Friday, April 2, 2021
CapitalPress.com 11
Vaccinations: ‘This community is often mobile and based in rural communities’
Continued from Page 1
“We also understand that
some workers are concerned
about whether vaccinations
will impact their immigra-
tion status or public charge,”
Owens added, “so we try to
work through our trusted
community partners.”
Washington
In Washington, farm-
worker vaccination kicked
off March 17.
Washington does not
track vaccinations by occu-
pation, so officials say they
don’t have data on how many
farmworkers have been vac-
cinated so far.
Katie Pope, spokes-
woman for the Washington
State Department of Health,
said the state is reaching
farmworkers through “mass
vaccination sites, mobile
clinics, employer-based clin-
ics, pharmacies and health
care providers.”
During the pandemic,
Pope said, the state has con-
tracted with Medical Teams
International and other
groups to deliver testing to
agricultural worksites, and
Pope said “we are explor-
ing a similar program for
vaccinations.”
Employers can find
out how to get work-
ers vaccinated by calling
1-800-525-0127.
California
California farmworkers
became eligible for vaccina-
tion Feb. 13.
Sami Gallegos, spokes-
woman for the Califor-
nia Department of Public
Health, said the state is pri-
marily using mobile clinics
“to reach farmworkers where
they work and live.”
The state, she said, is
partnering with farmworker
advocacy groups, counties,
community and faith-based
organizations and employers.
Like Washington, Cali-
fornia does not track vacci-
nations by occupation and
therefore isn’t tracking how
quickly farmworkers are get-
ting vaccinated.
Employers should contact
their local health jurisdiction
to request a mobile clinic.
Idaho
The vaccine rollout in
Idaho is a bit different, given
the makeup of the state’s
Department of Health and
Welfare.
Idaho public health is
divided into seven autono-
mous districts that are each
responsible for managing
vaccinations in their own
areas. Districts are based in
Hayden, Lewiston, Cald-
well, Boise, Twin Falls,
Pocatello and Idaho Falls.
Niki
Forbing-Orr,
spokeswoman for IDHW,
said vaccinations are avail-
able for frontline essential
workers, including food and
agriculture workers. Any-
one 16 and older will be eli-
gible for the vaccine begin-
ning April 5.
Christine Myron, spokes-
woman for the agency’s Cen-
tral District — which covers
Boise, Ada, Elmore and Val-
ley counties — said they are
working with enrolled vac-
cine providers to reach farm-
workers, such as the Desert
Sage Health Center in Moun-
tain Home.
”They are scheduling
on-site clinics and doing so
at hours of the day that are
accommodating of shift work
and schedules,” Myron said.
Myron said the district is
not offering mass vaccina-
tion events but continues to
take a decentralized approach
to reaching farmworkers
directly in their communities.
The district’s vaccine task
force meets each Thursday
to discuss how they will allo-
cate vaccines for the upcom-
ing week, she said.
“We take the needs of our
providers into consideration
as we determine how best to
allocate specific vaccine types
and volumes to which provid-
ers,” Myron said.
Pandemic: ‘Cleaning, disinfectants, masks, you name it — it got really expensive’
Continued from Page 1
Small farm
Aaron Nichols, co-owner
of Stoneboat Farm in Hills-
boro, Ore.
Pre-pandemic, restaurants
made up about 57% of sales
for Stoneboat Farm, a small
vegetable and turkey farm in
Hillsboro.
Then COVID-19 struck.
“Those first couple of
weeks, we were really nervous
because we knew restaurants
were closing,” said Aaron
Nichols, 37.
His team opted to expand
the farm’s Community Sup-
ported Agriculture program, or
CSA.
It wasn’t easy. Because of
the home gardening boom,
seeds were hard to come by.
The farm planted what it could,
then purchased supplementary
vegetables from other farms.
The model was a triumph.
In 2019, the farm had sold
150 CSA shares. In 2020, that
leaped to 350 shares. This
year, Nichols predicts he’ll
sell 425 shares.
