Emily Drew

While many residents and visitors to Oregon are familiar with the Woodburn Outlet mall, the state’s second largest economy, most are unfamiliar with the conditions that exist directly behind the mall. In the agricultural fields west of the mall, workers are subjected to unsafe working and living conditions, including exposure to pesticides, unregulated labor conditions, and substandard housing. Amid the strategies that community leaders are using to challenge these conditions is an educational project for outsiders to the community: the “farmworker reality tour.” I am interested in understanding what compels people to take these tours, what they believe pre/post-tour, and what they do with the education received through these tours. This summer I plan to participate in these tours, engaging in ethnographic observation and interviews with the tourists following the tours.