DECEMBER 2020
CELEBRATING 141 YEARS AS CANADA’S PREMIER HORTICULTURAL PUBLICATION
THEGROWER.ORG
FOOD SECURITY
Hardest harvest reveals hard truths and even harder questions
Dejected workers gather to tear down the brittle leaves of a cucumber crop that perished after Nature Fresh Farms was shut down by public health authorities on June 30, 2020. Peter Quiring, the owner and president of the Leamington, Ontario greenhouses, went on record in a recent short documentary that 199 asymptomatic workers tested positive for COVID-19 but no one was ever hospitalized. The devastating effects of losing 7.8 million pounds of produce aren’t just economic but emotional as his workers have testified. Photo courtesy of Nature Fresh Farms.
KAREN DAVIDSON When guest workers are given a role, pride shines through. That emotion was laid bare in a new 22-minute documentary, “The Hardest Harvest” recently released by Nature Fresh Farms, Leamington, Ontario. “When you feel you have your own area, you feel as if it’s your own crop,” says Gervacio Estrada, a seasonal worker from Mexico. “When you think that everything will be spoiled, your heart hurts even if you think it’s not my own crop but my boss’s.” That despair was shared by almost 600
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workers when the Windsor-Essex County Health Unit shut down the Nature Fresh greenhouse facilities on June 30, 2020. The owners and managers – Peter Quiring, John Ketler, Matt Quiring and Cornelius Neufeld – had led the way in advocating for on-farm COVID-19 testing, believing that all protective measures had been followed to the letter of the law. But when 199 asymptomatic workers tested positive, the ensuing health directive was dramatic and immediate. These workers were bussed to off-site hotels to self-isolate. And all workers – domestic and foreign – were forbidden from entering the greenhouse. It would be two weeks before the 160-
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acre facility became fully staffed again. Some of the crops survived. But in those humidity-saturated days, starved of fertilized water, some of the tomatoes, peppers and cucumbers were lost -- 7.8 million pounds. To make matters worse, Nature Fresh Farms was prevented from continuing to deliver culturally-appropriate food to their isolating workers. The Red Cross failed to provide satisfactory food, both in quality and quantity, prompting more outrage from workers. Ironically, the agencies designed to protect foreign food workers were not up to the task of feeding them. As Peter Quiring, president, Nature
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Fresh Farms, recalls the hard truth of the virus crisis, “There were lots of people in charge, but no one was accountable.” Months after the coronavirus became a real and present danger, Ontario’s greenhouse growers are re-planting. John Ketler, vice-president, Nature Fresh Farms, says that the same crops, same acreage are now being planted for 2021. And nothing has changed the sector’s steadfast pledge to care for and protect guest workers who come year after year to Canada to support their families. Continued on page 3
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