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With spring fast approaching, temporary farm workers from Jamaica were supposed to begin arriving in Vermont on March 17. But in the time of the coronavirus pandemic, it took another two weeks and a mysterious chartered airplane for the first Jamaicans to arrive in Burlington.
The outbreak of Covid-19 has hit the state’s agricultural businesses as the economic crisis has dried up markets for dairy products, including milk and cheese, in the Northeast.
However, the international nature of the coronavirus emergency has also impacted Vermont’s farms, as it delayed crucial labor from entering the state for the upcoming growing and harvesting season.
The majority of Vermont’s seasonal temporary workers come from Jamaica with a handful from Mexico, according to the Vermont Agency of Agriculture, and in an usual year the papers for temporary agricultural workers — H-2A visas — would not have been delayed.
But this year the Covid-19 pandemic shut down the embassy in Jamaica and consulates in Mexico, pushing back visa approval.
But visa issues were only part of the struggle to get workers to Vermont.
“For the most part, the problems we have been experiencing have been due to the international travel shutdown,” Alyson Eastman, deputy secretary of the Agency of Agriculture, said Thursday, April 2.
“They were scheduled to come on a plane earlier, but because of the commercial airlines canceling, we actually had to charter a plane out of Jamaica to get them here,” Eastman told lawmakers last week.
In an interview Monday, April 6, Eastman said three Jamaican workers entered the state last week, and clarified that she and the agency did not know what or who had chartered the flight out of the Caribbean island nation.
However, Eastman did say the workers were able to board the flight after they had been in contact with the congressional delegation and the U.S. Department of Agriculture.
The offices of Sens. Patrick Leahy, D-Vt., and Bernie Sanders, I-Vt., did not respond to requests for comment while a spokesperson for Rep. Peter Welch, D-Vt., said he was unaware of any connection. The USDA deferred to the U.S. Department of Homeland Security which also did not respond to an inquiry.
The Covid-19 pandemic has delayed the arrival of foreign farm labor across the U.S. and Canada, as the State Department works to process H-2A visas with reduced staffing. It has also made some large farms worry they could see reduced profits in 2020, according to Reuters.
However, there are also concerns about foreign laborers possibly spreading Covid-19 — even if they are from Jamaica, where there are currently 58 confirmed cases.
Eastman said the Agency of Agriculture monitored and will continue to monitor where layovers take place and have been in communication with farms to make sure foreign workers are quarantined for 14 days after they arrive.
So far, Eastman said, Vermont employers have been very responsive, with some already taking people’s temperatures before they report for work and working on systems to ensure temporary workers will not have to go into town to buy food during their time in quarantine.
“We’re trying to make sure our food producers have the masks they need, the gloves they need, the sanitizer they need, our Covid response team is looking at that right now,” Eastman said.
