As global average temperatures rise, extreme heat is becoming the deadliest consequence of a warming planet — and farmworkers who toil under the sun or in humid nurseries are among the most vulnerable. What if those essential workers are also pregnant?
Climate reporters Dorany Pineda, Annika Hammerschlag and Melina Walling turned their lens on the plight of pregnant farmworkers, a group with little federal workplace protection and growing risk in an era of increasingly brutal heat waves.
Some women who initially agreed to speak backed out, afraid of reprisal as immigration enforcement intensified. But after months of persistence and relationship building with farmworker advocacy organizations, the team connected with three women in Florida willing to speak under the condition of anonymity.
Walling also found a pregnant farmworker willing to speak on the record — due imminently, she had suffered a terrifying episode of heat illness while eight months pregnant, collapsing in the middle of a large field.
The resulting piece painted a compelling, human portrait of how a limited and inconsistent patchwork of regulations leaves pregnant farmworkers exposed to life-threatening conditions. Judges praised the piece’s sensitivity, depth and focus on voices often left out of climate coverage.
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