Farm workers not impacted by Trump’s executive immigration order: CA Farm Bureau [KNSD TV, San Diego]
On Wednesday, President Donald Trump clarified what he called a “temporary suspension of immigration into the United States.” Trump said the executive order he plans to sign would apply only to those seeking permanent residency and not to temporary workers. … The California Farm Bureau Federation has confirmed this ban would not apply to H2A/B employees, which is what the California agricultural community relies upon for workers, according to the San Diego County Farm Bureau.
Fear factor high for farm community as President Trump announces immigration ban [KFSN TV, Fresno]
… Farmers don’t expect an immigration ban to change the demographics of their workforce. “It’s extraordinarily unlikely that we would see many individuals that would all of the sudden pick up farm work,” said Fresno County Farm Bureau CEO Ryan Jacobsen. … Jacobsen says an exemption for H-2A visas, allowing guest workers to keep coming to the U.S. for work, should ease the minds of most Central Valley farmers. “A great majority of our workforce are locally based, but there is a very small component that is H-2A employees that come from foreign countries. We do expect that to continue.”
https://abc30.com/coronavirus-california-immigration-president-trump/6120631/
Trump’s immigration ban halts green cards, not work visas used by many California farms [KXTV, Sacramento]
… On Tuesday, agriculture workers and business owners had a sigh of relief after President Donald Trump announced what he described as a “temporary suspension of immigration into the United States.” The executive order would bar only those seeking permanent residency, not temporary workers like those in the fields in the San Joaquin Valley. … In a statement, the San Joaquin Farm Bureau Federation says “We are working to make sure that workers coming into the country are not included in this.” … Stockton farm labor activist Luis Magana says it’s not just the fear of the coronavirus, but some towns in Mexico have checkpoints making it even more difficult for farm workers to return the U.S.
Sacramento Valley farms struggling as coronavirus closes restaurants, chokes supply chain [Sacramento Bee]
… While losing the experience of dining out is more visually striking, both ends of the farm-to-fork pipeline are bleeding. … Though Secretary of Agriculture Sonny Perdue announced Friday that U.S. farms will receive $19 billion in financial aid, it’s unclear if any of that money would benefit independent farms like Sacramento Sprouting Co. … Small-scale farmers often can’t sell directly to supermarkets because their outputs fall short of what stores need and prices can’t compete with larger, streamlined agricultural producers. Yet with restaurants needing less and distributors adjusting accordingly, many rely more on local farmers markets, which Best said have seen declining sales as well.
https://www.sacbee.com/food-drink/article242068651.html
In rural California, children face isolation, hunger amid coronavirus school closures [Los Angeles Times]
… From the mountain hamlets of Northern California to the farming communities of the Central Valley to the desert towns near the U.S.-Mexico border, small schools are grappling with how to serve far-flung, impoverished students with less access to at-home internet, spotty cellphone service and who rely on schools to feed them. … The pandemic has widened the gulf between the digital haves and have-nots, said Niu Gao, a researcher for the Public Policy Institute of California. In rural California, some 41% of households with school-age children do not have broadband access at home, much higher than the statewide average of 27%, Gao said.
https://www.latimes.com/california/story/2020-04-22/coronavirus-rural-schools-california
Napa Valley wineries navigate industry uncertainty as production continues [Napa Valley Register]
Wine production may be essential business, but it’s not immune to volatility in a pandemic. An uncertain market, industry members say, has left wineries debating how best to move inventory – and facing hard deadlines by which they must decide. Spring and summer are bottling season for wineries. … But now some producers are hesitating to move forward with it, according to Thomas Jordan, whose company, Peregrine Mobile Bottling, is based in Napa. … One of the most prevalent alternatives, according to Proctor, is to sell wine on the bulk market.
Coronavirus at meat packing plants worse than first thought, USA TODAY investigation finds [USA Today]
A rash of coronavirus outbreaks at dozens of meat packing plants across the nation is far more extensive than previously thought, according to an exclusive review of cases by USA TODAY and the Midwest Center for Investigative Reporting. And it could get worse. … While experts say the industry has thus far maintained sufficient production … there are fears that the number of cases could continue to rise and that meat packing plants will become the next disaster zones. … Amplifying the danger is that, in many places, meat processing companies are largely on their own to ensure an outbreak doesn’t spread across their factory floors.
