As temperatures skyrocketed across parts of the United States, they threatened the farm workers committed to feeding the world and sustaining agricultural operations.
It has been a blistering summer with scores of cities tying or breaking record high temperatures.
Reno, Nevada 106 degrees
Seattle, Washington 95 degrees
Bakersfield, California 114 degrees
Pittsburgh, Pennsylvania 94 degrees
Colorado Springs 100 degrees
Missoula, Montana 99 degrees
Provo, Utah 105 degrees
Boise, Idaho 108 degrees
Syracuse, New York 94 degrees
Corpus Christi, Texas 100 degrees
Charlotte, North Carolina 99 degrees
Shreveport, Louisiana 100 degrees
Knoxville, Tennessee 97 degrees
Tampa, Florida 97 degrees
Mobile, Alabama 98 degrees
St. Louis, Missouri 103 degrees
Richmond, Virginia 101 degrees
Baltimore, Maryland 99 degrees
Atlanta, Georgia 100 degrees
Topeka, Kansas 102 degrees
Lincoln, Nebraska 103 degrees
Bangor, Maine 96 degrees
Newark, New Jersey 100 degrees
Hartford, Connecticut 98 degrees
Cleveland, Ohio 92
Worcester, Massachusetts 91 degrees
Providence, Rhode Island 91 degrees
Columbia, South Carolina 105 degrees
Seems like a long list, right? This was only a fraction of the record, as tabulated by Forbes.
The list shows how unrelenting the summer has been in numerous places across the country, affecting a variety of agricultural products, animals, and the workers who plant, harvest, and tend to all of it.
Did we mention that Death Valley, California reached 129 degrees?
In all, Forbes counted 2,500 communities scorched by the record heat.
What are farmland owners and managers doing to protect their workers?
Some states have enacted laws that remove local requirements for outdoor workers to get hydration breaks.
Florida Governor Ron DeSantis, a Republican, signed his state’s law in April. The law took effect this month, and it stops cities and counties from enforcing their own heat safety protections for workers.
VIDEO: Farmworkers told Fox 13 in Tampa, Florida why they worry about their safety in the extreme summer heat because of the new law. Watch that story here.
Texas Governor Greg Abbott, a Republican, signed his state’s law in June 2023. Some cities, including Houston and San Antonio, sued over the legislation.
RELATED: Construction Dive investigated the new laws, the complaints against them, and detailed what employers can do to help their workers get through summer’s heat. Read that here.
Nothing in the new state laws prevent farm owners, or any other employers, from instituting their own systems to make sure that their agricultural workers are protected.
Federation of American Scientists, a non-profit think tank headquartered in Washington, D.C., issued a report that stressed the importance of protecting farm workers. The organization defines its mission as, “working to minimize the risks of significant global threats, arising from nuclear weapons, biological and chemical agents, and climate change.”
It is that last priority, climate change, that prompted the organization to call for great focus on protecting agricultural workers from oppressive heat.
“Migrant workers face heightened risks due to low wages, inadequate healthcare, and precarious working conditions. Fear of retaliation and deportation often prevents them from reporting violations,” the group’s report stated.
The report also included these points that the organization maintains will underscore the importance of farmland owners and operators watching out for the safety of their workers, particularly migrant workers:
Farmworkers are 20 times more likely to die from heat than other workers.
Heat exposure is responsible for as many as 2,000 worker fatalities in the United States each year
Up to 170,000 workers in the United States are injured in heat stress-related accidents annually.
There is a 1% increase in workplace injuries for every increase of 1 degree Celsius.