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Byline: Douglass Crouse
Aug. 11--LAWRENCE TOWNSHIP, N.J.--The cars and pickups arrive at the edge of the cucumber patches under the white-hot gaze of a summer sun. "Buenos dias," one man says to the others, pulling a hand across his brow.
For the Latino laborers of Sheppard Farms, only the heat's intensity distinguishes this day from the last.
All morning they hunch and pick -- each cucumber landing with a thud in the bottom of their black plastic buckets. The air weighs thick and still upon the human chain as it advances among the furrows of sandy loam.
Most workers wear yellow rubber gloves, boots, faded pants, and long-sleeve ...