As apple season starts, crops and worries grow
Workers told to follow pandemic protocols, will customers do the same?
Before Indian Ladder Farm’s guest workers arrived from Jamaica, they had to quarantine in their country for two weeks as a protection against carrying coronavirus into the U.S.
Once at the farm, their shifts and meal times have been staggered to ensure they are a safe distance from one another. Masks are mandatory while they work in Indian Ladder’s cider mill.
But orchard manager Chris Carballeira said his biggest worry is the thousands of American customers
who will descend during harvest season, which started with Indian Ladder’s pick your own apple operation Saturday, who could spread the virus to workers, who are here on H-2A temporary agricultural worker visas.
The farm erected a fence around its guest workers’ buildings to keep customers away from them.
“There is the concern with public compliance, it’s been disappointing,” Carballeira said about some people’s refusal to wear masks and socially distance. “It’s scary not just for the frontline workers, but H-2A workers.
“The farmer is the original social distancing job,” he continued. “If we were left to our own devices to operate an agricultural operation it would be easier.”
Indian Ladder, like many New York fruit and vegetable farms, makes much of its money from agritourism — the time between Labor Day and Halloween when the public’s thirst for pumpkins, apples and cider doughnuts is voracious. And considering people have been restricted from doing normal activities since the pandemic shutdown in March, interest in farm visits are likely to be more sought after than ever.
Guidance sought
New York Farm Bureau President David Fisher said he wrote to Gov. Andrew Cuomo in April asking for the state to provide formal guidance for how agricultural enterprises should protect themselves during the pandemic. In May, the state issued recommendations, such as providing separate places for guest workers to sleep, and splitting up workers so not too many are on a shift at one time. Free COVID-19 testing has recently been offered to seasonal workers in Clinton, Genesee, Orleans, Ulster and Wayne counties — where a large influx of workers from out of state is expected.
Indian Ladder expressed that the safety of their guest workers — a more preferred term for them than the traditional “migrant worker” description — is top of mind. But immigration advocates worry not all employers are as conscientious, or have the money or resources to put all pandemic safety protocols in place.
Immigrants make up 16 percent of New York’s agricultural employees, and almost 30 percent of workers in food and beverage manufacturing and processing, according to the Center of Migration Studies, a New York-based think tank.
According to U.S. Department of Labor statistics, 8,104 guest workers had H-2A visas last year to work on farms in New York. Many began arriving in August to assist in the harvest.
But language barriers and the congregate way workers live presents a particular challenge at workplaces — as witnessed by large COVID-19 outbreaks that have already happened in New York.
At Green Empire Farm greenhouse in Oneida County, 169 of the 340 workers tested positive for COVID-19 in May. A month later, Champlain Valley Specialities, an Oswego apple-packaging facility, had 82 employees test positive for COVID-19.
Closer to the Capital Region, seven quarry workers from Vermont who lived together in Washington County also tested positive. The business is not an agricultural one, but the case appeared to involve seasonal workers.
The Vermont Department of Health has not identified the quarry. There are at least two just over the New York border near Fair Haven, Vt. The outbreak in June involved about 15 workers, some whose primary language was not English and others who were guest workers.
“There wasn’t one portrait of the individuals impacted,” said Dan Daltry, administrative lead for Vermont’s contact tracing team at that state’s Department of Health. “There was a diversity among the folks impacted in terms of language and housing situation.”
The Oneida greenhouse outbreak caught Cuomo’s attention, and he mentioned it during one of his daily news briefings, attributing the spread to a high “worker density.”
It turns out, workers slept in hotels four people per room, and two in each bed, according to a report from Syracuse.com.
Safety plans in place
The state said recently that it has seen an increase in clusters associated with farms that employ seasonal workers who have traveled from out of state. The clusters are due to the higher number of workers in close proximity since farms and food production facilities have remained open as essential businesses.
Jessica Maxwell, the executive director of Workers Center of Central New York, a grass-roots organization focused on workplace issues, said she heard about the situation at the apple packing facility anecdotally through workers within her network.
She’s spoken to several farmers across Central New York, and language barriers seem to be a recurring theme in many workplaces.
“In this case there may be supervisors that don’t speak the language of the people they are supervising and getting good information to people can be a real challenge,” Maxwell said.
The state’s guidance for farm owners and operators suggests posting signs reinforcing social distancing and hand-washing in multiple languages. Maxwell said this is a good start, but adds that informational signs may leave out certain individuals.
“If you have a population that isn’t all literate, posting signage — even in a native language — may not be a good way of communicating,” Maxwell said.
She said verbal communications, demonstrations and illustrations may be additions worth considering.
