NEW YORK/LOS ANGELES/CHICAGO (Reuters) – From apple packaging homes in Washington state to farm employees in Florida and a California county called “the world’s salad bowl,” break outs of the unique coronavirus are emerging at U.S. vegetables and fruit farms and packaging plants.
Fresh carrots are revealed for sale at a supermarket in Del Mar, California, U.S. June 3,2020 Picture taken June 3,2020 REUTERS/Mike Blake
An increasing number of sick farm and packing home workers comes after thousands of meat plant employees contracted the virus and might lead to more labor shortages and a fresh wave of disturbance to U.S. food production.
The Trump administration stated last month it may extend an executive order to keep meat plants running to fruit and vegetable manufacturers also, an indication it is concerned fresh fruit and vegetables could be the next sector hit.
While social distancing can be more quickly implemented for employees collecting vegetables and fruits in fields and working outside might reduce some risks for infection spread, plants that package foods such as apples and carrots resemble the elbow-to-elbow conditions that contributed to break outs at U.S. meat packing plants.
By late May, there were more than 600 cases of COVID-19 among agricultural workers in Yakima County, Washington. Of those, 62%were employees in the apple market and other packing operations or warehouses, according to a Reuters review of data from county health authorities.
With 4,834 known cases as of June 10, the county had the greatest per-capita infection rate on the West Coast.
” The (production) line moves extremely quick. And you’re working side by side and back to back,” said Edgar Franks, political director with local farmworker union Familias Unidas por la J