California Ag Network

Tag: GSA

  • David and Susan Gill Honored for Lifelong Dedication to Salinas Valley Ag and Community

    In a gathering that underscored the enduring spirit of innovation and generosity in California’s “Salad Bowl of the World,” David and Susan Gill received the prestigious E.E. ‘Gene’ Harden Lifetime Achievement Award from the Grower-Shipper Association of Central California (GSA). The October 3 event at TPC Pasadera drew more than 275 local leaders, peers, and colleagues, transforming the evening into a tribute to the Salinas Valley’s agricultural legacy. Net proceeds from the event will support causes deeply cherished by the Gills: First Tee Monterey County, which empowers youth through golf and life skills, and the Mission San Antonio de Padua in southern Monterey County, which preserves cultural heritage and community vitality.

    The E.E. ‘Gene’ Harden Lifetime Achievement Award, established in 2004, stands as a beacon of excellence recognizing individuals whose exemplary contributions have advanced agriculture across the Salinas Valley and Central Coast while uplifting the lives of those in their communities. Awarded by peers, colleagues, and even competitors who share a first-hand knowledge of the region’s challenges and triumphs, the honor carries unique importance for those whose actions not only cultivate crops but also advance future generations in our region.

    Rising through the ranks with an unwavering focus on efficiency and stewardship, David Gill has pioneered advancements in crop rotation, water conservation, and supply chain logistics, setting enduring benchmarks for California’s vegetable sector and enhancing yields while preserving precious resources. His wife, Susan Gill, has amplified their impact through tireless advocacy for education, workforce development, and health programs. Both have dedicated significant time and resources to local community groups and organizations, supporting students and families in the region. “The Gills are the embodiment of what makes our valley thrive—not just in terms of the crops harvested, but in lives enriched and futures illuminated,” said Christopher Valadez, GSA President and CEO. Joined on stage by GSA Past-Chairman Tony Alameda, Valadez presented the award to the Gills and also honored past recipients.

    Eugene E. “Gene” Harden was a Salinas Valley pioneer whose bold vision reshaped American agriculture. Born in 1892 to Irish immigrants, Harden arrived in Salinas in the 1920s, founding the E.E. Harden Packing Company, where he developed revolutionary crop rotation techniques that boosted yields and sustainability. Harden was a founding architect of the GSA. Ercia Harden, together with her husband Gene, deeply believed in philanthropy and established the Harden Foundation in 1963. Dedicated to bolstering Salinas Valley charities, their joint legacy reflects a belief that agricultural success must nurture community well-being—from education and health initiatives to cultural preservation—principles that continue to inspire awardees like the Gills today.

    About the Grower-Shipper Association of Central California:

    Founded in 1930, the Grower-Shipper Association of Central California is a pioneering, independent regional organization that unites farmers, shippers, processors, and harvesters, with a mission to advance families, food, and farming to enhance the quality of life in the Salinas Valley and Central Coast. Through advocacy, education, and collaboration, GSA protects the land, its people, and the future of the “Salad Bowl of the World.” For more information, visit www.growershipper.com.

  • A Different Way of Celebrating National Nutrition Month

    March is National Nutrition Month. And while we understand that the purpose is to promote enhanced nutrition and improve diets, for the Grower Shipper Association (GSA) this month is about celebrating our food supply and the farmers and farm workers who grow, nurture and harvest the nation’s fruits and vegetables.

    Farming is hard. There are many challenges. But farmers will tell you it is a rewarding profession and they love what they do. Farmers will also acknowledge that it takes many hands. It requires collaboration among farm workers, foreman, irrigators, pest control advisors, food safety experts, among others.

    At GSA, we see our role as providing crucial support and finding solutions on a broader basis to benefit our farmers and farming companies to make their jobs a little easier. Our work with ag employers throughout the pandemic to access masks, rapid tests, quarantined housing for their employees as well as help vaccinate 90% of the farm workers in our region is one example.

