Many regions across the U.S. have faced record-breaking heat this year, with communities and government agencies scrambling to ensure the public could cope with the severe conditions.
Heat-related fatalities far outnumber other weather-related deaths, according to the National Weather Service, and vulnerable populations — especially those working and living outside — are on the front lines enduring the stress of rising temperatures.
The recent death of a Kroger employee at a company distribution center in Memphis, Tenn., as well as the recent loss of two farmworkers in South Florida who succumbed to the record heat underscores the critical need for food industry leaders to provide adequate measures to ensure the safety of workers in extreme heat.
According to the National Institutes of health, farmworkers are 35 times more likely to die from heat exposure than workers in other industries. Despite this, there is no federal regulation mandating heat safety for outdoor workers, and to date, only four states — California, Oregon, Washington and Colorado — have adopted heat-stress standards.
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In the absence of comprehensive regulation, advocates are seeking solutions within the fresh produce industry. Some independent programs and social responsibility certifications are seeking to ensure laborers have the support and resources they need to work outside amid heat and prolonged sun exposure.
Presidential medal-winning program tackles heat illness prevention
The Fair Food Program, founded in 2011 and implemented in farm fields from Florida to Colorado, is one such program that mandates heat protections for farmworkers. The Fair Food Program’s Heat Illness Standards is grounded in ensuring basic needs are met — providing water, shade and mandatory rest breaks — alongside education and life-saving intervention training, according to a news release.
What’s more, the Heat Illness Standards are one piece of the program’s broader Presidential medal-winning guidelines to safeguard farmworkers’ basic human rights, giving them the power to enforce these standards in the fields. In a recent Miami Herald op-ed, Princeton University professor Susan Marquis emphasized how the standards work to help farmworkers.
“The Fair Food Program’s heat illness prevention standards already are proven. Crews are staying hydrated and safe,” she said in the op-ed. “As one farmworker reported, ‘We can do more than improve day-to-day health and safety conditions. We can prevent a father or mother, a daughter or son, from losing their lives.’”
How the Fair Food Program’s heat illness protections work
To protect workers, the Fair Food Program is backed by the market power of 14 major retailers — including Walmart, McDonald’s, Whole Foods Market and Trader Joe’s — who have each pledged to halt purchases from growers who are suspended from the Fair Food Program for violating its standards, according to the release.
Additionally, The Fair Food Program is monitored by a team of independent, trained human rights investigators with the Fair Food Standards Council. The council maintains a database of its audit and complaint investigation results, including quotes from workers interviewed in the process.
“The program is credited with eliminating unsafe working conditions, wage theft, beatings, rape and forced labor for tens of thousands of farmworkers each year on participating U.S. farms,” Marquis said in the Miami Herald op-ed.
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Thousands of farmworkers are covered by the Fair Food Program, which operates today in 10 states and three countries and includes 12 specialty crop commodities.
Expanding the program translates to more farmworker protections
To extend life-saving heat stress protections to workers in fields, farmworkers with the Coalition of Immokalee Workers are pushing for the expansion of the Fair Food Program by calling on major food brands to join, the release said.
As part of the Fair Food Program’s heat illness protections, one farmworker shared with auditors how things had changed since the program was adopted.
“The fields have changed — now, we have better wages and better treatment for everyone. Before, there was nothing like that. Before, I would be working under the sun, working hard, and I would want to stop for water,” the farmworker said. “The boss would stop me, and I would say, ‘I need water.’ He would say, ‘There’s the ditch over there, it’s got some water.’ There were no water bottles. We were exhausted, we needed water. There were no toilets.”
Related news: Florida farmworker’s death was preventable, Labor Department says
The farmworker said that, before the Fair Food Program, those who spoke out would be fired.
“But now that we are united, we have strength. We are taking steps forward, and we cannot go back,” the farmworker told Fair Food Program auditors.
