Thursday, June 11, 2020

America's food harvesters need better living conditions

"Latino and Haitian migrant workers board early-morning school buses or hop into the roll-up backs of U-Haul trailers to reach the fields. They work side by side hand-harvesting mostly round green tomatoes that are later gassed with ethylene to ripen them. At the end of the day, workers hop back in those buses and trucks and head home to retrofitted trailer parks often owned by the growers, with between 6 and 16 workers bedding down in bunk beds and mattresses on the floor in single-wide trailers meant to be one-bedroom homes."

~ L. Reiley

https://www.washingtonpost.com/business/2020/06/11/migrant-farmworkers-many-who-have-tested-positive-covid-19-move-north-florida-other-farm-states/

"As of June 10, the Florida Department of Health, Division of Disease Control and Health Protection reported 899 positive cases in the Immokalee Zip code, out of roughly 2,500 tests conducted in the rural town. That is a 36% positive rate, far higher than the current 5.58% positive rate for those tested in Florida overall, and much higher than wealthier areas of Collier County."

~ L. Reiley

https://www.washingtonpost.com/business/2020/06/11/migrant-farmworkers-many-who-have-tested-positive-covid-19-move-north-florida-other-farm-states/

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