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COPYRIGHT 2002 The Record
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 shirts. Some wear handkerchiefs around their heads, and baseball caps to keep them in place. Even in the heat, a few men opt for sweat shirts.
Teenagers favor lighter garb, but that choice carries a cost. As they bend over, green flies land on their shoulders and backs and pierce the skin below their soaked white T-shirts.
The young laborers swat lazily, then move on.
Machinery has transformed farming over the past century -- high-tech tractors, combines, and harvesters roam the nation's agricultural land, ensuring that American kitchens remain well stocked with fruits and vegetables.
Yet even now, machines can do only so much. Isidro and Maria Aguilar understand this. For the past decade, they have shuttled back and forth along the East Coast with their four children, doing the work the machines cannot.
Theirs is a life of physical strain and low pay, punctuated by the seasonal...
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