由于農場擔心工人生病，COVID-19威脅著食品供應鏈

由于農場擔心工人生病，COVID-19威脅著食品供應鏈

As Americans scattered to the privacy of their homes this week to avoid spreading the coronavirus, the opposite scene was playing out in the Mexican city of Monterrey.

本周，為了避免冠狀病毒的傳播，美國人紛紛躲在家中，而在墨西哥城市蒙特雷，情況正好相反。

A thousand or more young men arrived in the city, as they do most weeks of the year, filling up the cheap hotels, standing in long lines at the U.S. Consulate to pick up special H-2A visas for temporary agricultural workers, then gathering in a big park to board buses bound for farms in the United States.

一千多名年輕人來到這座城市，就像他們一年中大多數(shù)星期一樣，擠滿了廉價的旅館，在美國領事館排起長隊，為臨時農業(yè)工人領取H-2A特別簽證，然后聚集在一個大公園登上開往美國農場的巴士。

"I spoke with people going to North Carolina, Kentucky, Michigan, Mississippi," says Justin Flores, vice president of the AFL-CIO's Farm Labor Organizing Committee, who was in Monterrey for meetings. "[They were] headed to destinations all over the country to provide really important labor that supports the backbone of our economy, which is the agricultural industry."

“我與前往北卡羅來納州、肯塔基州、密歇根州和密西西比州的人們進行了交談，”美國勞工聯(lián)合會-產業(yè)工會聯(lián)合會(AFL-CIO)農業(yè)勞工組織委員會副主席賈斯汀•弗洛雷斯說，他當時正在蒙特雷參加會議。“他們前往全國各地提供重要的勞動力，這些勞動力支撐著我們的經濟支柱，也就是農業(yè)。”

About 250.000 workers came to the U.S. on H-2A visas last year, the majority of them from Mexico. They've become an increasingly important piece of America's food industry.

去年，大約有25萬持H-2A簽證的工人來到美國，其中大部分來自墨西哥。它們已經成為美國食品行業(yè)中越來越重要的一部分。

Late in the day on Monday, the U.S. Embassy in Mexico City announced that it is suspending nonemergency visa appointments because of concerns for the health of its employees and visitors.

周一晚些時候，美國駐墨西哥城大使館宣布，出于對雇員和訪問者健康的擔憂，暫停非緊急簽證預約。

At the same time, though, the embassy notified farm employers that many — perhaps most — of these farm workers still can get their visas, because they participated in the program last year and don't require an in-person appointment at the consulate.

不過，與此同時，美國大使館通知農場雇主，這些農場工人中有許多人，或許是大多數(shù)人，仍然可以獲得簽證，因為他們去年參加了這個項目，不需要親自到領事館預約。

Ryan Ogburn, visa director at wafla, which helps farms manage the flow of H-2A workers in the Pacific Northwest, says that 85-90% of their workers will qualify for this exemption. Meanwhile, influential farm organizations in the U.S. are pushing the Trump administration to ease the entry of more guest workers.

幫助農場管理西北太平洋地區(qū)H-2A工人流動的wafla簽證主管瑞恩•奧格本說，他們85-90%的工人將有資格享受這一豁免。與此同時，美國有影響力的農場組織正在推動特朗普政府放寬更多外來務工人員的入境。

The continuing availability of agricultural workers illustrates the paradox of America's food supply in the age of COVID-19.

農業(yè)工人的持續(xù)存在說明了COVID-19時期美國糧食供應的矛盾。

One end of the food supply chain has been completely upended as restaurants go dark and consumers prowl half-empty aisles of supermarkets. Food producers, though, are operating almost as normal — at least for now.

食品供應鏈的一端已經完全顛倒了過來，餐館關閉，消費者在超市半空的過道里徘徊。不過，食品生產商的經營幾乎與往常一樣——至少目前是這樣。

Slaughterhouses, dairies and vegetable producers say that they are open for business, ready to feed the nation. Howard Roth, president of the National Pork Producers Council, wrote in a statement that "telecommuting is not an option for us; we are reporting for work as always."

屠宰場、奶牛場和蔬菜生產商說，他們已經開始營業(yè)，隨時為全國人民提供食物。全國豬肉生產商委員會主席霍華德·羅斯在一份聲明中寫道，“遠程辦公不是我們的選擇;我們像往常一樣報到上班。”

Food distributors and wholesalers in the middle of that supply chain, meanwhile, are trying to perform logistical miracles, redirecting truckloads of food from shuttered businesses toward places where people now crave it — mainly grocery stores.

與此同時，處于這條供應鏈中間的食品分銷商和批發(fā)商正努力創(chuàng)造物流奇跡，將一車車的食品從停業(yè)的企業(yè)轉移到人們現(xiàn)在渴望得到它們的地方，主要是雜貨店。

There's an even bigger worry hanging over the food industry: The prospect of workers testing positive for COVID-19.

食品行業(yè)還有一個更大的擔憂:工人檢測出COVID-19呈陽性的前景。

When it happens, the response likely will go beyond sending that individual home — although that alone can be catastrophic to field workers who are paid, in part, based on their production. This week, the United Farm Workers union called on employers to expand paid sick leave for workers.

當這種情況發(fā)生時，人們的反應很可能不僅僅是把那個人送回家，盡管僅此一點就可能給那些部分根據(jù)產量獲得報酬的現(xiàn)場工作人員帶來災難性的后果。本周，美國農場工人聯(lián)合會呼吁雇主為工人增加帶薪病假。

Vegetable growers are considering policies that would require quarantine for everyone who worked in close proximity to the infected person. That could easily include two dozen or more people. Workers on H-2A visas often live together, sharing kitchens and bedrooms and traveling together on buses. The virus could spread quickly, and measures to stop it will be extremely costly.

蔬菜種植者正在考慮制定相關政策，要求對所有在感染者附近工作的人實施隔離。這很容易包括二十多個人。持H-2A簽證的工人經常住在一起，共用廚房和臥室，一起乘公共汽車旅行。病毒可能會迅速傳播，而阻止它的措施將是極其昂貴的。

According to Steve Alameda, a vegetable grower in Yuma, Ariz., losing an entire 30-person work crew overnight will be extremely disruptive. Farmworkers already are hard to find, and replacing so many people immediately could prove impossible.

據(jù)亞利桑那州尤馬市的蔬菜種植者史蒂夫·阿拉梅達說，一夜之間失去一整支30人的工作隊伍將是極具破壞性的。農場工人已經很難找到了，要立即替換這么多人可能是不可能的。

"We've got enough disruption," Alameda says. "We don't need to disrupt our food supply, that would be really catastrophic."

“我們已經有足夠的破壞，”阿拉梅達說我們不需要破壞我們的糧食供應，那將是真正的災難。”