Giving Compass' Take:

• Yvette Cabrera writes about a relief package drafted by California's farmworkers during COVID, calling for safer treatment and health information from employers.

• How does the lack of attention paid to farmworkers during COVID-19 reflect policymakers' neglect towards Latinx communities? What can you do to support farmworkers during COVID-19?

• Read further about the deep impact of COVID-19 on farmworkers.

A COVID-19 relief package for California’s farmworkers landed on Governor Gavin Newsom’s desk last week. Legislators describe the bill as the first of its kind, and it addresses a wide array of issues, from workplace enforcement of COVID-19 guidance to the expansion of rural telehealth services across the state. But, as the novel coronavirus continues to tear through farmworker communities, such measures may not be enough.

Nowhere is the crisis more palpable than in Monterey County, where agriculture is a leading industry. State Assembly Member Robert Rivas, a primary author of the relief package, pointed out that Latinos represent a “staggering” 93 percent of confirmed COVID-19 cases in the county, though they comprise just 61 percent of the county’s population. A study from the California Institute for Rural Studies found that Monterey County farmworkers are three times more likely to contract COVID-19 than those working in non-agricultural industries.

Despite being classified as essential workers, farmworkers have found themselves battling COVID-19, wildfire smoke, and a public health system that’s struggled to keep up with the challenges workers face in the fields. Some agricultural workers who have spoken up about the lack of protections have lost their jobs or faced other forms of apparent retaliation.

Irma Escobedo, a pistachio sorter in Kern County, is one of those workers. For nearly two years, Escobedo worked at Primex Farms LLC in Wasco, a city in California’s San Joaquin Valley.

“We’d like for them to treat us like we matter, as people — not treat us like we’re just a number,” said Escobedo, whose 19-year-old daughter also came down with COVID-19 while working at Primex. “We’d like for them to treat us as human beings.”

Read the full article about farmworkers during COVID by Yvette Cabrera at Grist.