    GSA efforts to battle the pest/disease complex commonly referred to as INSV, which causes stunting, wilting and eventual death for leafy greens, is another solution-driving initiative. We created a task force to examine treatment strategies and develop treatment efficacy trials. Lettuce fields are infected by INSV via thrips migrating in from infected host plants in the early spring, which is why GSA is also working with local agencies and communities on weed suppression strategies. Our association remains committed to securing additional funding and resources as well to aid our search for solutions.

    As we navigate uncertainties in our current world, the hard work of farmers and farm workers has provided a sustained and consistent supply of fruits and vegetables to consumers. We have watched with significant pride how our region’s farming community has risen to unforeseen challenges because they understand the importance of what they do.

    So while many will mark National Nutrition Month in more traditional ways, GSA takes a different approach which is to reflect on how lucky we are to have such dedicated farmers and farm workers growing our food. We celebrate you and thank you for every meal.

  • New Economic Analysis Underscores Impact of Pandemic on Farmers, Agriculture

    We have all felt the seismic shift from the pandemic and its impact on our lives and livelihoods. Throughout the pandemic farmers and farm workers have worked diligently and continually to deliver healthy and safe fruits and vegetables to consumers. But the pandemic further exposed the tight margins of farming and the intense cost pressures being faced in agriculture today.

    The Grower Shipper Association of Central California (GSA) commissioned a new analysis by economists to examine the cost impacts of the pandemic as well as other factors, such as supply chain issues, which are putting pressure on agriculture’s ability to sustain food production in the region.

    The mission of GSA is advancing families, food and farming in Central California. These types of analyses are an important way to assess vulnerabilities associated with increasing costs as well as identify potential areas where better solutions may be necessary to advance our mission. It also allows GSA to assess their role in supporting members and ag employees by relieving or alleviating economic burden through solution-driven work.

    This analysis provides a short and long-run outlook and focuses on current, continuing and impending cost pressures within a landscape of the economic fundamentals of supply and demand. While there are numerous crops produced in our region, the economists determined their analysis would focus on one crop specifically in order to appropriately identify industry cost pressures. Therefore the analysis examines the per carton costs of growing and shipping iceberg lettuce.

    The economists determined the total cost to produce a carton of iceberg lettuce is over $17 per carton. The average baseline production budget for Salinas Valley iceberg lettuce shows typical costs to grow, harvest, and pack is around $15 per carton. According to the analysis, the estimated increase in direct lettuce production costs identified is $2.12 per carton. This includes a $0.68 increase to growing costs and a $1.44 increase for harvest, packing, and cooling costs including a $0.67 increase due to operational changes related to COVID-19.

    At an average price of $15 to $17 per carton, grower-shippers are not able to cover production costs. The economists state that an increase of $2.12 per carton with 24 heads of lettuce may seem immaterial from the consumer perspective – this would work out to $0.09 per head. However, they point out that this change is quite significant for farmers and shippers.

    These findings are sobering and reinforce GSA’s commitment to support our mission through results oriented efforts. As an example, GSA’s work to protect employees from the spread of COVID-19 included the creation of a model quarantined housing program as well as a mass vaccination program responsible for having immunized a majority of the farm workers in the region. While the primary objective of this effort was to keep farm workers and their families healthy, the development and operation of this vaccination program, in partnership with Clinica De Salud Del Valle De Salinas, also likely lowered the economic burden of COVID-19 on ag employers since it allowed the region to continue consistently harvesting and shipping produce.

    As we address the economists’ findings, GSA and the farmers and farming companies we represent understand their responsibility to grow safe food, protect farm workers, nurture and sustain our farms and the environment around them and be good neighbors and stewards of our communities where we live and work. We acknowledge that thoughtful, outcome-oriented regulations can provide necessary baseline uniformity that govern practices in the workplace including environmental and food and worker safety protections that benefit our community and consumers. However, when new regulations or legislation that impacts agriculture are being considered, farmers should have a seat at the table and cost impacts should be discussed and evaluated, especially in light of the profit margins identified in this analysis.

