Why The Blueberry Is Bound To Lose Its Taste This Season

The New Jersey Blueberries that America and the rest of the world enjoys, comes at a very heavy inhuman cost paid....

  

It is sad state of affairs for workers who are risking their lives to get fresh fruits to your doorstep in pandemic times.  It is for a fact that every year, each summer, thousands of temporary agricultural workers and their families arrive in New Jersey for the blueberry harvest. The state produces 40 to 50 million pounds of the fruit each year.

This year has been tough on them, thanks to the Covid-19 scare, where they have risked their lives to produce the same fruit. The summer has also led to the worst heat wave. Most of these workers are not given proper protective gears to wade off the corona virus.

Blueberry is big business in New Jersey and Hammonton makes for the ‘blueberry capital of the world’.  It has more than 50 blueberry farms in and around the town with a meager population.  But every year, it attracts temporary labour in large numbers. An estimated 6,000 migrant farm workers come with bag and baggage. Many are accompanied with families too. The majority of these workers come from Mexico, Haiti, and across Central America. They work primarily for a period of the eight-weeks of harvest that varies between early June and ends by late July.

 

The annual revenue amounts to roughly $70 million from blueberry production and New Jersey makes up for 80percent of the produce for American consumption.  But working conditions remain pathetic.

 

According to National Geographic’s media findings, farm work continues to be one of the most dangerous and low-paying occupations in the United States. “Non-payment of wages, or really low wages…pesticides, vehicle safety and workplace accidents” are just a few of the long-standing problems farm workers are forced to face day after day, according to Jessica Culley from Farm Worker Support Committee (CATA), a nonprofit organization headquartered in New Jersey. To add more injury to this insult is the Covid-19 situation that has made the job riskier.

 

Even in Canada and some other parts of the world, where temporary labour is used in seasonal harvesting, social distancing protocols have not been maintained by farm owners. A majority of these migrant farm workers have been forced to live in crowded camps on the farms, sharing bathrooms and dormitory-style sleeping quarters- all with families and children.

 

The official health services in New Jersey are not releasing the actual figures of contamination. Many of them were temp workers.  Fear of being deported has kept those working going on. But many have not come out of fear of Covid-19, putting pressure on the existing lot of workers.  Strangely, while the New Jersey Health Department issued safety and hygiene guidelines to the blueberry farms, it is left to the discretion of the farm owner to follow it or not.  In most cases, the recommendations are ignored and work is as usual.

Workers are easy to get; many are undocumented and therefore seem like expendable objects. Their lives don’t seem to matter. It is sad to see that these migrants resort to letting themselves being exploited at the hands of such callous and inhuman behavior.

 Under the CARES Act, long time migrant workers employed should have received stimulus package and some sick leave.  None were given so. It seems like the money was pocketed by the farm owners and there is no one checking this theft.

 

Children have been worst affected without any government run programmes in place due to Covid-19. They are without education and free meals making the condition worst for the farm workers.  As a result, there has been increase in child labour, much against the set rules by the American labour laws.

 

Everything remains in chaos, but those who consume their blueberries don’t realized that they might just have blood on their hands.