Extreme Heat Taking a Big Toll on Crops and Farmworkers
Following the death of the a Marion County, OR, farmworker recently, farmworker advocates are calling on the state to adopt emergency rules to protect workers during extreme heat, according OregonLive.com.
The male farmworker, who has not been identified and had arrived from Guatemala a few months ago, was found unresponsive in the field at the end of his shift at Ernst Nursery and Farms in St. Paul, a wholesale supplier of ornamental plants, according to the Oregon Occupational Safety and Health division. He had been working on a crew moving irrigation lines, the agency said.
Temperatures reached 104°F in St. Paul on Saturday, June 26 as Oregon entered an unprecedented three-day heat wave that led to record temperatures across the state.
The death occurs as Oregon is considering new rules to protect workers from extreme heat and wildfire smoke, the website reported. The state was originally expected to submit a proposal for those new rules this month, but that deadline was pushed back to September due to the pandemic.
The heat experienced in the coastal areas of the Pacific Northwest is something most there have never seen before. Berries are one of the key fruit crops grown in those areas, especially blueberries, some of which got blistered by the heat, Bryan Ostlund of the Oregon Blueberry Commission says in a written statement.
“Early estimates are for an overall crop loss of 30% t0 40%, but that will change as we continue with the season and better understand the entirety of the situation,” he says. “Unfortunately, there will be growers in a much worse position than these estimates.”
For more, continue reading at GrowingProduce.com.
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