    While a safe workplace, a healthy environment and safe food are of paramount importance, a strong economy creates important opportunities and support that benefits our communities and should remain a priority as well. In fact, 77% of Bay Area and Central Coast residents agree that agriculture was most or very important to the quality of life and the economy of California in a survey conducted by GSA. This reflects the value of agriculture, including job-creation, support of community initiatives and charities, preservation of green and open spaces and local food production.

    Learn more about the findings from this economic analysis on our new page in the Our Work section of the GSA website. On this page you will find a white paper outlining the findings of the analysis as well as a link to the full report.

  • Improving California’s Water Market

    Water trading and banking are important tools that can help California bring its groundwater basins into balance by the early 2040s, as mandated by the 2014 Sustainable Water Management Act (SGMA). But the expansion of the state’s water market still faces some bottlenecks, including aging infrastructure and complex regulations. The stakes for preserving California’s groundwater are rising, however, as is interest in improving the state’s water market.

    “Groundwater…is a really important drought reserve for California,” said Ellen Hanak, director of the PPIC Water Policy Center, at a virtual event last week. “By the time you get into the second and third dry year, you really need to lean on your groundwater very heavily. One of the challenges in California is that we’ve been leaning on it too heavily.”

    Water trading and banking can help. Hanak and PPIC research fellow Andrew Ayres convened a panel to discuss a new report about how to improve the state’s water market in order to aid SGMA implementation and increase drought resilience across the state.

    “Water trading, whether it’s temporary, over a long-term basis, or a permanent sale, can significantly lower the cost of managing water demand,” said Hanak. She said flexible water trading within the San Joaquin Valley, for example, could reduce the cost of getting basins into balance by about two-thirds—thereby saving jobs and preserving the region’s economy. Groundwater banking is also a key tool for augmenting the water supply and managing increasing climatic risk, she said.

    But creating effective and responsible water markets within the state will take work. Andrew Ayres moderated a discussion with three experts about the challenges and opportunities they face.

    Kathy Cortner, general manager of the Mojave Water Agency, described her basin as something of a groundwater success story. After an adjudication process that lasted six years, the basin entered into a judgment in 1996. “What that judgment did was set the framework for allocating a base water right. Over time, the judgment called for a rampdown…it provides a path for people to adjust to a declining amount of water to pump.” There were difficult years, she said, but trading allowed farmers to adjust gradually.

    Stephanie Anagnoson of Madera County says her county has land in three sub-basins. The county is the lead groundwater sustainability agency (GSA) for ground-water dependent lands in these basins. The GSA has been working to address groundwater overdraft through a portfolio of programs, including aggressive recharge activities and land repurposing. It is also one of the first to adopt groundwater allocations under SGMA. “What would have been helpful for us was step-by-step [information] on how to develop an allocation, because that took about two years,” Anagnoson said. “And while there are some white papers, there certainly wasn’t state guidance on that.” The GSA has also been exploring the establishment of a groundwater market for trading allocations of sustainable yield—initially with a tool that allows water users to simulate trading.

    Thaddeus Bettner of Glenn Colusa Irrigation District said that despite glitches with water markets, things are improving. “DWR has been great about funding the development of our GSPs…We really appreciate the groundwater division in DWR for that effort,” he said. Furthermore, “DWR and the Bureau of Reclamation have also developed on an online approval process [for surface water transfers] that has been really helpful to expedite the process.” Still, hurdles remain.

    Near the end of the discussion, Ellen Hanak shared the news that 15 minutes before the event began, the governor had signed several bills that include money for improving the state’s water resilience, including a new program for multi-benefit farmland repurposing under SGMA. “I know it’s small, but it’s a piece of good news,” she said, ending the event on a positive note for a drought-plagued state.

    We invite you to watch the event video. — By Sarah Bardeen, Public Policy Institute of California

  • Researchers & Grower-Shipper Association Collaborate to Battle INSV

    Grower-Shipper Association of Central California (GSA) — Implementing effective disease and pest management strategies is a continual challenge for farmers. While these challenges are not new in agriculture, they impact more than just farmers. Lower yields due to disease and pest pressure affects farm employees and harvesting crews too and can also inhibit our ability to provide a steady supply of affordable and healthy produce to consumers.

