Immigrant farmworkers feed us despite the coronavirus pandemic. They deserve better

Life was already coming to a standstill when Yolo County, just across the river from the State Capitol in Sacramento, joined many other local governments across California in issuing a “shelter in place” order. To prevent the further spread of the coronavirus, we are on lockdown until further notice.

Of course, there are exceptions for essential businesses. Among the most essential of these businesses: agriculture.

Yolo County’s lockdown order exempts “any form of agricultural production and processing.” A major tomato and almond producer, Yolo is not alone in exempting agriculture from such orders. Monterey County, home to John Steinbeck’s beloved Salinas Valley and producer of much of the nation’s lettuce, exempted agriculture as well.

As other counties and local governments in the agricultural heartland of California adopt similar measures, they will no doubt ensure that work in the fields can continue. This is justifiable. In times of crisis, maintaining the food supply is the definition of essential.

During World War II, America relied on Bracero guest workers from Mexico (including my grandfather), groups of high-schoolers, interned Japanese-Americans and even German prisoners of war to make sure America and her armies were well-fed.

As COVID-19 threatens to disrupt global trade, our supply chains may become strained and grocery shelves may become empty. So, it is in the vital national interest to make sure America’s crops continue to be picked, packed and ready to ship to stores. But the human cost of its continued operation cannot be ignored.

In the midst of a global pandemic, one of California’s most marginalized populations – farmworkers – is being asked to work. Farmworkers already face one of the most dangerous jobs in the nation, with heat exhaustion, pesticide exposure and the threat of wildfires among the many dangers they face.

On top of that, farmworker communities struggle with generational poverty, lack of educational opportunity and, for many, the threat of deportation. In the Central Valley, many rural farmworker communities lack access to clean water. And in Yolo, a significant portion of farmworker families report struggling with food insecurity.

The people we expect to feed our families too often cannot feed their own. Coronavirus poses new threats. According to UC Davis’ Western Center for Agricultural Health and Safety, around half of the farmworker population in California has no health care coverage. Basic public health information is often difficult to disperse among farmworker communities. And the farmworker population is aging, with an average age of 45. This means growing numbers of farmworkers are nearing the age when coronavirus is deadliest.

So, what do we owe those whose backbreaking work provides the food we stockpile in our quarantines? How can the 5th largest economy in the world still be so dependent on a caste of largely immigrant, overwhelmingly Latino workers living in poverty and performing backbreaking labor regardless of fires or pandemics? What does that say about us?

Our dependence on farmworkers may soon become all too clear. The Trump administration’s decision to suspend visa applications in Mexico as part of its response to the coronavirus – despite the fact that the United States has far more cases than Mexico – will prevent American farms from recruiting modern-day Braceros under the H2-A agricultural guestworker visa.

The farm lobby is understandably upset. After all, the harvest season is fast approaching. While this represents a real danger to all of us, we must still note the hypocrisy of the agriculture lobby here.

Advocates of farmworker rights have long been critical of the H2-A guest worker visa system for too often leaving farmworkers at the mercy of the employers on which their visas rely.

The same lobbyists currently scrambling to ensure their farmworkers can still enter the country are the same ones who fight against all efforts to make sure farmworkers are paid fairly or included in the basic protections of U.S. labor law – protections farmworkers have been excluded from since the 1930s. Yet obstructing the H2-A program now could easily exacerbate the economic crisis.

Unless this gets resolved, the Trump administration’s decision to respond to a public health crisis with yet more xenophobia could become a threat to the nation’s food supply.

Let all this serve as a reminder: America needs farmworkers.

That’s especially true during a crisis, whether it’s a global war or global pandemic. And so, as we honor first responders, health care workers, and others on the front-lines of the current crisis, let’s not forget farmworkers. They are both among the most essential and vulnerable populations in this crisis.

When the crisis passes, maybe we will appreciate the role these workers play in our basic sustenance. Hopefully, we can then agree to do better by farmworkers and afford them the fair treatment they have long been denied. If farmworkers are essential enough to be told to keep working, then it’s only right to honor their work with fair pay and equal rights.

A good place to start would be to extend them the same labor protections given to most other industries. And would a real path to citizenship for both H2-A visa-holders and undocumented workers alike be too much to ask?

If America stays fed in our moment of need, it will be thanks to immigrant farmworkers.

This story was originally published March 21, 2020 at 5:00 AM with the headline "Immigrant farmworkers feed us despite the coronavirus pandemic. They deserve better."