The produce industry is a fast-paced environment with constant moving parts. At any given moment, thousands of trucks are traveling cross country to deliver produce into our local grocery stores. However, when we carefully select our produce at the store we tend to forget that the produce passed through multiple pairs of hands before it reached ours. Recently, we published an article detailing the setbacks farm workers deal with when it comes to wages and working environment. We would like to show you another side to the story.
Here in California, heat plays a major role in farm work. With high temperatures comes precautions that must be taken in order to prevent exhaustion. Western Growers published an article detailing the steps that must be taken in order to protect farm workers well-being. Such steps include instructing employees about heat illness prevention, making sure there is enough fresh water, and making sure there is shade provided. This year at United Fresh 2016, Taylor Farms Director of Ag Engineering, David Offerdahl, was presented with the 2016 FreshTech Achievement Award. He received this award for his outstanding improvements to technology, including his efforts to "enhance working conditions by placing workers into an ergonomic upright position in a shaded work environment."
Other positive efforts regarding field workers arrangements revolve around housing. Originally built in the 1960's for single men, Eaton Housing in Soledad, CA has been upgraded to family apartments. These apartments have 2-3 bedrooms for field workers and their families. Eaton Housing is an affordable housing program and the grounds feature a playground, basketball court, and computer lab. After one year of construction and 21 million dollars, 44 field workers and their families now live comfortably in the development. Housing plays a huge part in field workers lives, and some might not realize it, however, by law, growers are required to provide housing for guest workers on a special temporary visa called H-2A.
Western Growers (WG) has helpful tools for field workers to utilize. WG can help members with H-2A temporary workers programs by helping them with paperwork, filing applications and working with state workforce agencies. They also have a hotline for field workers for any questions they might have. WG also keeps up to date with news involving field workers, and you can check out these news updates here.
As we eat the produce on our kitchen table, it's important for us to appreciate where it came from. Nowadays, growers are doing more and more to make their employees happy and healthy. Just this week Napa Valley farm workers were commended for their excellent service at a recognition luncheon. Paul Goldberg, Vice President of the Napa Valley Farm Worker Foundation stated, "For years, the Napa Valley Grapegrowers has been investing in farm worker education programs in an effort to improve our ability to control quality and the quality of life within in our vineyards here in Napa County." Also, the foundation supports and offers skills for professional development, programs in English literacy, and leadership skills. It's wonderful to see grower's, companies, and foundations go to such lengths to recognize the hard work of the people that help to put fresh produce on our tables.
Kailyn Wolf
Production Coordinator, MarCom
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Kailyn Wolf began her career at the Allen Lund Company in 2014 as a Production Coordinator within ALC Marketing and Communications. She has a BA in English from California State University of Channel Islands.
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About Allen Lund Company: Specializing as a national third-party transportation broker with nationwide offices, the Allen Lund Company works with shippers and carriers across the nation to transport dry, refrigerated (specializing in produce), and flatbed freight; additionally, the Allen Lund Company has an international division, which is licensed by the FMC as an OTI-NVOCC #019872NF, and a logistics and software division, ALC Logistics.
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