PLOWING AHEAD
Pandemic impacts agriculture, but industry makes necessary adjustments
Pandemic impacts agriculture, but industry makes necessary adjustments
LIKE MOST BUSINESSES, the agricultural industry has had to make adjustments in dealing with the changing circumstances surrounding the COVID-19 pandemic.
Paul Brierley, executive director of the Yuma Center of Excellence for Desert Agriculture, shared some of the issues that the agriculture industry has faced during the health crisis.
“Like everything else, it’s been unsettling. It’s required a lot of flexibility because things changed so dramatically,” Brierley said.
The pandemic largely impacted two areas: the fresh produce markets and the labor force. The markets control the demand for different types of produce, and the workforce harvests the produce that needs to get to the markets.
Agriculture experienced the effects of the pandemic almost immediately. About half of the crops go to the food
BIZ | September-October 2020 service industry, which includes restaurants, hotels, airlines, schools and convention centers.
States at one point or another instituted lockdowns and stay-at-home orders. Even before the government orders went out, some people were afraid to eat out or be in crowds, affecting the demand in the food service industry.
Then, with the orders, restaurants across the nation either closed or only served takeout or delivery. Travel restrictions meant airplanes were grounded and hotels lost reservations and guests.
Schools closed down before the end of the last academic year, and even now, with some opting for virtual teaching, it’s uncertain if and when schools across the country will resume in-person.
“That all just stopped, about half of what is produced,”
Brierley explained. “That market dried up overnight, and then the retail market, everyone started buying because they were eating at home. The market was not set up to handle that.”
The ag industry serves the food service market differently than it does the retail market, where households buy their food. A restaurant or hotel that orders lettuce will receive it in 50-pound bags, much bigger than the half-pound bag available at grocery stores.
Although growers had the lettuce – it was already growing in the field and ready to harvest – they didn’t have retail market contracts in place.
“So the store had empty shelves,” Brierley noted. “Yet fields had to be plowed under because there was no way to get it to the market. That was really frustrating.”
This also happened with milk, although Brierley is not sure if it happened in Yuma, but in Phoenix millions of pounds of milk were dumped every day for the same reason.
“The cows are producing. You can’t put it in a silo,” he noted. “Yet if you and I went to the store, we could only buy one gallon of milk at a time and one bottle of yogurt.”
People started eating more at home and buying more fresh vegetables for their home cooking. With the food service industry dried up and the retail market booming, agriculture had to adjust to this new reality.
“It took a while to adjust the supply chain, to the reality of people cooking in their own kitchens. Over time, though, it turns out, by and large, vegetables seem to be selling more than a year ago. So I guess people are eating healthy at home,” Brierley said.
The sales of fruit and vegetables has gone up 15% from a year ago. “It’s actually looking better. It was a scary time when it first happened,” he added.
Fortunately, the pandemic hit toward the end of the agriculture season in Yuma. But the new planting season is right around the corner, bringing with it a new set of problems evolving around planting schedules.
When a farmer plants a crop, it doesn’t go to market for three months. So in essence, Brierley, said, farmers need crystal balls to guess how much demand the market will have for that crop.
Like everything else, it’s been unsettling. It’s required a lot of flexibility because things
changed so dramatically.”
Will airlines be picking back up? Will hotels open? Will there be conventions? Will schools open? Any of these would drastically change the demand.
“They’re having to take their best guesses, and they’re waiting until the last minute,” Brierley said.
The ground needs to be prepared for planting in early September for a November harvest. However, in late July and early August, some farmers were struggling to secure sale contracts because the shippers, the companies that buy the produce and get it to the markets, were waiting until the last minute to put in their orders.
down a contract because the shipper wouldn’t commit. He had waited as long as he could.
Once a shipper signs the contract saying it needs, for instance, a thousand acres of head lettuce and 750 acres of romaine lettuce, the farmer can decide what fields to use and how much to plant.
LABOR FORCE SAFETY
And, again, just like other industries, agriculture has modified the way things are done to keep the workforce safe.
“Just like all the other industries, they’ve had to do the best they can to keep the workers safe,” Brierley said.
The pandemic hit Yuma toward the end of the last season so fewer crews were working the fields. This meant that more buses could be used to run the workforce to and from the fields. They ran more buses with every other seat occupied, and seats were assigned so the same person always sat in the same seat.
Extra hand-washing stations and outhouses were installed so workers wouldn’t congregate around those facilities.
Safety precautions were also put into place on the fields, including plexiglass shields and making sure that personal protective equipment, such as masks and gloves, were being used.
However, wearing masks, gloves and hairnets while picking the fields is nothing new to fieldworkers.
“Agriculture is so attuned to food safety procedures that we’re kind of ahead of the game. We already follow so many safety procedures because of the concerns with food safety. So that has helped. To some extent it wasn’t a
huge shift,” Brierley pointed out.
Another issue was ensuring that enough workers were available. This became an issue because some workers feared going to work and getting the infection. The enhanced federal unemployed pay also enticed some workers.
“Some would choose the employment benefits instead of coming to work. So it was difficult to get enough workers in the fields,” Brierley said.
Another concern centered on border closures, with the ports closed to nonessential traffic. Fortunately, agriculture has been designated as an essential industry so it is not subject to the travel restrictions. Workers have always been able to get across the border, but some were nervous, especially when a politician would threaten to close the border.
“They always worry, will the workers be able to get across?” Brierley noted.
Still another worry was the visa programs that workers use to get permission to enter and work in the country. The visas are processed by various government departments, including the embassies and the consulates in Mexico and Guatemala. At one point the U.S. government wasn’t sure if they could keep those open in the middle of a pandemic, and that would have affected next season’s supply.
“That didn’t come to bear. It was a concern. Our concerns were registered, and they were able to keep them open,” Brierley said.
The Yuma Center of Excellence for Desert Agriculture, which is part of the University of Arizona, is now looking into another possible way to protect the agriculture workforce.
Brierley explained: “The Yuma Center of Excellence is exploring the establishment of a Yuma laboratory that would utilize University of Arizona technology to test sewage as an advance warning of COVID-19 infection occurring in a population such as a farm labor crew. If established as a pilot project in Yuma, the system could be utilized by municipalities, schools, and military installations to track and slow the spread of the virus. If successful here, it could be replicated elsewhere.”
If successful, this kind of testing would give a seven-day advance warning of infections.
“We’ve been doing a lot of interesting research on the coronavirus. So we’re going to do everything we can to bring some of those technologies to the community, to be able to have better testing.”
The proposed project is made possible by a donation that specified that it go toward COVID-19 research. The proposal is garnering support. In a conversation with a local mayor, Brierley quoted the mayor as saying something to the effect of “we want to do anything we can to help protect Yuma’s ag workforce because they’re not only our citizens and neighbors but also the backbone of our economy.”
“The point being,” Brierley added, “if we can get some technologies here to help and the communities can help support those efforts, we’ll keep the ag workforce safe, and so they might be useful to the communities also.”
As an industry designated as critical, agriculture will keep moving forward “because everyone continues to eat,” Brierley quipped.
“We’re hoping people gain an appreciation for these people that are farming and working in the fields and putting food on the table. They’re essential workers, and they’re working through this pandemic,” he added.