    Unfortunately, farmers of leafy greens are now dealing with the re-emergence of a damaging disease called thrips-vectored Impatiens Necrotic Spot Virus or INSV. According to local farm advisors this increase in INSV is often accompanied by Pythium wilt infections, which is a relatively new problem in the region.

    Lettuce fields are infected by INSV via thrips migrating in from infected host plants in the early spring. Fields infected by INSV cause stunting, yellowing, wilting of the outer leaves and eventual death for leafy greens. Currently, there are no effective treatments for INSV and Pythium wilt on organic and conventional lettuce farms.

    To support farmers as they battle INSV, GSA created a new task force to identify major research questions, examine treatment strategies, develop treatment efficacy trials and build a grower education program specific to these diseases.

    Mary Zischke, former Executive Director of the California Leafy Greens Research Board, was hired by GSA to lead and coordinate Task Force activities. In addition, to assist local farm advisors and help advance University of California cooperative research efforts, GSA added Jasmine Rodriguez to its team. Rodriguez is currently working toward her biology degree at California State University, Monterey Bay and also serves as a laboratory assistant for entomology research projects at the UC Cooperative Extension in Monterey County.

    “Mary and Jasmine will provide our industry with the additional personnel resources and experience as we combat this complex disease and pest control problem,” says Christopher Valadez, GSA president.

    To further expand resources and personnel, GSA has applied for a California Department of Food and Agriculture Specialty Block Grant. The grant would allow scientists to conduct multi-year field research trials assessing the effects of common crop rotation sequences, monitor Pythium wilt and INSV occurrence in commercial fields, conduct greenhouse studies to characterize the interactions between Pythium wilt and INSV in lettuce to understand their impacts on overall plant health and disease management.

    If awarded the grant, the GSA team will work with researchers from California State University, Monterey Bay and U.S. Department of Ag, Agricultural Research Service in Salinas. Grant outcomes would include knowledge of the impact of crop rotation on Pythium wilt and thrips populations as well as the interplay between Pythium wilt and INSV and how to jointly manage them.

    While GSA is hopeful the grant provides future resources, we will continue moving needed work forward to uncover potential answers and treatment strategies so farmers in our region can minimize losses. Farming equates to surmounting challenges and GSA is committed to supporting farmers as they face those challenges.

  • With Over 40,000 Vaccinations Administered, Efforts To Protect Farm Employees Continue

    With over 40,000 vaccinations administered to farm workers through the combined efforts of the Grower Shipper Association of Central California (GSA) and Clinica de Salud del Valle de Salinas (CSVS), this partnership has added smaller clinics for essential workers and will also provide vaccines to children and families of farm workers at farms and facilities.

    “Over the last five months, mass clinics effectively and efficiently provided thousands of farm workers with needed vaccinations,” says Christopher Valadez, GSA President. “But as we have reached this significant vaccination level, our efforts have evolved to smaller clinics which will vaccinate hundreds of farm workers at a time. These clinics will continue to be conducted in coordination with ag employers,” Valadez says.

    Recognizing the need to also protect the health of the families of farm workers, GSA and CSVS recently held vaccination clinics for children. The first clinics were conducted at CSVS in King City and Sierra Farms in Moss Landing.

    “We want to provide these clinics prior to schools re-opening in the fall so children over 12 can be vaccinated in a trusted place and at a time and location that is most convenient for parents,” Valadez says.

    GSA and CSVS conducted their first mass vaccination clinic on February 26. The mass vaccination clinics held at the Rodeo Grounds in Salinas and the Salinas Valley Fairgrounds in King City continue through July and have vaccinated several hundred to thousands of ag employees per clinic. These clinics received national attention for the volume of vaccinations administered and protection provided as essential workers returned for the harvest.

    “While we have made great progress in protecting farm workers from COVID-19, this is a persistent and evolving virus as evidenced by what we are seeing with the Delta variant,” Valadez says. “We must be diligent about onsite worker protection strategies, providing safe and comfortable quarantined housing options for those exposed or infected as well as giving essential employees easily accessible vaccines. The hard work must continue to ensure the health and safety of our region’s farm workers,” he adds.  — By Christopher Valadiez, Grower-Shipper Association President

  • Collaboration on CA Groundwater Accounting Platform and Data Standards

    State water agencies, the California Water Data Consortium (Consortium) and Environmental Defense Fund (EDF) announced a new partnership today to make an open-source groundwater accounting platform freely available to help groundwater sustainability agencies manage the transition to sustainable supplies. 

    Collaborative efforts are underway among the Department of Water Resources (DWR), the State Water Resources Control Board (Water Board), the Consortium and EDF to adapt and scale the groundwater accounting platform that was co-developed by EDF and Rosedale-Rio Bravo Water Storage District with technical support from Sitka Technology Group, OpenET, WestWater Research, and Olsson Engineering and funding from the Water Foundation, among other supporters. Use of the groundwater accounting platform is entirely voluntary. 

    “Our goal is to help groundwater managers more easily and cost-effectively track water use across their agencies and coordinate within and across basins to find the most effective approach for enabling sustainable groundwater management,” said Steven Springhorn, acting deputy director at DWR for statewide groundwater management. “The accounting platform developed by EDF is a valuable tool for local decision making, and the Water Data Consortium is a natural fit for ensuring the platform meets local and state needs long term.”

    “An accounting system is the crucial backbone to managing groundwater and balancing supply and demand — you can’t manage what you can’t measure,” said Christina Babbitt, senior manager of EDF’s California Groundwater Program. “Bringing groundwater supplies into balance is a challenge that demands new, innovative solutions and partnerships, like the one announced today.”

    “This project is a great opportunity to build local capacity to support data-driven water management decisions. We look forward to this unique partnership that will help state and local agencies to continue protecting groundwater in California.” said Tara Moran, president and CEO of the Water Data Consortium. “A common accounting platform could provide consistency and reduce costs for local and state agencies.” 

    The open-source platform enables water managers and landowners to track water supplies and use, create water budgets, model scenarios, and trade allocations of water within a district or basin. EDF, an international environmental organization, has been working with Rosedale-Rio Bravo Water Storage District in Kern County since 2018 to develop and pilot use of the platform in order to facilitate innovative water management and protect disadvantaged communities and ecosystems. 

    DWR and the Water Board are working with EDF and the Consortium to ensure that the platform is compatible with the online electronic portals that local agencies use to submit data to the state, such as DWR’s Sustainable Groundwater Management Act (SGMA) Portal and the Water Board’s Groundwater Extraction Annual Reporting System (GEARS). 

    The partners are working to expand the platform’s features to provide a cost-effective option for local agencies. State agencies do not require use of the accounting platform. Local agencies will continue to have the option to develop and use other accounting and trading platforms.

    Under the historic Sustainable Groundwater Management Act (SGMA) of 2014, more than 250 local agencies have been formed to bring groundwater basins into sustainable conditions over the next two decades. The law was enacted in the midst of severe drought in which overpumping groundwater caused hundreds of drinking water wells to go dry and land to sink, damaging canals, roads, and bridges. 

    Since the last drought, the state has made significant investments to support local groundwater sustainability agencies as they work to bring basins into sustainable conditions through a variety of approaches, including finding additional supplies to recharge basins; reducing water use through efficiency measures, changing cropping patterns, or strategic fallowing of farmland; and efficient and equitable groundwater trading.

    State agencies, the Consortium, and EDF intend to engage stakeholders as they expand the open-source platform to meet local needs and define and encourage adoption of data standards consistent with the Open and Transparent Water Data Act (AB 1755). 

    To enable local agencies and the broader community to share ideas on how platform features and design can best accommodate local needs, a public workshop on the open-source accounting platform will be held on June 23 from 11:00 a.m. to 12:30 p.m. Pacific Time. Please register for the workshop here.

    Other state efforts complement this work. DWR has created a Water Budget Handbook, a reference guide to help water managers create water budgets that account for historical conditions and how future changes to supply, demand, hydrology, population, land use, and climatic conditions may affect an area. Such budgets are useful for planning and evaluating potential management actions. Use of DWR’s handbook could help ensure consistency in the data that populate an online accounting platform.  The Water Board’s GEARS platform, which will only be used if state intervention is triggered, can also inform the need for sound accounting principles as a key groundwater management component; carrying these principles to an open-access, third-party system will help GSAs reduce costs, communicate with groundwater users and other stakeholders, and will ultimately help implement SGMA successfully. Joaquin E. Esquivel, Chair of the Water Board, is a member of the California Water Data Consortium steering committee. 

    The state also is weighing how to ensure that any groundwater trading that develops in response to SGMA protects disadvantaged communities, ecosystems, and other water users. Well-designed water trading programs are one of many tools that local agencies are considering for managing groundwater sustainably, and an accounting system is the first step for such programs.

    The California Water Commission is expected to begin public workshops on water trading this summer and distill conclusions from the public discussions by the end of the year.

    Additional resources:

    Online interactive guide to accounting platform

    California Water Data Consortium

    California Department of Water Resources Handbook for Water Budget Development

  • GSA Expands Farm Worker COVID-Prevention Training Program to Yuma

    Replicating another of its Salinas Valley programs, the Grower Shipper Association of Central California (GSA) has established a COVID-19 training prevention program for food facility and farm employees in the Yuma in cooperation with the Regional Center for Border Health clinic. The program brings health professionals directly to work sites to provide multi-lingual information on virus prevention practices while on the job and at home as well as answer any questions employees may have, including about the availability and safety of the new vaccines.

    “This program was very popular among both employers and employees throughout last spring and summer and we are fortunate to bring this to the Yuma growing region where many of our members have farms and operations during the winter months,” says Christopher Valadez, GSA President.

    In addition to the onsite prevention training, GSA also replicated its programs to establish a quarantined housing programas well as virus testing for farm workers in this region. GSA’s quarantined housing program became a model for California Governor Gavin Newsom’s “Housing for the Harvest” program. GSA’s housing provides daily deliveries of meals and necessities as well as health checks by nurses for those workers who have been exposed to the virus, tested positive or are symptomatic.

    “As we have learned over the last several months and while we await the availability of the vaccine, prevention training, adequate testing and effective contact tracing combined with isolation alternatives through quarantined housing are needed to target the spread of this virus” Valadez says. “Bringing these programs to the desert growing region was a priority for GSA members to protect the farm workers who are essential to our industry and provide a consistent supply of healthy foods to consumers.”

    Farmers who want more information on the prevention training, expedited testing for employees or housing should contact Christopher Valadez.

  • The Essential Pieces of Protecting Ag Workers, Preventing COVID-19 Spread

    Christopher Valadez — As president of the Grower Shipper Association of Central California (GSA), I talk to farmers, farming companies, farm labor contractors and farm workers about the challenges faced when protecting essential employees from COVID-19 exposure. These conversations and hearing the needs firsthand formed the impetus for many of the programs established by GSA over the last few months to lessen or prevent the spread of COVID-19 among the farm worker community.

    But I also speak regularly with county health officials, local hospitals and health clinics, farm labor advocates, academics, state regulators, elected officials and local community leaders about COVID-19 and its impact on farm workers. Many have become important partners and have worked with GSA and the local ag community to develop on-farm prevention training programs led by health professionals, provide daily health checks for farm workers in GSA’s quarantined housing program, acquire additional PPE and establish expedited testing programs to provide faster results for farm workers.

    As we end the harvest season in our region, we have an opportunity to reflect and learn before workers return in the spring. What can we do better to enhance efforts to prevent the spread of this virus on the job and within our communities to keep our workforce healthy? At GSA, we hope to see more emphasis on contact tracing as well as a prioritization of farm workers to receive vaccinations against this virus. But let’s start with contact tracing.

