Rural California — An upcoming press conference at 10 am on Tuesday, February 2 will release a new report highlighting the precarious conditions farmworkers are facing during the COVID-19 pandemic. Always Essential, Perpetually Disposable: California Farmworkers and the COVID-19 Pandemic shares stories from California farmworkers collected via 63 in-depth interviews as a follow-up to the 915 person COVID-19 Farmworker Study (COFS) statewide survey.
In addition to sharing their health, household, and workplace struggles amidst the pandemic, these interviews elevate the voices of farmworkers who spoke to uneven distribution of resources, poor enforcement and eroded levels of trust toward government entities. “Carlos” a farmworker in Kern County expressed bitterness toward the label “essential worker” currently used to describe laborers in the industrial food system.. “...Como se llama indispensables pero esenciales, pero parece como que no somos esenciales, como qué somos como basura que no sirve, se tira y se contrata a más gente. Así me siento. We’re supposedly indispensable and essential, but it feels like we’re not essential, as if we are useless trash that you can throw away and then they’ll just hire more people. That’s how I feel.” These in-depth interviews document how the pandemic has exacerbated long-standing crises, vulnerabilities, and economic frailties within the food system, heightening insecurity, risk, and health disparities for farmworkers and their families. COFS Phase Two was led by health anthropologists Drs. Bonnie Bade and Dvera Saxton, in partnership with a team of Research Associates rooted in farmworker communities across the state. According to Dr. Saxton, “farmworkers shared their lived experiences with us, and these must inform our efforts to change the trajectory of the pandemic for rural areas and for immigrant communities who often feel overlooked and forgotten.” COFS is a collaborative research project facilitated by the California Institute for Rural Studies, with a team of social science researchers and six farmworker-serving community-based organizations: Alianza Ecologista, Centro Binacional para el Desarrollo Indígena Oaxaqueño, Central California Environmental Justice Network, Comite Cívico del Valle, Farmworker Care Coalition/Vista Community Clinic and Líderes Campesinas. “The COVID-19 Farmworker Study (COFS) provides urgent insights that can shape equitable COVID-19 responses, policies, and actions in rural and immigrant communities across California,” said Erica Fernández Zamora, a COFS Phase 2 interviewer and Research Associate. Data from the project is being put to immediate use to advocate for workers who are risking their lives every day to feed California and the nation. To register for the Zoom webinar go to: https://us02web.zoom.us/webinar/register/WN_rShid2zCR22Ou1lUTpf9Gg
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