“People wanted to be part
of this, to eat local,” he said.
“It felt and still feels like a
community of people who
care about each other, care
about us.”
Stoneboat Farm also saw
a $10,000 increase in sales at
farmers markets during 2020.
Because the farm had
numerous pandemic-related
expenses, Nichols said 2020’s
bottom line was slightly worse
than 2019’s.
But overall, he said, he’s
excited about direct-to-con-
sumer market growth.
Tree fruit
Jesus Limon, owner
of J&M Orchards Inc. in
Wenatchee and Quincy,
Wash.
The main impact of coro-
navirus hit home at Jesus
Limon’s farm at the worst pos-
sible time last year: harvest.
Limon, 63, owns a small
orchard company with about
130 acres of apples and cher-
ries across Wenatchee and
Quincy.
For months, Limon said,
he had done everything he
could to prevent an outbreak:
requiring masks, spacing out
H-2A workers, putting up
barriers between bunk beds,
installing sanitation stations.
“Cleaning, disinfectants,
masks, you name it — it got
really expensive,” he said. “I
don’t think hardly anybody’s
making money right now
farming. It seems all the rules
from all the agencies keep
squeezing us.”
Late summer, several
workers in one housing unit
tested positive for COVID-
19. Limon worked with the
local health department and
paid the workers to quarantine
for two weeks.
Fortunately, workers out-
side that unit didn’t catch the
virus and kept picking, but
because several were quaran-
tined, Limon left nearly 500
bins of apples on his trees.
“What do you do?” he
said. “Everybody’s facing it.”
Despite challenges, Limon
said he’s hopeful he’ll soon
be able to get his workers
vaccinated.
Agritourism
Hilary Jensen, owner of
The Patch in Ellensburg,
Wash.
The pandemic unleashed a
surprisingly good season for
Central Washington agritour-
ism operator Hilary Jensen.
Shortly before the fall fun
Capital Press File
Cevin Jones
Washington Grain Commission
Mike Carstensen
Facebook
Jesus Limon
Idaho Potato Commission
Nick Blanksma
Aaron Nichols/Stoneboat Farm
Hilary Jensen
Jesus Limon
Aaron Nichols
was to begin, the governor’s
office came down with strict
rules. The state’s agritourism
industry mobilized and con-
vinced the governor’s office
to relax the rules.
As a result, most activities
were allowed — with masks,
hand sanitizer and social dis-
tancing. Jensen, who operates
The Patch in Ellensburg, said
attendance increased.
“People were so hungry
for something normal,” she
said. “The gratitude from the
guests was palatable. They
were so grateful to have that
slice of normalcy.”
Revenue went up, but so
did expenses. Gloves that
normally cost $5 a box were
going for $60. The season’s
profitability was saved by
a $5,000 grant from federal
relief funds to buy personal
protection equipment.
“We were prepared for the
worst, but for the most part it
was all for the best,” Jensen
said. “I really do think it was
a good year. We were just as
grateful as our guests.
“We didn’t have a single
case of COVID traced to us,”
she said. “We did it before, so
we should be allowed to do it
again.”
PotatoesNick Blanksma,
a farmer near Hammett,
Idaho
Nick Blanskma and his
partners were planting pota-
toes for processing when
COVID-19
shutdowns
slammed the market.
They stuck to their acreage
target.
“It’s very hard when you
have already put so much
time, money and effort into
the upcoming crop to change
course,” said Blanskma.
“There was no going back,
with seed on hand and pota-
toes in the ground.”
Demand shifted from food-
service to retail and food banks
as many people worked from
home or were laid off. Pota-
toes grown for one purpose
served another. Federal relief
plans emerged. Restaurants
expanded take-out service.
Some processors bought more
potatoes after first cutting their
contracted acreage.
“There was so much going
on, and it was so crazy,”
Blanksma said. “We were out
of the loop as far as how the
product got to its final destina-
tion. Fortunately, our (proces-
sor) customer was able to work
through the logistical problems
and take all of our finished
product.”
