Essential Workers Are Being Treated as Expendable
Farmworkers risk their lives so Americans can eat, but they receive little protection from the virus.
When Luis went to work in the fields of California’s Salinas Valley over the past few weeks, he noticed a clear divide: His supervisors and crew leaders were wearing masks; his fellow farmworkers were not.
Luis, who requested I not use his real name, is one of the nearly 2.5 million farmworkers in the United States—and one of about 400,000 in California. Without the work that Luis and others do in fields, packing houses, warehouses, and processing plants all over this country, the American food system would collapse. Luis and other farmworkers know they are essential workers. But with little protection from the federal government
