![]() The New Jersey State Department of Health issued safety recommendations for farms in May, but farms are not required to follow them. She said they were tested for COVID-19 when they arrived, but did not receive daily temperature checks, as the state had advised. “Many were scared to come even before the virus,” said one worker, referring to the current administration’s immigration policies and increased deportations by Immigrations Custom Enforcement.ĭ.D., her husband, and their three children travel from Florida for the harvest each year. At least half of the nation’s farmworkers are believed to be undocumented, and fear of being fired and deported is commonplace. “They’re scared of coming because of COVID.” For those who are there, that means more work, more pressure, and little room to raise concerns about safety. “This year there’s not as many people,” she said. Lack of protectionĭ.D., a woman of Haitian descent, has been working at the same Hammonton farm every summer since 2002. But they’re the ones who bring the food to our table.” ![]() “They see them but yet they are invisible. “People don’t see them,” said Linda Flake, CEO of South Jersey Family Medical Centers (SJFMC), one of the main health centers testing blueberry workers. ![]() More than 14,000 people have died from coronavirus in New Jersey, and as of August the state still had the highest death count per capita in the country. Since then, the New Jersey Department of Health has not released official data on COVID cases among migrant farmworkers. In May 400 farmworkers from other agricultural sectors in New Jersey tested positive, and at least two have died, according to the National Center for Farmworker Health. ( In California, farmworkers are picking American’s food while facing fires, heat waves, and the pandemic-all at once.) A majority of migrant farmworkers live in crowded camps on the farms, sharing bathrooms and dormitory-style sleeping quarters. “Non-payment of wages, or really low wages…pesticides, vehicle safety, and workplace accidents” are some of the long-standing problems farmworkers face, according to Jessica Culley from Farmworker Support Committee (CATA), a nonprofit organization headquartered in New Jersey. Harvest time varies, but generally begins in early June and ends by late July.īlueberries are big business in New Jersey: the state annually produces between 40 million to 50 million pounds, 80 percent of which comes from the Hammonton area, amounting to roughly $70 million in annual revenue.įarm work is one of the most dangerous and low-paying occupations in the United States. Every year an estimated 6,000 migrant farmworkers, the majority from Mexico, Haiti, and across Central America, arrive at the farms for the eight-week harvest. Hammonton is the self-proclaimed “blueberry capital of the world,” with 56 blueberry farms located in and around the town of about 14,000 people. to 6 p.m., was $300, but that was not going to happen today. The most he has ever made in a day, which normally lasts from 5 a.m. Rodolfo (workers spoke to National Geographic on the condition that their surnames not be used) makes $5.15 a crate. On a slip of paper they punched a hole for each finished crate. After filling five plastic crates about the size of a school lunch tray, he carried them down to a rental truck where supervisors inspected for quality. A white T-shirt wrapped around his face served a dual purpose: a shield from the intolerably hot sun and a mask against the coronavirus.Īt 10 a.m., he had already been in the field for five hours, swiftly and methodically picking the biggest blueberries. In the middle of the summer’s worst heat wave, Rodolfo, a 25-year-old from the Western Highlands of Guatemala, stood among a long line of blueberry bushes at Glossy Fruit Farms in Hammonton, New Jersey.
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