Home Grown: Frequent COVID testing important for farmers

Virus is particularly bad for the Ag industry - CBS 13's April Hettinger explains

YUMA, Ariz. (KYMA, KECY) - Day laborers responsible for the nation's food source work in close quarters, so testing and preventative measures are crucial to keeping them safe.

Farmworkers do a lot of traveling back and forth between Yuma County, Mexico and Salinas, California.

Social distancing can be difficult to do on a bus and in tight housing, which is why frequent testing is important.

Walt Duflock, Vice President Of Innovation for Western Growers says once they figure out who has contracted the virus, that farmer will be isolated and cared for.

"The farm labor contractors and the farmers, they work together to get folks tested because they are," Duflock explained. "They're on buses together a lot and H2A housing a lot, so there's frequent tests, and when there is a positive result, they work with the workers to make sure that worker gets isolated, gets taken care of as quickly as possible. It's a team effort."

The ag industry is already short staffed, so when a farmworker takes time to quarantine, it can make it difficult to keep up with the growing a harvesting process.