‘We are all vulnerable right now.’ Latino Valley leaders call for farmworker COVID-19 aid
Tucked in the fields of California’s central San Joaquin Valley, farmworkers in the peak of the summer’s harvesting season scurry to pick and package crops, preparing to distribute them to the state, country and world.
It’s a busy time for farms across the region, but this year a global pandemic has many workers worried they won’t make it past the harvest season alive. Facing an uphill battle due to a seasonal workforce shortage and COVID-19 outbreaks, some advocates and local leaders say state officials need to step up their efforts to help the agricultural industry’s employees.
In a letter recently sent to Gov. Gavin Newsom, more than 40 prominent Latino leaders in the Valley urged the state to provide financial relief and resources to farmworkers. The letter was signed by leaders from Fresno, Kings, Madera, Merced and Tulare counties including Fresno City Council President Miguel Arias, Tulare Mayor Jose Sigala, Merced County Supervisor Rodrigo Espinoza and former Lt. Gov. Cruz Bustamante.
Kings County Supervisor Richard Valle, who spearheaded the move to write the letter, said many of the region’s farmworkers who are getting sick and dying are in need of resources such as protective equipment, mobile testing sites at workplaces and translation services to mitigate the spread. He said farmworkers need to be protected and supported the way essential public safety and medical workers are.
“We had to write this letter because we’re the children of farmworkers and these elected officials and I were the product of the American dream,” he said. “We owe it to farmworkers and when I say farmworkers I’m saying ‘mom and dad.’”
Testing takes too long, ag leader says
Fresno County Farm Bureau CEO Ryan Jacobsen agreed more funding for testing and protective equipment were needed, but he said people who are getting tested were still getting their results back too late — about seven to nine days later.
“The issue is not solely testing here in the Valley, we also have issues in regards to turnaround times for tests,” he said. “We want to see dollars going towards education efforts in rural communities to focus on prevention measures, but then secondarily, testing when needed and then third, what to do if you’re showing symptoms or if you do test positive.”
Jacobsen said additional funding could help expedite the process and hopes to expand these services beyond the farms and prioritize them in rural areas.
“We do believe that the testing is probably better suited for the communities than on the farm because in many cases, we want to make sure that employees aren’t coming to the job site if they’re expressing some kind of symptom,” he added.
$50 billion industry
Valle said that a lack of resources and assistance for farmworkers could also have drastic economic consequences, potentially resulting in the loss of millions of dollars. In 2018 alone, California’s farms and ranches made a whopping $50 billion in cash receipts, according to the state’s Department of Food and Agriculture.
“The farmworkers are catching COVID at high rates and it’s spreading out in the communities, it’s driving up the numbers in the communities and it puts our food chain at risk,” Valle said. “We can’t afford another hit to the economy.”
But it’s not only California’s economy and food supply chain at stake, he added. More than a third of the country’s vegetables and at least two-thirds of the country’s fruits and nuts are also grown in California, accounting for more than 13% of the nation’s total agricultural value.
“Today, more than ever before we need to protect the workforce that will be doing the harvesting, lest the fields are left to go fallow and we all suffer the consequences of a broken food supply chain,” the letter says. “We are all vulnerable right now. Remember, food doesn’t magically appear at the grocery store, it is harvested by our families, our farmworkers.”
Agricultural laborers work long, grueling hours, stand shoulder-to-shoulder in processing centers, live in close quarters and often shuffle to and from the fields in clusters. Already, farms and processing plants across the region have reported COVID-19 outbreaks, which have led to a disproportionate rate of cases among the Latino and migrant community. Though Latinos make up 39% of the state’s population, they represent 58% of all coronavirus cases in California.
Though deemed essential, many of the Valley’s more than 420,000 farmworkers don’t qualify for unemployment, have little to no access to healthcare services and have been excluded from the safety net programs put in place to help residents during the pandemic. That’s because many of them are also undocumented, which means they also didn’t receive a $1,200 stimulus check or get family sick leave if they get exposed to the virus.
About 90% of farmworkers in California are Latino, while 60% are unauthorized to legally work in the U.S., according to a recent farmworker research study.
Getting sick creates an additional hurdle as migrants struggle to get by, said Fresno City Councilmember Esmeralda Soria, who co-authored the letter, adding that farmworkers should not have to choose between risking their health or forgoing a paycheck.
“There is no reason that if a farmworker gets sick, that they should lose their house and should not have food to eat,” she said. “We need housing relief because if someone gets sick, they’re going to miss at least two weeks of work, which they’re not going to get paid for.”
Farmworker relief bills
A package of four bills designated to provide farmworkers with assistance are circulating through the California Legislature, which also includes a $25 million expansion of the California Farmworker Housing Assistance Tax Credit.
Soria said additional state dollars could help families pay off growing rent costs through housing retention grants and provide a safe space away from family members like a motel room for migrant workers to quarantine if they get sick.
“Those are the services that we need to provide if we’re serious about making sure that our rate doesn’t continue to increase in the farmworker community,” Soria said. “We need to make sure that we’re making those investments.”
This story was originally published August 17, 2020 at 5:00 AM with the headline "‘We are all vulnerable right now.’ Latino Valley leaders call for farmworker COVID-19 aid."