Central Valley farmworkers feed the world. Their employers need to prioritize their health

The Central Valley produces the food for the world. With that production has come immense wealth and prosperity for many of its corporations and farmers.

This wealth was built on the backs of our mothers and fathers. Many of them immigrants, our mothers and fathers have given billion-dollar companies such as Foster Farms and Dole decades of the healthiest years of their lives. They have, over and over again, had to choose work over critical moments of their children’s lives – unable to attend birthdays, sports events and parent-teacher conferences.

With low wages and no guaranteed hours, they are at the mercy of the company to meet their families’ basic needs. They often lack flexibility and sustain unpredictable schedules.

Now, these mothers and fathers are among the elderly “high-risk population” threatened by COVID-19. Many of them have underlying health conditions such as diabetes, hypertension and respiratory diseases like asthma. And many of these conditions have been worsened by hazardous environmental exposures created by the companies they work for.

Our parents and loved ones came here seeking opportunities not only for themselves, but for their children. They are proud to have played a part in feeding the world, but that service has not come without sacrifice and health consequences.

Now, it is time for those very corporations and “big ag” to honor the sacrifice and health of these workers who helped create their wealth. This is a moment for the Central Valley to lead the world not only with its production, but also its values.

What will employers like Foster Farms, Dole and the dozens of other corporations do now to protect their employees who have built their wealth? Will they just ask their employees to wash their hands and stand a foot away from their neighbor instead of the usual inches?

So far, that’s what it seems like.

As public health officials continue to take precautions to “flatten the curve” of the novel COVID-19 outbreak, I believe the biggest threat to the Valley’s well-being are companies who are choosing to protect their profits over their people and do the bare minimum to protect employees.

Foster Farms, Dole, Teasdale and others seem to be moving forward with business as usual. Some of these companies have employees working just inches away from each another, while break and lunch areas are too small to enforce health guidelines to maintain the recommended distance of six feet.

This is worrisome enough for our farmworkers in the fields, but I think even more reckless for those crammed into indoor factories, some with literally thousands of workers in one confined space.

Data shows people can be asymptomatic, unknowingly infecting others. In fact, the latest guidelines from the United States Centers for Disease Control and Prevention prohibit gatherings of more than 10 people.

During this pandemic, it is critical that everyone is putting the health of our families and community over profit. Companies should be doing everything they possibly can to protect all of their employees, and especially those who are at much higher risk.

We understand that it may not be realistic to shut their doors completely, but high-risk workers over 50 should be encouraged to stay home with full pay and benefits. That seems to be what the big tech corporations are now doing.

Silicon Valley and the Bay Area are rightly proud of their status as the technology centers of the world, just as we take pride in our status as the “breadbasket of the world.”

But this pride must include recognizing the thousands of workers who make it possible, and who will be absolutely essential in the years ahead – long after we have endured and mitigated this terrible crisis – to continue to build the Valley’s wealth.

Our parents are genuinely proud of their work and home here in the Central Valley. Their sacrifice and the model they gave me is what helped me make a decision to come back home after moving away for college.

I’m proud to make this my home, and to work every day to make it a place that protects all of its people. It’s time not only to be proud of our mothers and fathers for feeding the world, but to proudly protect them.