Category Archives: COVID-19 News

The Future of Outbreaks

Posted on by
1

Tension hangs in the air during this episode of shared crisis and panic. The COVID-19 pandemic aided the growing awareness of potential infectious breakouts. The most recent data illustrates that foodborne illnesses increased 21% from 2017 to 2018. 48 million people in the US experience foodborne illnesses every year. Livestock and poultry were the leading cause of foodborne illnesses, and even though this remains the current assumption, consumer trends of intaking more fresh and prewashed produce shifted to fruits and vegetables as the primary source of foodborne breakouts.

These factors of risk continue to grow and vary. Large scale processing and production poses extreme peril for cross contamination, resulting in 99 Million LBS of soiled commodities last year. The Trump administration also slowed efforts in regulation procedures. Two government agencies, the FDA and the USDA overlap in fields of authority, confusing performance in these matters. Not to mention, the labor conditions in which yield is being harvested also contributes vitally to the increasing outbreak of hazardous stock. Overworked and underpaid employers are discouraged from voicing their need for humane treatment as trying circumstances provide no time for the opportunity. The Immigration and Customs Agency (ICE) introduces a fear-factor of deployment, therefore misdirecting concerns from health-safety protocols to the worker’s own safety.

In the wake of COVID-19, stakes of the human condition have never been higher. However, no matter the measures of caution we as a population take to ensure the general well-being of each other, Erik D. Olson, a senior director at the Natural Resources Defense Council, proclaims it is the government’s ultimate responsibility to successfully regulate harmless and reliable food distribution. As a common vulnerable citizen, I possess an unwavering ideal that this is definitely the most common consensus. A quote by Olson that rung true to me spoke, “You can’t shop your way out of this problem.”

Watch this video for more information on foodborne illnesses:

Original Article Link: https://thefern.org/2020/02/are-outbreaks-of-foodborne-illness-getting-worse/

Oh SNAP! Nutritional Assistance in the Digital Era

Posted on by
1

For many of us, statewide shelter in place orders are inconvenient, yet important, aspects of the new normal: life in the era of COVID-19. Affected Americans are increasingly relying on home delivery services to get their groceries, and many take comfort in the ease of getting food delivered to their doorstep with minimal physical contact. However, the food insecure, who rely on federally funded SNAP benefits (food stamps, EBT), are not able to take advantage of online ordering in many states. This highlights a disparity in equity – the impoverished are made to put themselves at greater risk of contracting coronavirus in order to secure food, as they have to visit physical grocers, rather than virtual ones.

So how are states reconciling the parameters of SNAP benefit use with stay at home orders? Several states, including New York and Washington, have participated in a pilot program to

make SNAP benefits available online, with more states to follow. This gives those struggling with food insecurity the ability to order online, minimizing the risk of transmission or contraction.

However, SNAP beneficiaries are only able to order online from Amazon and Walmart in most states. Even these vendors have restrictions on the items that are available to buyers, with Amazon indicating, “SNAP EBT can be used on eligible items that are shipped and sold by Amazon.” (emphasis added) Amazon’s service necessarily precludes buying from other vendors, which gives the SNAP beneficiary less option to buy varied foods from sellers in their local regions. This, in effect, has a downstream effect on small local farmers who cannot compete with Amazon to sell their produce, especially under current catastrophic economic circumstances.

Sure, allowing online SNAP use on Amazon and Walmart helps – but is it only a bandaid on a systemic issue that requires more attention?

Sources:

https://thefern.org/ag_insider/most-snap-recipients-cant-buy-groceries-online-now-some-states- push-for-change/

https://www.fns.usda.gov/snap/online-purchasing-pilot https://www.amazon.com/snap-ebt/b?ie=UTF8&node=19097785011&nocache=1586528626250

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/File:Supplemental_Nutrition_Assistance_Program_logo.svg

https://www.amazon.com/snap-ebt/b?ie=UTF8&node=19097785011&nocache=1586528626250

Farmworkers’ Lives at Stake Amidst COVID-19 Outbreak

Posted on by
3

While many of us isolate in the safety of our own homes, ‘essential’ workers face exposure on the front lines. In this article Florida’s Coalition of Immokalee Workers stresses the grave implications for agricultural workers amidst the coronavirus pandemic. 

Immokalee tomato farm

Immokalee is a prominent agricultural hub in southwest Florida. Known as the “tomato capital” of America, thousands of workers are busy picking tomatoes brought to your shelf as harvest season is underway. The circumstances of many workers makes infection extremely likely— almost half of Immokalee’s residents live in poverty, with farm workers often living in cramped trailers and busing to the fields each day. The opportunities for infection are clear and expected, but still little has been done to provide protection. The coalition has urged the governor to provide Immokalee farm workers with gloves and face masks, economic assistance for sick workers, and free virus testing. Their request for a field hospital was determined unnecessary despite the nearest facility being forty minutes away, with many residents not owning cars.