“We are a tough industry,”
Blanksma said. “We will come
out of this, but it will be turbu-
lent for at least two years.”
OnionsPaul Skeen, a
farmer near Nyssa, Ore.
Paul Skeen said that by
the end of March 2020, plant-
ing in the large southeastern
Oregon-southwestern Idaho
growing region was wrap-
ping up — just as processors
were reducing their contracted
acreage.
Some farmers produced
fewer onions. Some processors
bought more as 2020 unfolded.
“When it hit, it just shut
the large onion down,” Skeen
said of the pandemic.
The region is known for
growing big onions, and their
main customers, foodservice
outlets, slashed demand.
Skeen said a Payroll Pro-
tection Program loan was
“a life-saver in keeping my
employees employed all
winter.”
At the same time, trans-
portation “has been a problem
throughout the West, he said.
Warmer weather may bring
more types of trucks, such as
flatbeds, into the mix.
Though onion prices
increased, so did production
costs.
“I’m an old man; I’ll make
it,” said Skeen, 67. “There’s
a lot of young kids who need
better prices to stay afloat.”
also contracted the virus.
“I was worried about the
day half the crew would get
it,” he said.
Thankfully, that didn’t
happen, but the pandemic
affected employee morale, he
said.
Beef demand rebounded
quickly, but the industry is still
working through the backlog
of cattle. That’s holding down
prices, which is frustrating.
Strong beef demand and surg-
ing exports should be support-
ing $120 per hundredweight
for fat cattle, but they’re only
bringing about $114, he said.
As for cow-calf produc-
ers, most don’t market calves
in the spring. But the pan-
demic depressed prices indus-
trywide, and they proba-
bly didn’t do so well last fall
when they did sell, he said.
Cattle
Cevin Jones, a feedlot
owner near Eden, Idaho
Idaho feedlot owner Cevin
Jones had one thing to say
about how he’s fairing after a
year of the pandemic.
“I’m still here,” he said.
Jones, who operates Inter-
mountain Beef in Eden north-
east of Twin Falls, had just
started his term as chairman
of the U.S. Meat Export Fed-
eration when the pandemic
hit. That put the kibosh on his
year of international travel to
build trade relationships.
At home, cattle markets
tanked and cattle backed up in
the pipeline across the coun-
try. Fortunately, he had a
meatpacker who didn’t lower
the price it paid for his cattle.
“We worked through it
together in a cooperative
way,” he said.
His operation did better
than most feedlots outside the
area. But the pandemic did
have impacts, he said.
“There were some ups and
downs — and a lot of uncer-
tainty,” he said.
He was infected with
COVID-19 and was down for
two weeks. His office man-
ager and two other employees
Capital Press File
Willie Bokma
Dairy
Willie Bokma, dairy
farmer, Twin Falls, Idaho
Dairy farmers in southern
Idaho were not immune to
the milk dumping and crash-
ing prices that also took place
across the country early in the
pandemic.
“The entire COVID thing
cost us a lot of money,” said
Willie Bokma, a Twin Falls
dairy farmer.
Bokma is a member of
Magic Valley Quality Milk
marketing cooperative, which
rotated dumping among its
members in the first few
months of the pandemic. Milk
checks were thin, and over-
base production sold for next
to nothing, he said.
“It was awful. It was cata-
strophic,” he said.
His share of the pain was
three days worth of dumped
milk, about 300,000 pounds
and $40,000.
“If we hadn’t had govern-
ment payments, it would have
been terrible. That saved our
bacon,” he said.
He had also locked in
some milk production under
the Dairy Revenue Protection
program, which helped tre-
mendously, he said.
Producers who didn’t sign
up for government programs,
such as DRP or Dairy Mar-
gin Coverage, were in a tough
spot. And he feels bad for
those who sold out before the
government assistance pro-
grams kicked in, he said.
One year later, consolida-
tion in Idaho’s dairy industry
is rampant, he said.
“That’s kind of scary …
very disconcerting,” he said.
