EPA restores pesticide exclusion zones
A new regulation will restore so-called application exclusion zones intended to protect farmworkers and other people from exposure to pesticides as they are being applied, said the Environmental Protection Agency on Wednesday. The exclusion zones were created as part of a 2015 agricultural worker protection standard and were reduced in size in 2020 during the Trump era.
Colorado workers are first since 2022 to catch bird flu from poultry
A total of five workers — two more than initially reported — contracted mild cases of bird flu while culling infected chickens with the viral disease on an egg farm, said Colorado public health officials. They were the first poultry workers known to have contracted bird flu since May 2022; four dairy farmworkers have been diagnosed with the disease, which is also spread by cows, since April, including one in Colorado.
First time: Bird flu spreads from cattle to human in Texas
A Texas patient tested positive for the bird flu virus after exposure to dairy cattle believed to be carrying the disease — the first known instance of cattle-to-human transmission in the United States, said public health officials on Monday. The patient reported eye redness, consistent with conjunctivitis, as the only symptom and was recovering, said the Centers for Disease Control.
Farmworkers gather in New York to chart future of policy and organizing goals
Farmworkers and labor organizers from across North America will convene in New York City this weekend for a “people’s tribunal,” where they plan to produce a list of overarching priorities that will guide their organizing efforts going forward. (No paywall)
Allow ag processors to hire guestworkers, says House group
Congress should expand the agricultural guestworker program, now limited to seasonal jobs, to include employment at year-round processing plants, said a working group composed of House Agriculture Committee members on Thursday. “One thing that has become clear is the need for dairy producers, meat processors, sugar processors, forestry, ranchers, and others to have access to a steady and legal workforce,” said the lawmakers.
Equity Commission recommends ‘sweeping and generational change’ at USDA
The Agriculture Department, whose programs range from crop subsidies to public nutrition, would reform its operations to assure fair treatment of everyone under the recommendations of an administration-appointed commission, delivered in a final report on Thursday. Co-chair Ertharin Cousin said the goal was “to ensure equity becomes part of the DNA as well as the culture of this great organization.”
We need a farm bill for farmworkers
In the latest piece in our series with Mother Jones, The Farm Bill Fight, Teresa Cotsirilos explains why the nation's most important agricultural law largely ignores farmworkers—and why that needs to change.
Farm workforce is aging rapidly in northern U.S.
The average age of farmworkers in the Plains and upper Midwest is rising at a much faster rate than in the rest of the country, said the Minneapolis Federal Reserve Bank on Thursday. Most of the farmworkers in the Minneapolis district, stretching from the Upper Peninsula of Michigan to Montana, were born in the United States.
The often brutal existence of seasonal sheepherders
Sheepherders who come to the U.S. on the H-2A work visa often face abuse from their employers, including threatened violence, confiscated passports, and withheld rations, according to farmworker attorneys, government officials, and human-trafficking experts. (No paywall)
As climate disasters worsen, researchers push for farmworker safety net
In the last few weeks, academics and labor advocates have released a flurry of studies and surveys with the same urgent finding: Climate disasters are wreaking havoc on the health, safety, and economic stability of farmworkers, and well-funded government programs are the best way to provide workers with relief. (No paywall)
Why the U.S. food sector has by far the most child-labor violations
A FERN analysis of investigation data released by the Department of Labor’s Wage and Hour Division (WHD)—which is tasked with enforcing federal child labor laws—found that more than 75 percent of recent violations were committed by employers in the food industry.
Gender gap costs global economy $1 trillion in agrifood productivity and wages
Women are as widely employed as men in agrifood systems around the world, but their working conditions are often worse and they earn much less than men, said an FAO report on Thursday. “Closing the gender gap in farm productivity and the wage gap in agrifood system employment would increase global gross domestic product by 1 percent, or nearly $1 trillion,” it said.
DHS streamlines protections against deportation
In a step hailed by the United Farm Workers union, the Homeland Security Department announced a streamlined and expedited process to protect non-citizen workers from immigration-related retaliation during labor disputes with their employers. "Unscrupulous employers who prey on the vulnerability of non-citizen workers harm all workers and disadvantage businesses who play by the rules," said Homeland Security Secretary Alejandro Mayorkas.
Last-chance farmworker reform bill is proposed
Colorado Sen. Michael Bennet announced a new farmworker reform bill on Thursday that would give legal status to undocumented farmworkers and reform the H-2A guestworker program, including, for the first time, visas for year-round agricultural work.
‘We need action’ by Senate on farm labor reform, say advocates
With congressional adjournment on the horizon, a parade of farmers, food processors, and lawmakers called on the Senate on Wednesday to get to work on legislation to give legal status to undocumented farmworkers and streamline the H-2A guestworker program. The House passed an ag labor bill 19 months ago, but nothing has emerged from behind-the-scenes negotiations in the Senate on the issue.
USDA awards $671 million for pandemic payments to frontline workers
Fourteen nonprofit organizations and the Cherokee Nation will distribute $671 million in pandemic payments of $600 per person to farmworkers, meatpacking employees and frontline grocery workers, said the Agriculture Department on Tuesday.
At White House conference, Biden lays out plan to end hunger by 2030
America can end hunger by 2030 by fighting poverty, expanding access to healthy food, and reorienting healthcare toward preventing diet-related diseases, said President Biden on Wednesday. Framing the task in epic terms, he called on government and society to step up. “This could be a giant step,” he said. “This could remind us who the hell we are.” (No paywall)
Senate, mulling H-2A reform bill, stuck on rights provision
The Senate is reviewing bipartisan legislation that would overhaul and expand the nation’s H-2A program, which provides temporary work visas to hundreds of thousands of agricultural workers. Legislators who support the bill argue it would provide farmers with a more stable workforce and lower food prices for consumers. But some Republican lawmakers are concerned that the legislation would grant farmworkers too many rights.