Huichole Girl At An Education Seminar On Exposure To Pesticides

90 percent of the tobacco grown in Mexico is produced in Nayarit. The workforce of the tobacco fields is comprised almost entirely of Huichole and other indigenous groups. Entire families migrate from tiny villages in the Sierra Madres to work in the tobacco fields. Families work and live out in the open, picking, sorting, spraying, drying and threading tobacco leaves. Their long hours in the fields leave them exposed to harmful conditions such as pesticide contamination, polluted water, and nicotine poisoning. Most tobacco growers are simply middlemen- usually in debt to the company. They're responsible for the hiring of workers and the application of pesticides provided by the companies, including chemicals which are illegal in the United States.