Coalition of Immokalee Workers demonstration (2013)

What’s happening in Immokalee is representative of the hardship facing farming communities across the United States. In order to maintain vital food production while ensuring the safety of farmworkers, reasonable health protection measures—like those the coalition requested— should be implemented by state governments and agricultural companies. 

The COVID-19 pandemic is revealing gaps in our systems, gaps that put people at risk of falling through the cracks. If actions aren’t taken to protect farmworkers, agricultural production will suffer as coronavirus ravages these communities. In response we must assuage the American tendency towards individualism and fight to protect the most vulnerable among us. As the title of the piece suggests, how can we call these workers ‘essential’ if we fail to treat their lives as valuable?

A Sad Reality for Migrant Farmworkers in America

Posted on by
1

In the United States 47 to 70% of 2.4 million farmworkers are undocumented. Undocumented farmworkers already faced adversity before Covid-19. Living in horrible housing conditions, working in labor camps, receiving questionable pay, exposure to pesticides, generally high rates of diabetes, little access to medical care, and discrimination are just some examples of the sad reality for migrant farmworkers in America. As Covid-19 continues to impact every part of society, migrant farmworkers are facing exploitation and possible public health disaster more than ever before.

Photo by Joe Raedle/Getty Images via https://fortune.com/2020/04/03/farmworkers-coronavirus-essential-workers-covid-19-agriculture/

Considering the history of exploitation of undocumented farmworkers in America, the coronavirus has put an already vulnerable group at an even higher risk, and on track to a public health and human rights disaster. Because labor camps have very little space to make social distancing possible, an outbreak is more likely to occur. Many undocumented workers are left without information about the virus from their employers, and without proper personal protection equipment and training for disinfecting or what to do when feeling ill.

Farmworkers are essential, and are now being recognized as “heroes”. But I would argue that in the context of Covid-19, they are martyrs. Undocumented farmworkers have little options, and are basically forced to accept the danger and risk in order to continue feeding America and the rest of the world, who until now didn’t even consider the conditions that workers have faced for many years. Undocumented farmworkers have little workers’ rights, little pay, little protection, little access to healthcare, and very little gratitude from the rest of society. It is apparent that undocumented farmworkers need and deserve better than what they have been given. Now is the time to protect those who have protected us for so long, with economic support, better access to health-care and worker protections, amongst many other reparations.

Additional Sources:

https://www.washingtonpost.com/outlook/2020/03/31/during-covid-19-pandemic-immigrant-farmworkers-are-heroes/

https://insideclimatenews.org/news/03042020/covid-farmworkers-california-climate-change-agriculture

https://fortune.com/2020/04/03/farmworkers-coronavirus-essential-workers-covid-19-agriculture/

Urban Gardens Combat COVID-19 Virus

Posted on by
4

When you think of the concept behind “community” or “urban” gardens, a few words/concepts come to mind. “Community-driven”, “efficient”, “cramped”, and “sustainable” to name a few. Because of the COVID-19 outbreak, however, some of the best aspects of community gardens (traits that make them unique compared to other farming operations) are the reasons why they are failing.

Urban farms and gardens all over the country are feeling the burden that the COVID-19 virus has on the community. Farms such as the Red Hook and Brooklyn Grange farms in New York are facing huge obstacles related to the virus. Because of the compact nature of urban farms (trying to make the most of a small area of land), farms have to limit the amount of people working at a time to 1 or 2, in hopes of keeping everyone virus-free.

Additionally, the yield might not be as abundant as previous years, because of the outbreak. Less workers on the farms means less crops to distribute amongst the community. This means that impoverished families who normally depend on urban farms as a food source are in dire need of a replacement. To combat this, the farms are shifting their focus to mainly calorie-dense crops and utilizing less of the “high-labor crops”. Efficient use of an already-efficient urban farm system is what will (hopefully) keep communities dependent on urban agriculture afloat.

 

Danny Woo Community Gardens, Seattle WA. A more local example of a community farm likely affected by COVID-19.

This epidemic has really shone a light on two aspects of society. Firstly, it has highlighted how food is viewed to certain members of society. I know, personally, when I visited the Danny Woo Community Garden in Seattle, I learned about how integrated the garden was in the community. People depend on the garden for sustenance and community-building. I can only hope, through all of this, Danny Woo is going to pull through. Finally, the COVID-19 outbreak has demonstrated how essential farmers are in our world. Their contributions are finally being recognized because of this, the growers of our nation need to be upheld and appreciated.

