Tucked away from sight, in the folds of mountain ridges and valleys of this area, are hundreds of farm laborers working on everything from tomato to Christmas tree farms.

Farmworkers are our neighbors across every WNC county. They form the backbone of labor across dozens of agricultural operations large and small that put food on our tables. Many people and businesses have begun to embrace the “shop local” movement — from restaurant-sourcing to holiday gift-shopping. However, these movements don’t necessarily help our farmworker neighbors in the ways that they most need. At the end of the day, many farmworkers feel like they are part of an invisible population. This is despite the fact that their labor is what drives the food, fiber, and forestry sectors — activities which combine to form North Carolina’s leading industry. At the individual level, each farmworker contributes approximately $12,000 to the state’s economy annually, while their income averages at $11,000 per year.

As WNC heads into the fall and winter season, starting strawberry plants for the spring and gearing up for Christmas tree season, we should take time to consider the hardships faced by the farmworkers involved at every step of the planting, cultivating, and harvesting process. Nearly 85 percent of fresh fruits and vegetables produced in North Carolina are harvested by hand. Despite this fact, farmworkers are often rendered invisible by the marketing industry.

This invisibility has concrete impacts on both the physical and mental health of our farmworker neighbors. Physically, the principle challenges faced by WNC farmworkers include occupational risks, food insecurity, chemical exposure, and numerous health-risks associated with substandard housing. In the realm of mental health, national statistics only begin to illustrate the gravity of the situation: Whereas some 7 percent of the general population of the United States suffers from major depression (according to the Anxiety & Depression Association of America), a 2013 study in the Journal of Rural Health put N.C. farmworker depression rates at nearly eight times that rate. Likewise, levels of clinical anxiety are also much higher among farmworkers. While there are many barriers that make it difficult for farmworkers to obtain the care they need for these and other issues, the biggest challenge here in the WNC region is the lack of bilingual providers.

Statewide, the vast majority of our farmworkers (94 percent) are Spanish-speakers. Between 10-15 percent speak an indigenous language as their primary language. In WNC alone we have 10 indigenous Mexican and Central American languages represented — and many of these indigenous language-speakers work as farmworkers. The issue of language illuminates one of the critical faults with the H2-A visa system that provides legal documentation for so many of our WNC farmworkers. Once in the U.S., H2-A visa recipients often cannot benefit from health and social service protections due to the lack of Spanish-language (let alone indigenous-language) options. Many people wrongly assume that a lack of access to healthcare and other services for farmworkers is the result of undocumented, or ‘illegal’, immigration status. This is not the case. Every year, thousands of NC farmworkers — documented or not — go without the care they need. Time and again this results in dangerous, even deadly, consequences in situations that arise in legal, healthcare, and law enforcement contexts.

As we move into cooler weather and more farmworkers flow into our region to help us all produce our fall and holiday traditions, this is an important time to ask ourselves: How can our WNC businesses and local communities better recognize the presence of our farmworker neighbors? In Cullowhee, the Vecinos Farmworker Health Program is a nonprofit health care organization that seeks to do just that. “Vecinos” means “neighbors” in Spanish — and farmworkers in WNC are indeed our neighbors. The Vecinos staff and volunteers recognize that agricultural work is one of the most dangerous jobs in the country. They aim to break down health care barriers by bringing services directly to the workers they serve. Vecinos’ flagship service is a mobile health care clinic that brings health outreach workers and medical providers to farmworkers in Clay, Graham, Haywood, Jackson, Macon, Swain, and Transylvania counties, as well as Leicester and Rabun Gap, Georgia. The Vecinos team is adept at navigating rugged terrain. Often, farmworker job and housing sites are located in extremely remote locations throughout the region.

Visibility of farmworkers and the challenges that they face is of course not just an issue in WNC — it is nationwide. North Carolina ranks first in sweet potato production, second in Christmas tree production, and fourth in greenhouse/nursery and blueberry and strawberry production, all of which are produced here in WNC. Farmworkers’ impacts on our economy and culture are often undervalued by society, but our traditions and many childhood memories would not be possible without them. Keep up-to-date with what is happening in WNC farmworker health by following Vecinos on Facebook, visiting our website (www.vecinos.org), and subscribing to our newsletter (http://www.vecinos.org/get-involved/subscribe/).

(Lily Pearl Balloffet was previously an assistant professor of history at Western Carolina University. She specializes in global migration and migrant communities. Marianne Martinez is the Executive Director of Vecinos Farmworker Health Program.)