SACRAMENTO, Calif. (AP) — Salvador Calzadillas isn’t worried about catching the coronavirus when he’s picking mandarin oranges in the trees in central California. But he said the mere act of getting to the groves each day puts him and his wife, also a farmworker, at risk, and there’s nothing they can do to change that.
Farmworkers, after all, can’t work from home. Calzadillas and his wife are among half a dozen workers who crowd into a car or van to get to the groves a 40-minute drive away. There, they are huddled in a group to get daily instructions — without regard for social distancing, he said. “There’s been no changes so far, everything is the same,” Calzadillas said. “Many of my co-workers say it’s like we’re immortal, we’re working just the same. There’s no prevention, and we keep working.”
More than a third of the country’s vegetables and two-thirds of its fruits and nuts are grown in California. Agriculture groups and union leaders are urging employers to take extra precautions to prevent the outbreak from spreading among California’s farmworkers, who are already in short supply.
Article submitted by, Great Gazoo.