 

Image: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Danny_Woo_International_District_Community_Garden

Article: https://thefern.org/ag_insider/virus-is-changing-how-urban-farms-operate-and-even-what-they-grow/

Coronavirus highlights the low-income grocery divide

Posted on by
2

https://www.cnbc.com/2020/04/08/amazon-walmart-and-a-coronavirus-low-income-grocery-shopping-divide.html

SNAP food stamp restrictions mean that food shortages affect those already struggling harder, and food stamp recipients cannot buy groceries online, which is the only way those who are chronically ill and elderly are recommended to do to reduce exposure. 700,000 to 1.3 million are estimated to lose food stamp access with Trump administration reductions, further endangering food security. This article details that which we already know, but can now fully see, that poor people are hit harder by everything that happens in times of crisis. This is a systemic issue that stems from poor protections in place for those who require assistance, especially as they lack political power without financial means to bankroll it. 50% of the people on SNAP are children, and the requirement of working 20 hours a week to qualify is unmanageable with layoffs and furloughs that will extend for the next few months, disqualifying those need it to counterbalance increased childcare costs with kids home, and rent/mortgage payments without an income. Some pilot programs in a few states through Amazon and Walmart are allowing curbside pickup for SNAP recipients, but this does not extend to the majority of the people on it. This article is depressing but also reveals what must be done. The working hours requirement must be dropped, as this pandemic has destroyed the ability for most to work outside of essential businesses. Technology must be distributed/funded for grocery stores in states that qualify to identify SNAP recipients online, increasing access and use of the online ordering in states where it is applicable. Most importantly, people who receive SNAP, those at <130% of the poverty line, must be advocated for and elevated to speak on what they need going forward, not just in times of crisis but to secure benefits going forward. 

Uncovering a Crumbling Food System in a Global Pandemic

Posted on by
2

Rice paddy in Vietnam shows prominence of staple crop, one of the most desired goods in the Coronavirus pandemic. https://www.bloomberg.com/news/articles/2020-03-25/vietnam-s-rice-trade-thrown-into-turmoil-on-export-halt-muddle

In the 1970s, the US increased production of agricultural goods drastically to add to their exports. Today, Chuck Abbott’s article, “Agriculture feels impact as pandemic reshapes U.S. diet, rattles producers,” outlines the current state of domestic agriculture and the impacts of the global food system. Since the year began, not only has the country’s ability to export declined, but imports and domestic sales have been affected as well. Families are buying chicken for easy home dinners, but beef is left on shelves with their businesses seeing food waste and closure; rice prices skyrocket because Vietnam plans on shutting down exports. What this illustrates is how fragile the US and global food system has become, and how a wide-reaching pandemic can cause them to crumble.

Widespread cornfield monocrop. https://www.agweb.com/article/proven-nitrogen-source-no-matter-weather

rom an economic perspective, the way food is produced around the world is efficient and makes the most people happy with the least sacrificed. The theory says that you take your most efficient products and make more and more and more. Production goes up, price goes down, consumption goes up, making production increase again. This cycle engenders specialization, bringing everyone the best goods at the best prices as countries trade.

But if consumer taste or world trade changes at the drop of the dime as it has with the current pandemic, will our current food infrastructure of monocrops and extreme meat production collapse? The surplus of domestically produced meat and the scramble for imported goods like grains are telling. As with the web of biodiversity in times of change, the most overly specialized will fail first. These past few months have only revealed how crippled the world has left its built food system. It no longer resembles a resilient web whose manifold connections sustain it for infinity, but a linear chain riddled with disintegrating links.

“Essential Workers”: Heroes or a Sacrifice to Capitalism ?

Posted on by
3

In the face of major shifts and/or unrest both global and domestic, the US has historically relied on the most marginalized groups to uphold the status quo; an aspect of our history that is too often left out of, or skewed within, popular narratives. An example ringing with familiarity, was the onset of WWII (when swaths of the agricultural labor force migrated into war production factories) the 1942 Mexican Farm Labor Program Act systematically promoted the exploitation of immigrant labor as a means to keep meeting food demands on the backs of “cheap” labor. Our immigrant workers are a labor force that has been consistently condemned, ridiculed, and cast out. And again, today, in the face of a global pandemic, we are turning to the numerous undocumented immigrants that make up our 2.4 million farmworkers to continue to supply us with our demands (Honig, 2020). They are essential to keeping America fed.

Yet, as the choir of bells ring through our cities in gratitude to those who are on the front lines, these essential workers continue to work unprotected in close quarters, high risk conditions, and extremely limited access to testing or health care. And when calls are made to solve these issues, and to provide adequate provisioning, they are too often being met with no answer. Ultimately, they are being ignored. Still though, the faces of leadership turn to the media to give praise and show appreciation of our essential workers… our “heroes.”

