How One of the World’s Largest Vegetable Growers Is Highlighting Its Workers During the Pandemic
November 16, 2020 NatureFresh Farms, the Leamington, Ontario-based greenhouse vegetable producer which also has operations in Ohio and Georgia, made local headlines earlier this year when it had to temporarily shut down production after a large number of its seasonal workers tested positive for COVID-19. Despite most displaying no symptoms, they were directed to stay away from the greenhouse, and were transported from their housing facilities to local hotels.
Just about every greenhouse operation our editorial team at Greenhouse Grower has connected with this year has had at least one employee test positive for the coronavirus, and with cases beginning to spike in many parts of the country this year, that trend is likely to continue. However, while much of the focus is on how to implement social distancing and safety measures in a controlled environment, or how to keep your bottom line strong, NatureFresh chose to go in a different direction. It put the focus on how its workers were affected, and it did so in the form of a documentary.
“The Hardest Harvest” is a video posted on the NatureFresh Farms website, and it is designed, to be frank, to humanize its workforce (much of which is seasonal and foreign) and highlight their value not just to the company, but to the local community.
The video goes through the entire timeline of what happened at the farm, from voluntary testing to the somewhat confusing response by local health officials despite NatureFresh cooperating fully. It also shows how the company proactively tried to keep everyone safe throughout, whether it was delivering meals to workers forced to isolate at hotels to coordinating how team members could come back safely.
It’s not just the workers who were in the spotlight, however. There is a striking visual of the team walking through a cucumber crop that had be completely abandoned to die on the vine (roughly 78 million pounds of crops were completely lost).
There are several lessons to be found in the video, including how to share with your customers why your workers are so critical to both your success and their ability to eat healthy.
Watch the video below.
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