Monday, September 7, 2020

Coronavirus in rural America (Part XCI): A timely Labor Day story out of California

 This is from National Public Radio, out of California's Salinas Valley, "Farm Workers Face Double Threat: Wildfire Smoke And COVID-19."  Erika Mahoney reports:  

With precision, farm workers swiftly harvest rows of strawberries at an organic field in Salinas, Calif. It's hard work, even without a global pandemic and wildfires burning in the background.

Four major wildfires erupted across the state's Central Coast in mid-August, one near Salinas. Smoke blanketed the region, the sun glowed orange and ash rained down.

"It hurt our sinuses," said Jesús Ahumada, an agricultural foreman, in Spanish. "The smoke was so thick."
* * * 
Dr. Caroline Kennedy, medical director of the Clinic Services Bureau at the Monterey County Health Department, says it's been one hardship after another for the people who harvest our food; first COVID-19, now wildfire. Kennedy directs nine clinics in a county where agriculture is a leading industry.

No comments: