Op-ed in Modern Farmer: "Farmworkers cannot wait years for the right to safe working conditions. Action must be taken by civil society and the private sector."

Western Producer: "[Farmworkers] set up the Fair Food Program to strike deals directly with large companies. The companies pledge to pay fair wages, eliminate sexual harassment and uphold other issues — including increasingly stringent heat protections — in return for Fair Food Program certification for their products."

No matter what your political persuasion, or your position on science for that matter, one thing is true -- the thermometer doesn't lie.  And our thermometers confirm what our bodies all know: The summer months are getting hotter with every passing year.  And that means that work under the sun is growing more dangerous by the day for the men and women who earn their living outdoors.

And while the federal government is slowly rolling out a proposed rule aimed at providing common-sense heat stress protections for outdoor workers, workers are increasingly suffering from the fallout of both acute and long-term heat exposure, which can include organ failure and even death. 

To meet the urgency of the moment, the Fair Food Program formally codified a set of mandatory heat stress protections that include shade, rest, water, electrolytes, and training, protections called "America's strongest workplace heat rules" on the front page of the Washington Post. 

The FFP's unique power to enforce its human rights standards, including its best-in-class heat projections, is the subject of a new op/ed by CIW co-founder Greg Asbed and assistant professor of rural sociology at the Penn State College Kathleen Sexmith published in Modern Farmer, a leading trade publication for agriculture. 

You can read key excerpts from their op/ed below, or click here to read the op-ed in full. And be sure to check out further coverage of the FFP’s heat protections in Farm Journal and Western Producer on the CIW's site!

Farmworkers Cannot Wait for OSHA to Adequately Protect Them From Heat. The Fair Food Program Provides a Solution

Extreme heat is one of the most dangerous factors for farmworkers during the hot summer months. We need to act now to protect these workers and our food supply.

by Kathleen Sexsmith, Greg Asbed

In the wake of the Northern hemisphere’s hottest summer on record, Cruz Salucio, a longtime farmworker and current educator with the Fair Food Program, recalled the painful effects of heat stress:

“I remember the heat of the sun and the intense exhaustion during my first years in the tomato and watermelon fields,” he recalls. Over more than a decade, Salucio harvested watermelon and tomatoes across Florida, Georgia, Missouri and Maryland, working up to 12 hours each day. “Struggling with dehydration, I would get hit with terrible cramps in my feet, my legs, my fingers. They would get hard as rocks, and I could not walk, carry my bucket or lift a watermelon well. But I had to just endure and keep working. I remember, in my first weeks as a young farmworker in the tomato fields, one supervisor saw me struggling with a foot cramp and just said, “Well, you’ll just have to drag it.” 

Salucio is one of many farmworkers who struggled with the wide-reaching effects of heat stress. And now, farmworkers are bracing for an even hotter future. 

Heat is the most deadly extreme weather condition in the US. Six hundred people die from heat each year. US.m farmworkers are a shocking 35 times more likely to die from heat than other workers. Since 1992, more than 1,000 farmworkers have died and at least 100,000 have been injured from heat. Between 40 percent and 84 percent of agricultural workers experience heat-related illness at work. 

Extreme heat and humidity impede the body’s ability to cool down, setting off catastrophic and irreversible organ failure, heart attack or kidney failure. Those who work outdoors without adequate hydration can develop chronic kidney disease, among other health issues.

Farmworkers’ growing vulnerability to heat stress cannot be blamed on climate alone. There are social and political causes, stemming from the way agricultural work is performed, organized and regulated. These include: the intensity and length of the working day; piece-rate payment systems; lack of consistent access to clean drinking water, shade and bathrooms; a poor work safety climate; and excessive clothing. 

As such, immediate actions must be taken to protect workers from needless suffering and death...

Coalition of Immokalee Workers
110 S 2nd St
Immokalee, FL 34142
United States

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