The New York Farm Bureau and Cornell Cooperative Extension said they have been conducting outreach to county health departments to assess preparedness and quarantine housing options should an outbreak occur on a farm. The Farm Bureau also established a worker relief database to connect farms with potential temporary employees should they be needed.
A recent farm bureau survey said 84 percent of farms reported having safety plans in place to protect their employees.
Carballeira, orchard manager at Indian Ladder, had to hire an extra person so the proper amount of people could work the split shift. They also had to hire more people to do extra sanitations around the farm.
Farms without H-2A workers are also nervous. They spent money paying their regular employees to get crops in the ground. But if there is another shutdown because of COVID-19 cases rising again in New York, they too will have to close and make no money on their harvests. Garth Ellms, co-owner of Ellms Family Farm on the border of Charlton and Ballston in Saratoga County, said he recently ordered $5,000 worth of hand sanitizer alone, in addition to having to close some indoor spaces to the public. “We’re definitely concerned we will be able to harvest,” he said.
Farms have also posted detailed instructions for how customers should conduct themselves on property. At Samascott Orchards in Columbia County, masks are required when paying and near other visitors, and customers must wash their hands before picking their own apples. The farm’s orchard map also lists where hand sanitizing stations are.
Meanwhile, COVID-19 clusters on farms and in food production continue to appear. In July, there were 20 cases reported in Ulster County, and some of those cases came from guest workers at an apple orchard in southeastern Ulster, according to a spokesperson for the Ulster County Executive office.
Advocates have been hearing anecdotally about clusters emerging, but it’s hard to tell just how frequently it’s happening, said Emma Kreyche, advocacy director for the Worker Justice Center of New York, a legal organization that focuses on agricultural and other low wage workers.
“It’s been difficult for us as a farm worker organization, as well as I think for other advocates across the state, to get a true handle on the total number of farmer workers affected by the pandemic,” Kreyche said. “Partly it’s because there is no centralized mechanism for tracking cases associated with agricultural operations.”
The state Departments of Health, Labor and Agriculture and Markets put out guidance for farm owners and operators. But unlike restaurants and bars - where the state created a State Police Task Force to do sweeps of those not compiling with serving and social distance rules — worker advocates are worried that there is not the same enforcement mechanism to ensure farm and manufacturing employers are instituting the recommendations.
“We know those changes can cut into profit,” Kreyche said. “There is really no way of knowing what the compliance rate looks like in agriculture, and unfortunately, the way we tend to learn about whether a farm is complying with these recommendations is when we hear complaints or about an outbreak.”
The state Department of Agriculture and Markets said in a written statement to the Times Union that it continues to do routine inspections of farming operations — including more than 30 visits to produce farms since the pandemic started.
It acknowledged that there have been COVID-19 investigations of agricultural workspaces after getting reports of outbreaks or non-compliance. But the state provided no further details.
“Ensuring the safety of the farming community has always been our first priority, and throughout this public health crisis, we have worked to protect farm workers’ health, issuing and enforcing official guidance, which was sent directly to hundreds of growers and also distributed to our farms through partnerships with Cornell Cooperative Extension, NY Farm Bureau, and other farm associations and advocacy groups,” read a statement provided by Agriculture and Markets spokeswoman Hanna Birkhead.
Language barriers - and an unwillingness for workers to complain and jeopardize their jobs - also means any flouting of pandemic recommendations is likely not being reported. Work
“We know those changes can cut into profit. There is really no way of knowing what the compliance rate looks like in agriculture, and unfortunately, the way we tend to learn about whether a farm is complying with these recommendations is when we hear complaints or about an outbreak.” — Emma Kreyche, advocacy director for the Worker Justice Center of New York
ers who are sick are also not likely to report their symptoms for fear of losing their jobs.
Reassuring workers
Rossana Coto-batres, director of the Northeast NY Coalition for Occupational Safety and Health, said that some workers she had spoken with weren’t aware of the new paid sick leave laws that came about during the pandemic. It wasn’t until this past January that a new state law became effective requiring farm workers to be given 24 consecutive hours of rest every calendar week.
“Getting paid days off is not something they’re really used to,” Coto-batres said.
This chilling effect can be dangerous from a public
health standpoint. If individuals don’t report their symptoms due to fear about jeopardizing their status, it could lead to further spread of the virus.
Washington County health officials stressed that they would not be asking any questions regarding immigration status after the quarry cluster.
“We are not asking that question. It leads people to distrust us,” Washington County Attorney Roger Wickes said. “From a public health perspective, we don’t want to know their status.” Wickes said there is just one chief concern for the local health department: “We’re worried about healthy versus sick.”