    After a positive test is confirmed, contact tracing is the process of identification of persons who may have come into contact with an infected person and subsequent collection of further information about these contacts. It is vitally important that public health officials have the resources to conduct more extensive contact tracing once a positive test is obtained so we are effectively targeting prevention strategies with a focus on where the virus is spread – work, transit to work, at home or within our community. Otherwise we may be enacting rules and regulations in one area when better information on where the virus is being spread may indicate they are actually needed in another. Or, the solution may not address the real problem.

    While public health officials are integral to effective contact tracing, employers are also required to conduct their own tracing to determine if a COVID-positive employee may have exposed others and where – work or home. Once an employer learns of an employee potentially exposed or sick, they can then provide options and information about quarantined housing. GSA’s quarantined housing program provides COVID-positive or exposed farm workers with daily meal deliveries and health checks to ensure they can isolate or recover in a safe and comfortable environment.  And, California mandates that essential workers receive two weeks paid sick leave if they test positive or are sickened by the virus.

    Farmers and farming companies are spending significant time and monetary resources to protect workers through both regulatory compliance and their own best practices. And, as we learn more about the virus, prevention practices in agriculture are continually improving. But, we are not experts in public health and we are reliant on public health guidance. Adequate testing and effective contact tracing combined with isolation alternatives through quarantined housing is the best way to yield real results and target the spread of this virus at its source.

    While GSA will work collaboratively to ensure these crucial prevention strategies are improved and ready in 2021, it is the prioritization of providing vaccines to essential workers that will ultimately protect our workforce from this persistent and relentless virus. GSA will join with industry, local elected officials, labor groups and community leaders to advocate for vaccine prioritization so farm workers are among the first groups to receive them.

    We have learned a significant amount since the early days of the pandemic when farmers and farming companies had to quickly learn and implement prevention strategies while striving to provide healthy fruits and vegetables to consumers. I look back over these last few months and ponder what was accomplished, what has changed and what we could have done better. But one thing is clear: Our work to protect farm workers at the workplace as well as educate this community about prevention practices at home must continue to evolve and improve. The 2021 harvest season will be here before we know it. We must be ready.

  • Quarantined Housing Program for Farm Workers in Imperial/Yuma Growing Regions

    In April, the Grower Shipper Association of Central California (GSA) established a first-of-its-kind housing program for farm workers in the Salinas Valley who were exposed to COVID-19, tested positive for the virus or were symptomatic.  To assist its members in protecting farm workers as the growing season transitions to the Yuma and Imperial areas, GSA has established a similar quarantined housing program in that region.

    Quarantined housing in Yuma and Imperial was accessible as of November 1.  It will offer the same services to farm workers as the Central Coast program, including safe and comfortable rooms, daily deliveries of meals and other necessities as well as daily health checks with a team of nursing professionals.

    “We learned a great deal over the last several months and we were happy to lend our expertise to setting up and managing this program to ensure farm workers in the Yuma and Imperial areas have access to quarantined housing whenever needed,” says Christopher Valadez, President of GSA.

    GSA’s program earned praise from Governor Gavin Newsom who modeled the state’s “Housing for the Harvest” program on the organization’s efforts. In Newsom’s housing program announcement in July, the governor thanked the Monterey County farming community for the work they have done in their region to protect workers describing these efforts as “an incredible job in this state supporting ag workers and farm workers.”    

    The quarantined housing program not only provides farm workers with a comfortable environment where they can rest and recover, but it protects their families and housemates by limiting their exposure to the virus.

    In addition to the quarantined housing program, GSA was also part of a collaborative group that created among the first workplace protection standards to prevent the spread of COVID-19 in agricultural operations, accessed and distributed over a million face masks; developed a program with local hospitals to provide on-site prevention training for farm workers by health professionals and partnered with Clinica de Salud del Valle de Salinas to provide expedited COVID-19 testing which allowed more timely results and more convenient locations for workers.

    Farmers and farming companies in the Yuma and Imperial areas who want more information on the quarantined housing program should contact Christopher Valadez.