Apples, pears, stone fruits, beans, potatoes, and cereal grains are just a few of the crops set to be harvested in the next few months in Washington state.

In anticipation of the busiest time of year in farm country, the state has updated several agricultural policies related to COVID-19. The most recent update handed down last week was the most problematic.

Proclamation 20-57.1 amended an earlier proclamation and made testing of agricultural workers on all farms mandatory under certain conditions. If a farm has either nine or more workers or 10 percent or more of their total workforce testing positive in a 14-day period, then the entire workforce must be tested for coronavirus.

While the approach is meant to stem the number of workers contracting the virus in agricultural settings, the penalties create some potential issues when it comes to containing the spread.

Workers who refuse testing cannot return to work and are effectively unemployed. There is nothing keeping those workers from finding employment at another farm in Washington state or elsewhere.

A better alternative would be to alter the cohort grouping regulations so that workers who refuse or prefer not to be tested, work together. No person should be forced into being tested. However, punishing workers who do not wish to be tested with unemployment seems extreme. By altering the group working rules, it keeps workers who prefer not to be tested working in a small group that can be quarantined if a member of the group falls ill and allows those workers to remain gainfully employed. 

Additionally, farmers will almost certainly be forced to send their COVID-19 positive employees off-farm for observation and monitoring. Farmers who opt to quarantine their employees on-farm in temporary worker housing are now required, among other things, to have twice daily visits from a licensed healthcare professional at the employers’ expense. Farmers are price-takers in the commodity markets and can’t simply pass these additional costs onto consumers. 

As the restrictions of COVID-19 remain in place long-term and the desire to find ways to limit its virulence continue, policies need to be instituted to respect the humanity of the people effected by those mandates. Farmworkers are a key part of the success of our state’s economy and it is important to protect their health. In doing so, the state needs to take into account more than numbers on a data chart.