12/9/2023 0 Comments Workers in teh harvest meaning![]() A recent UC Davis study found that residual ash continues to emit dangerous particulates that pose an additional threat to outdoor workers - even after the skies have cleared. The health risks don’t dissipate after the flames are extinguished. There are also the invisible effects of living year after year with the stress of wildfire disasters: depression, anxiety, and PTSD. In pregnant women, smoke exposure is linked to low birth weight and preterm birth. “We see workers having no choice but to work under dangerous circumstances in order to survive.”Ī variety of other risk factors, including poor access to healthy foods, unstable housing, and financial insecurity, can make farm laborers vulnerable to asthma, heart disease, and lung disease, says Fish. “This community is one of our most marginalized,” she says. Jennifer Fish, a family physician with Santa Rosa Community Health and cofounder of Health Professionals for Equality and Community Empowerment (H-PEACE), says she routinely sees farmworkers and their families suffering from the impacts of smoke inhalation. “I never send anyone into a place where I wouldn’t go myself,” he says. Everyone uses a buddy system so no one’s caught alone. In case of stray sparks, every truck has a fire extinguisher and water tank. In case cell networks go down, he carries a satellite phone. Tony Bugica, director of farming and business development at Napa’s Atlas Vineyard Management and one of 11 commissioners of the Sonoma County Winegrowers, describes his harvest procedures with military precision. Vineyard managers who oversee much of the harvest say they are taking steps beyond standard protective equipment such as face masks and safety checks to minimize the peril for laborers. Our local grape growers are not activists, but local families in our Sonoma County community who have been caring for the land, spending time and money investing in our community and ensuring that the health and well-being of their workforce is always at the forefront.” “They provide workforce housing, education, and they have been innovative in how to safely keep vineyard workers employed during the Covid-19 crisis. “Worker safety is the number one priority for our local farmers,” says Karissa Kruse, president of Sonoma County Winegrowers, a group that represents the interests of 1,800 growers. Wine industry representatives and leaders say they recognize the health and safety risks as an emerging existential threat to their business - one on par with the threats posed by climate change. Amid a historic drought that’s fueling another severe fire season, local and state officials are proposing a raft of new regulations on this multi-billion-dollar industry, while leaders in the farm labor movement are calling for more to be done to protect their members. These competing environmental and economic forces have thrust Sonoma County to the front line of a human health dilemma with implications for fire-prone communities across the West. That collision - of fire season and grape harvest - now increasingly forces workers to risk their health, and sometimes their safety, to bring in the crop. They harvest regularly in the cool hours of night during the North Bay’s hottest and driest months. Vineyard workers are deemed “essential” by the state, meaning their jobs continue even in times of crisis. Combine that with harvests from Napa, Mendocino and Lake counties, and the total haul topped $1.8 billion.īut those make-or-break weeks stretching through October now coincide with a fire season that’s grown longer and more catastrophic.įarming goes on amid these disasters. The roughly 11,000 grape workers who call the county home harvest a crop that covers more than 62,000 acres and in 2019 was valued at $654 million. (Christopher Chung/The Press Democrat)Įvery year, for a frenzied period beginning in early August, Sonoma County’s vineyards reap the harvest they’ve spent all year cultivating. But advocates worry these workers have too few protections. ![]() Sonoma’s Ag Pass system has allowed some crews into evacuated zones.
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