Lake Apopka Farmworker
Farmworkers feed the world.
Farmworkers experience environmental injustice
Just outside the rapidly expanding tourist destination of Central Florida, a community of people is virtually invisible in spite of the fact that their hard work fed our nation for over half a century. In the backyard of this tourist mecca reside hundreds of former Black American, Hispanic and Haitian farmworkers that worked for generations on the vegetable farms on the north shore of Lake Apopka, the most contaminated large lake in the state.
Fifty years of pesticide and fertilizer run-off from the farms to the lake resulted in Lake Apopka becoming the state’s most contaminated large lake. While the impacts of banned pesticides – DDT, toxaphene, chlordane, aldrin, endrin, to name a few – on wildlife and the environment have been researched and studied, the people who were exposed to the same pesticides for years, even lifetimes, have yet to see any effort to address their health concerns related to their exposures to toxic chemicals.
The Lake Apopka Farmworker Environmental Health Project was developed in response to the health concerns expressed by the community of former Lake Apopka farmworkers in the aftermath of the closing of the farms on the north shore of the lake in 1998 when the state of Florida bought out the farms for more than $110 million dollars.
In 2005, to address the growing health concerns and lack of action to address them, FWAF, with funding from the EPA, conducted the Lake Apopka Environmental Health Survey, producing a report of the project in 2006, with a press conference announcing
its release.
After multiple attempts to try to get state legislation passed, three attempts applying for research to NIEHS for funding on the health effects, exploring the possibility of a class action law suit for the former workers, and being a plaintiff in an international case before the Permanent People’s Tribunal, the Lake Apopka farmworkers created the Lake Apopka Farmworker Memorial Quilt Project to honor the lives and legacies of the former Lake Apopka farmworkers who had passed away.
For over 15 years, FWAF has conducted Lake Apopka Toxic Tours with many groups to keep alive the legacy of the Lake Apopka farmworkers and to raise awareness about environmental justice issues and the EJ issues for farmworkers.
To learn more and to read oral history stories of the Lake Apopka former farmworkers themselves:
Videos
Out of the Muck
Geraldean Matthew helps to lift her fellow former Apopka Farmworkers, who are ill and impoverished.
Green Going Forward: The Lake Apopka Environmental Justice Community
The idea of sustainability stands on three legs: the economy, the environment and social equity for the community. The Marsh Flow-Way Project and Lake Apopka Restoration Act were implemented to address the ecological issues such as the health of the lake but ignored the health and concerns of the people.
Pesticide Lake
Every day, farmworkers across the county are exposed to a toxic brew of chemicals. One of the communities that has been impacted is Lake Apopka, Florida.
Toxic Tour of Lake Apopka
The human toll of our commodified and industrialized food system is not far away and hidden. It is right down the road from us. Just outside of Orlando, in Apopka, FL, Jeannie Economos leads the local branch of the Farmworker Association of Florida, working tirelessly every day to bring awareness and justice to the people who are putting their lives on the line to feed us and our communities.