Robert Lopez

Toiling in Toxic Fields California is failing to protect the health and safety of thousands of child farmworkers.

In the sprawling agricultural fields of California lies a harsh reality: Children toil away in punishing heat and dangerous conditions to pick the fresh produce that feeds America.

Robert J Lopez (@lajourno.bsky.social) reports in this investigation by @capitalandmain.bsky.social and partners.

Sunset in the islands

Honduran Grandfather Who Died in ICE Custody Told Family He’d Felt Ill For Weeks Luis Beltran Yanez-Cruz is one of six people to die in Immigration and Customs Enforcement custody less than three weeks into 2026.

Luis Beltran Yanez-Cruz began telling his family that he wasn’t feeling well weeks before he died in Immigration and Customs Enforcement custody.

Yanez-Cruz is one of six people to die in ICE custody less than three weeks into 2026.
capitalandmain.com/honduran-gra...

Indeed
👇🏽

Thank you @sidneyhillman.bsky.social for recognizing our work.
The project was a model of collaboration by all involved 👊🏽

Investigation: Lax State Oversight Endangers California’s Child Farmworkers | KQED We talk to Pulitzer Prize–winning journalist Robert J. Lopez, who interviewed 61 child farmworkers in California, about his reporting and the state’s response.

🎙️ON AIR:

We’re talking to Pulitzer Prize–winning journalist @lajourno.bsky.social, who interviewed 61 child farmworkers in California, about his reporting and the state’s response.

❓How do you want the state to address this?

📻 Listen:

Front page of Sunday L.A. Times

Very pleased with the layout of my investigation in today’s print edition
Read the story here

www.latimes.com/california/s...

California’s Child Farmworkers: Exhausted, Underpaid and Toiling in Toxic Fields State officials are failing to protect the health and safety of thousands of young field laborers, an investigation has found.

This investigation by Pulitzer Prize-winning journalist Robert J. Lopez is based on interviews with 100+ underage and adult farmworkers, experts, labor and agricultural industry advocates and state and local officials. Read the investigation here.
capitalandmain.com/californias-...

Lax oversight, few inspections leave child farmworkers exposed to toxic pesticides Child laborers and other farmworkers in California are being exposed to toxic pesticides, in part because of splintered enforcement of safety regulations.

Here's the sidebar to my investigation of child labor in California's $61-billion Ag industry. More than two dozen minors and parents told me they worked in fields that reeked of chemicals. Enforcement records showed statewide breakdowns.
www.latimes.com/california/s...

California's child farmworkers: Exhausted, underpaid and toiling in toxic fields State officials are failing to protect the health and safety of thousands of young field laborers, an investigation has found.

What an incredible piece of reporting from my former colleague @lajourno.bsky.social, who spent months reporting how the state has under-investigated children working in harsh conditions in fields across California. Spend the time to read and hear from the children.
www.latimes.com/california/s...

Lax oversight, few inspections leave child farmworkers exposed to toxic pesticides Child laborers and other farmworkers in California are being exposed to toxic pesticides, in part because of splintered enforcement of safety regulations.

Package also includes a sidebar on pesticide enforcement

www.latimes.com/california/s...

California's child farmworkers: Exhausted, underpaid and toiling in toxic fields State officials are failing to protect the health and safety of thousands of young field laborers, an investigation has found.

My latest investigation—a collaboration 2 years in the making

www.latimes.com/california/s...

Hundreds of thousands of videos from news publishers like The New York Times and Vox were used to train AI models YouTube channels from major news publishers and creators were in video data sets used by Microsoft, Meta, Snap, Runway AI, and Bytedance.

"It feels less like incidental inclusion and more like large-scale extraction of intellectual property without consent.” www.niemanlab.org/2025/10/hund...

This didn’t take long—first glossy mailer for California redistricting battle came yesterday.

The Basque chorizos and other dishes at Ansots in Boise are insane.
#jaialdi2025

I love the paella at the Basque Market in Boise.
#jaialdi2025

Bar Gernika going off
#jaialdi
#boise

Attacks against the media in L.A—disturbing and powerful

Federal lawsuit filed against LAPD by LA press club

Being a journalist in LA is a “dangerous profession,” alleges a lawsuit by @lapressclub.bsky.social against LAPD in response to attacks against media in recent protests.
#journalism

Protest signs on No Kings Day

Protest signs on No Kings Day

Downtown LA
#NoKings

The deployment of federal agencies to LA may be getting the headlines, but many of the most serious abuses have come from local police.

We helped lead a letter to the LAPD and LASD reminding them of journalists' rights and the liability they're risking: media.freedom.press/media/docume...

Pass it on

Paddle board on a bay

Point of view

Dog Town mural at Venice Beach California

Dog Town indeed

An Academic’s Journey Toward Reporting I was used to a disembodied way of working: identify a philosophical problem, then study it. What could spending time with a philosopher teach me about his ideas?

🎙️ "Good journalism often emerges from the convergence of disagreement and befuddlement."
https://www.newyorker.com/culture/the-weekend-essay/an-academics-journey-toward-reporting

How you doing, by the way?

Amen to that 👊🏽

There is no objectivity in journalism. We’re all shaped by our lived experiences. What you need to do is follow facts and be smart enough to know that things aren’t always as they seem.

Predictions?

As Hector Tobar wrote in today’s NYT, L.A.’s “fleckless mayor.”