by Laura Paskus, Jun 13, 2005
The red, white and blue of ‘red or green?’

New Mexico’s traditional chile industry faces hot competition from global producers

by Laura Paskus, Jun 25, 2007
Bordering on injustice

Jimmy Santiago Baca's novel A Glass of Water compassionately describes the lives of Mexican immigrants.

by Don Waters, Sep 13, 2009