Agricultural Resilience in COVID-19
Tim Hammerich
News Reporter
We’ve now experienced five months of restrictions to prevent the spread of COVID-19. This has certainly been an adjustment for all of which, not least of which for our agricultural companies. But after significant concerns early on, the preventative measures seem to be working, and keeping food on the grocery shelves.
Bryan Little is the Director of Employment Policy at the California Farm Bureau.
Little… “My sense is that places, for example, like in Monterey County where it became obvious because they do harvest activity pretty early of leafy greens and things like that. And because, you know, Monterey County being Monterey County housing is ridiculously expensive over there. And so to the extent that they're trying to live in those communities and work in those communities, they're probably going to live in a fairly dense housing situation. I think Farm Bureau, the grocery association, and some of those other organizations that got in early and worked with their county government and with other entities over there and provided alternative housing for employees that needed to be isolated when they became ill. And even at that, even with that I think really extraordinary efforts that they made, getting masks handed out, doing things like reducing density in both housing and transportation.”
Little is hopeful that employers have done an effective job to do what it takes to protect their workers during this pandemic.