The Heat Wave Crushing the West Is a Preview of Farmworkers’ Hot Future

 A heat wave has begun in California. Temperatures in the San Joaquin Valley are expected to exceed 105 degrees Celsius for eight days, threatening the more than 200,000 farm workers who harvest the valley's tomatoes, strawberries and other crops. Temperatures in parts of California's 8 million acres of farmland could reach 112 degrees on Tuesday, where many fruits and vegetables are grown.

Civil Eats reports that exposure to this heat can be fatal. Agricultural workers, mostly migrant and Spanish-speaking workers, are 20 times more likely to die from heat-related causes than other occupations.

In 2004, a vineyard worker died of heat stroke while picking grapes for 10 hours at 105 degrees Celsius, making California the nation's first heat benchmark. Employers must provide water and shade when the temperature rises above 80 degrees. Since then, fatal heat-related illnesses have declined, according to the state Occupational Safety and Health Administration, but recent research shows that labor shortages make fever protocols difficult to implement and deaths continue to occur. Nationally, the US Department of Labor's Occupational Safety and Health Administration is in the early stages of establishing a federal injury and illness prevention system.

As climate change drives extreme heat to California, Angel Santiago Fernandez-Bow, a postdoctoral researcher in environmental systems at the University of California, Merced, says future-like long-term heat waves will get worse. He co-authored a report earlier this year that predicted annual temperatures in the valley would rise 4-5 degrees Celsius by mid-century and 8 degrees Celsius by the end of the century. On Merced's 107-degree day, Civil Eats spoke with Fernandez-Bow about what it's meant for California farmworkers and agriculture. How is extreme heat affecting farmworkers in the San Joaquin Valley?

Historically, the valley has experienced extreme heat for four to five days, and two months will be very hot, which is expected to increase more than 15 times by the end of the century. It will have a huge impact on farm workers because no one can work in these conditions, and laws limiting farm workers' exposure to extreme heat will make it harder to think of farm work as a profession. Working in such extreme heat is inhumane. I don't want to speak for the farm workers, but I can give you an idea of ​​what I heard. One of the biggest problems for farm workers is language issues. This limits access to sensitive information such as extreme thermal protection standards. There are many grassroots organizations working to reach out to farmworkers and let them know they have rights and expect employers to meet these standards. Very good. It's clear that no one wants to work in extreme heat, but some do because they have no choice. I do it because I have to.

Can you tell me how growing certain crops and changing agriculture in the San Joaquin Valley can change that? Heat kills many crops. However, I think if you do farm work, you will do a lot of farm work. For example, raisins. Raisin production in the San Joaquin Valley is declining because there aren't enough farm workers to pick the grapes when they need to be harvested. The shortage of agricultural workers is due to several factors, but extreme heat is scary for anyone. In context, raisin farms require a large professional agricultural workforce of 30-40 people per 100 acres. In fact, no child dreams of becoming a farm worker, and professional farm workers are fewer and fewer.

I've heard that farmers are losing whole grains because they can't find farm workers to pick grapes before the sandstorm comes. Then the sand covered all the raisins, and the grains of sand got into the folds of the raisins and could no longer be eaten. Raisins may be a disappearing crop in California.

 

Read more: https://civileats.com/2022/09/02/the-heat-wave-crushing-the-west-is-a-preview-of-farmworkers-hot-future/

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