Is this the way to treat our heroes? Do we truly believe that these people put themselves at risk everyday, in-spite of the love of their families and own lives, to be our “heroes?” Or have they been given no other choice, no other option to sustain themselves, or their families? And, in knowing this well, the faces of leadership can chose to tend to their need or not. The migrant workers, who have always been an essential labor force, are treated as if they are disposable. This pandemic is not an independent actor, it is constantly being fed by the conditions that were already established, long before it’s outbreak. Vulnerable living conditions, limited access to health care, muted voices, and insufficient ground to establish self-determination are the by-products of our capitalist structure that continues to sustain itself through the most marginalized people, who tend to fill our most essential positions.

 

This blog post was inspired by the FERN article: https://thefern.org/2020/04/as-pandemic-spreads-and-growing-season-ramps-up-farmworkers-deemed-essential-but-still-largely-unprotected/

Migrant workers are the backbone of our food system, why don’t we treat them better?

Posted on by
13

Myself, like many other Americans, never think twice about where my food comes from, how it is grown, or whom harvests it. This was true for me before I enrolled in Environment 385, and throughout much of the global pandemic, COVID-19. It was not until I read an article from The Fern that I fully contextualized how inner-connected politics and the food system really is and how complex the process was from sprout to table.

After reading the article Migrant farmworkers feed America, and they’re at a high risk for a coronavirus outbreak, I was overcome with emotion. With over 2.7 million farmers in the United States, undocumented workers make up 70%. I learned that every single day, millions of people are subjected to long hours in the blistering heat, live in horrible conditions, and lack basic quality healthcare. With the growing burden of COVID-19, migrant workers are disproportionately at risk of becoming inflected and exposing others to a virus that has already claimed thousands of lives in the United States alone. We rely on them to grow our food, tend our crops, and entrust them to feed and keep us healthy, yet we do little in return.

"Migrant workers harvest sweet potatoes (BELOW) and weed rows of tobacco (ABOVE) in eastern North Carolina. Often, pickers are paid by the bin instead of by the hour" - Brain Barth

“Migrant workers harvest sweet potatoes (BELOW) and weed rows of tobacco (ABOVE) in eastern North Carolina. Often, pickers are paid by the bin instead of by the hour” – Brain Barth

Gross and Honig highlight reasonable pleas on how to make life better for the undocumented workers. But, why do they go ignored? Why do things never seem to change? One thing that has been made clear is that the power and safety is still held within the in-group and no one wants to share the spoils with the out-group. Everyone should be afforded the same rights on American soil, especially if they are providing such an essential service.

References

Migrant farmworkers feed America, and they’re at high risk for a coronavirus outbreak

Photo: https://modernfarmer.com/2017/02/migrant-farm-workers-the-high-cost-of-cheap-labor/

https://who.sprinklr.com/region/amro/country/us

Farmworkers Need Resources Too

Posted on by
7

In the wake of the COVID-19 pandemic, it is quite evident that farmworkers have been put on the back burner when it comes to care during these tough times. The article As pandemic spreads and growing season ramps up, farmworkers deemed ‘essential’ but still largely unprotected explains how many people in the Immokalee community specifically have experienced this disregard firsthand. Immokalee is located in Florida, and serves as a nucleus for agricultural work, being nicknamed the “tomato capitol”. Nearly half of the population of Immokalee live in poverty and during harvest season, thousands of workers work hard to harvest fresh vegetables. Farmworkers travelling to work have to gather into buses, forcing them to be in close quarters with each other and raising the chances of acquiring this easily-transmittable disease. Not only that, but they are not equipped with personal protective equipment (PPE), economic assistance if sick, free virus testing, and field hospitals. The nearest hospital is 40 minutes away and not many people in this town own cars. This is happening all over the country, where farmworkers are not given the proper resources to stay safe. Even though there are organizations pushing for the government to fix this problem, nothing seems to be happening.

This ignorance shows the power structure of this country. There is a distinct line separating people who are seen as top priority and people who are seen as lower priority in this society. People who are seen as top priority are given a multitude of resources and safety while the people who work just as hard, if not harder, are given none. COVID-19 has only further exposed how the United States really works. It is urgent that we fight for safer working environments for the people who help us put the food in our pantries and others not being stood up for. Now more than ever, we need to find ways to be equitable to people who are not treated well, Furthermore, after this pandemic, we need to further apply the things we learn now to everyday life.

References:

https://thefern.org/2020/04/as-pandemic-spreads-and-growing-season-ramps-up-farmworkers-deemed-essential-but-still-largely-unprotected/