Neither he nor any of his
employees contracted the
Baker & Murakami
Paul Skeen
Courtesy of Hector Lopez
Julio Gutierrez, left, worked during the early days of the
pandemic harvesting asparagus at Larsen Farms in Pas-
co, Wash., under the supervision of his crew boss, Hec-
tor Lopez.
virus as far as he knows. But
the employee situation has
been tough in terms of worker
availability, and he’s hoping
the U.S. Senate will pass an
immigration reform bill, he
said.
The pandemic turned
things upside down and
brought new threats farmers
hadn’t imagined.
“We’re used to the fear
now,” he said.
Wheat
Mike Carstensen, a
farmer in Lincoln County,
Wash.
The pandemic didn’t
change much for wheat grow-
ers, farmer Mike Carstensen
said.
Carstensen farms roughly
5,000 acres in northwest Lin-
coln County and is chair-
man of the Washington
Grain Commission board of
directors.
“Most operations are basi-
cally one guy doing the work,”
Carstensen said. “We don’t
hire labor except at harvest. So
not much different. Any social
activities or farm meetings are
virtual and in no way are they
as good as in person.”
Carstensen said he’s had
to begin scheduling ahead to
get seed and parts. Parts are
limited because of supply
chain issues due to COVID,
he said. Seed houses are open
but because of limited con-
tact it’s best to arrange a visit
beforehand.
Carstensen said he was
most concerned about the
pandemic’s effect on the
overall economy and people
out of work, and students not
attending schools in person.
In the year ahead,
Carstensen is wary of increas-
ing input costs and input sup-
ply slowdowns for growers.
He’s optimistic that more
vaccinations will allow more
normal, in-person interac-
tions, including meetings with
overseas customers.
“We need to get back to
the in-person relationships,”
he said. “Our customers are
our friends and we value their
relationships.”
Farmworker
Julio Gutierrez, near
Pasco, Wash.
While COVID-19 restric-
tions rocked the U.S. econ-
omy in 2020, agriculture
chugged along as an essen-
tial business, with legions of
migrant and seasonal laborers
working to keep homebound
Americans fed.
Julio Gutierrez spent the
early days of the pandemic
in April and May harvesting
asparagus at Larsen Farms
near Pasco, Wash. At first, he
said news of the virus had him
scared.
“Some people were dying
of it, and some people were
getting really sick,” Gutierrez
said of the news reports about
COVID-19.
However, Gutierrez, 33,
said he needed to work to sup-
port his wife and three kids.
A native of Sinaloa, Mexico,
Gutierrez is an experienced
farmworker who has spent
nine years at Larsen Farms,
splitting his time between
hand-cutting rows of aspar-
agus and running the scale
house.
Last year was unlike any
other, Gutierrez said in Span-
ish. His crew boss, Hector
Lopez, assisted in translation.
“When the pandemic hit, it
kind of changed things,” Guti-
errez said. “I would just take
all the precautions that were in
the news, and try not go out as
much as I used to.”
On the farm, that meant
wearing a mask and fre-
quently sanitizing his hands.
Larsen Farms has approxi-
mately 130 workers harvest-
ing up to 800 pounds of aspar-
agus a day.
Lopez said the workers are
spread out in the fields, which
made it easier for them to
maintain 6 feet of social dis-
tance versus working side-by-
side in a warehouse.
“(Harvest) ran normal,”
Lopez said. “Everybody
would show up to work.
They would just take the
precautions.”
Gutierrez said he had no
problems finding work. After
asparagus season, he went
on to his other normal jobs
picking cherries and process-
ing potatoes at other farms in
southeast Washington.
He said he felt safe work-
ing on the farms, and has
since received his first dose of
a COVID-19 vaccine. He will
receive his second dose this
month.
“I learned that by taking
care of myself, and taking the
precautions, I would be OK,”
Gutierrez said.
Sierra Dawn McClain,
Don Jenkins, Brad Carlson,
Carol Ryan Dumas, Matthew
Weaver and George Plaven
contributed to this story.