Ag Alert October 7, 2020

Farm groups request rural resources for COVID-19 ByDaveKranz

vironment for frontline agricultural em- ployees.” The organizations said farmers have done their best to assure safety by instituting best practices including social distancing, enhanced hygiene and sani- tation procedures, employee training and use of personal protective equipment. But given a “broad strain” on availabili- ty of such personal protective equipment, testingandotherresources, thegroupssaid, theWhiteHouseTaskForcecouldhelpby:

• Permitting use of alternate housing, such as FEMA trailers or RVs, to allow greater social distancing for employees whomayneed toquarantineor isolatedue to exposure toCOVID-19. • Ensuring COVID-19 testing resources areavailable toagricultural employersand employees, and that test results aremade available promptly. • Increasing availability of Commodity Credit Corporation funds to help farmers

offsetthecostofpandemic-relatedexpenses suchashousing, transportation,workplace retrofitting, testing, trainingandothers. • Prioritizing distribution of personal protective equipment and any future vac- cine tothe foodandfiber supplychain, due to theessential roleof agriculture inassur- ing health for people in theU.S. •Coordinatingeffortsamonggovernment agencies and community organizations to reduce the risk of exposure outside of oc- cupational settings inrural communities. The letter said that acrossmanyof these recommendations, expanding the pan- demic responsebeyond the farmgateand into farming communities will be critical to ensuring the well-being of employees, their families and their neighbors. The let ter was organized by the AgriculturalWorkforceCoalitionandsigned by167organizationsincludingtheAmerican FarmBureau Federation; California Farm BureauFederationand20other stateFarm Bureaus; 14 county Farm Bureaus from California; and 18 additional California- basedcommoditygroupsandcooperatives. “The availability of personal protective equipment for farmemployees has been a toppriorityforFarmBureauthroughout the pandemic—evenmore so due towildfires thathavereducedairqualitythroughout the West,”CFBFPresidentJamieJohanssonsaid. “WehopeVicePresidentPence,Agriculture SecretaryPerdueandothermembersof the WhiteHousetaskforcewillgivethisrequest their immediateattention.” (DaveKranz is editor of AgAlert.Hemay be contacted at dkranz@cfbf.com.)

Acoalitionofmore than160agricultural organizations from across the nation has asked theWhite House Coronavirus Task Force to take additional measures to pro- mote thehealthandsafetyof farmemploy- ees and rural communities. In a letter addressed to Vice President Mike Pence, who chairs the task force, the farmgroups stressed that thenation’s food security “depends on a safe working en-

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include bills addressing defensible space around structures in high-risk areas (AB 3074), expeditedpermittingof emergency generators for cell towers (AB 2421) and homeowners insurance protections (AB 2756, AB 3012 and SB 872). (Kevin Hecteman i s an ass i stant editor of Ag Alert. He may be contacted at khecteman@cfbf.com.)

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10 Ag Alert October 7, 2020