COVID-19 Guidance for Farmers on Safety

Posted on March 29, 2020 by Taylor in Business, Farming Resources, Food Safety // 0 Comments

COVID-19 Guidance for Farmers and Ranchers: Making a Health and Safety Plan for the Farm

Farms are experiencing many different impacts from the COVID-19 outbreak. I have talked to farmers who are scrambling to completely redesign their marketing plan after restaurants that were the center of their marketing strategy suddenly all closed. Here in the Hudson Valley many small farmers market the vast majority of their produce at public stalls in New York City. And local CSA farms are struggling to figure out how to alter their pick up model to conform with social distancing measures, and keep produce from being a source of virus exposure.

One of the many things that farms may need to rethink during these unprecedented times are their health and safety plans. Farmers are now under great pressure to protect not just themselves, but their workers and the public as well. The Agricultural Justice Project has been working on farm safety issues for some time, and offers many useful free resources for farmers interested in rethinking their safety plans and standard operating procedures in the face of this recent outbreak.

Click here for Agricultural Justice Project’s 2 page COVID-19 guidance for farmers specifically focusing on how to consider coronavirus in health & safety on the farm. It includes links to easy-to-understand infographics that can be posted for workers & short video clips that workers & farm & ranch managers can listen to or watch in English, Spanish, Haitian Creole, & Maya Mam.

For instructions on making a simple field handwashing station click here. There are additional portable homemade hand field station ideas images here & here for inspiration.

For a more general guide to creating a comprehensive health & safety plan on your farm see an excerpt from Agricultural Justice Project’s farmer toolkit here.

These & more Covid-19 Resources, Guidance, & Information including sign on letters to support farmworkers, farmers, & all food system workers click here. More resources will be added as they come across them. resources as we come across them.