AgNet DEMO

Category: Coronavirus

  • Food Safety in Light of COVID-19

    With millions of American workers staying home to aid public health efforts to stop the spread of coronavirus (COVID-19), the security of America’s food supply is more important than ever before. It’s crucial that growers are taking the appropriate measures to ensure food safety during the COVID-19 pandemic.

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    The Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC), the U.S. Department of Agriculture and the U.S. Food and Drug Administration do not consider COVID-19 to be a foodborne illness. In addition, there is no evidence of food or food packaging being associated with the transmission of the disease.

    GOOD HYGIENE
    Experts at the University of Florida Institute of Food and Agricultural Sciences (UF/IFAS) advise produce growers, harvesters, packers and coolers to continue to follow the good hygiene practices they already have in place as part of their food safety programs when handling produce. This includes hand washing and cleaning and sanitizing surfaces often that may contact food or hands.

    Many growers are already participating in voluntary audits to verify that their fruits and vegetables are produced, packed, handled and stored as safely as possible to minimize risks of microbial food safety hazards.

    FARMWORKER SAFETY

    Mark Lander, administrator of the Florida Department of Health in Marion County, says that agricultural workers are essential to a stable and steady food supply.

    UF/IFAS held a food safety webinar last week, where Lander shared some information about farmworker safety.

    “The conversation starts locally,” Lander says. “We want to educate our growers, educate the community and our workforce as they come into Marion County, or in any county, on how to take care of yourself and your surrounding workforce.” Identifying local healthcare resources and providing labor with those resources before their arrival can also be helpful, he says.

    If a COVID-19 case is identified at your facility, Lander suggests calling your local Health Department. At that point, the Health Department will conduct interviews and identify close contacts to the infected person. The Health Department will also make testing and monitoring recommendations to reduce possible spread at the site, as well work with the labor force to identify if the group is leaving the area. If so, they will discuss precautions for their next destination.

    To ensure farmworker safety and minimize the spread of the virus, growers should implement the following precautions:

    • Promote healthy hygiene practices
    • Implement worksite health screenings
    • Post signs on how to stop the spread of COVID-19 in appropriate languages for all staff to comprehend
    • Avoid use of sharing items that are not easily cleaned, sanitized or disinfected
    • Ensure that ventilation systems operate properly and increase circulation of outdoor air
    • Discourage on-site communal gathering
    • Modify commuting practices

    For more information regarding food safety and COVID-19, here are some resources:

    Ashley Robinson, a communications intern for AgNet Media, wrote this article.

  • Fried Calls for Statewide Mask Requirement

    The News Service of Florida

    With thousands of additional COVID-19 cases being added each day in Florida, Agriculture Commissioner Nikki Fried called Thursday for a statewide requirement that people wear masks in public places.

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    Nikki Fried
    Florida Agriculture Commissioner

    Many local governments have approved mask requirements as the number of cases has surged this month, but Gov. Ron DeSantis has declined to issue a statewide order. Fried, the only Democrat on the state Cabinet, has been highly critical of the Republican governor’s handling of the pandemic.

    In a prepared statement Thursday, Fried described a statewide mask requirement as “common sense” and pointed to other states that have imposed such requirements.

    “Everybody should be wearing masks,” Fried told The News Service of Florida this week. “We know that the masks are not going to stop the spread, but it certainly will slow it down. We also need to reinforce that COVID is not behind us. So, everybody needs to stay vigilant. Everybody needs to continue social distancing.”

    The Florida Department of Health on Thursday, reported an additional 5,004 COVID-19 cases, bringing the total to 114,018. The department also reported 46 additional deaths, bringing the death toll from the disease to 3,327.

  • Florida Farmer Accursio Reflects on Challenging Season

    By Clint Thompson

    With the majority of his spring and summer crop harvested and sold, Florida vegetable farmer Sam Accursio reflects on the challenges and struggles he faced this year amid the coronavirus pandemic and Mexico’s daily exports of produce into the U.S.

    “With our vegetable season, way back to February when things started shutting down and then in March and April; in March it was just very tough to operate with no restaurants opening. Then in April, it kind of smoothed out a little bit. Then as we were ending our season it started getting real bad, thinking about the growers up above us and it must have been a horrible situation for them entering their season right in the middle of everything shut down,” Accursio said. “The early part of our year was good. Mexico wobbled a few times with weather. Every time they wobbled or got some kind of serious rain or cold, everybody comes to the Southeast to buy produce. That happened a few times and made it interesting early on.”

    Accursio operates in Homestead, Florida and is in the process of finishing his okra harvests. He is also planting his cover crops and fixing machinery, typical producer responsibilities when the crops are not in the ground. He will plant his fall crop in September.

    Alternative Ways to Sell Produce

    He was one of many producers in the Sunshine State who felt gloom in March through June. When the pandemic struck in mid-March, restaurants closed their doors. When expected buyers of Florida produce shut down for multiple months, it forced farmers to think outside of the box in how they sold their crops.

    Accursio posted on social media about produce for sale as part of his new marketing initiative, selling directly to consumers. Cars lined up for a two-hour wait the first day. He sold 40,000 pounds followed by 60,000 pounds the following week. It was an amazing turnaround for a farmer who is contemplating something similar in the fall but on a smaller scale.

    “Time will tell if it’s something we can do to provide a service to the local community. My local community, there’s 2 to 3 million people here. I have all of Miami, and south of Orlando there’s 8.2 million people. Just give me that market, I’ll be happy,” Accursio said.