由于农场担心工人生病，COVID-19威胁着食品供应链

由于农场担心工人生病，COVID-19威胁着食品供应链

As Americans scattered to the privacy of their homes this week to avoid spreading the coronavirus, the opposite scene was playing out in the Mexican city of Monterrey.

本周，为了避免冠状病毒的传播，美国人纷纷躲在家中，而在墨西哥城市蒙特雷，情况正好相反。

A thousand or more young men arrived in the city, as they do most weeks of the year, filling up the cheap hotels, standing in long lines at the U.S. Consulate to pick up special H-2A visas for temporary agricultural workers, then gathering in a big park to board buses bound for farms in the United States.

一千多名年轻人来到这座城市，就像他们一年中大多数星期一样，挤满了廉价的旅馆，在美国领事馆排起长队，为临时农业工人领取H-2A特别签证，然后聚集在一个大公园登上开往美国农场的巴士。

"I spoke with people going to North Carolina, Kentucky, Michigan, Mississippi," says Justin Flores, vice president of the AFL-CIO's Farm Labor Organizing Committee, who was in Monterrey for meetings. "[They were] headed to destinations all over the country to provide really important labor that supports the backbone of our economy, which is the agricultural industry."

“我与前往北卡罗来纳州、肯塔基州、密歇根州和密西西比州的人们进行了交谈，”美国劳工联合会-产业工会联合会(AFL-CIO)农业劳工组织委员会副主席贾斯汀•弗洛雷斯说，他当时正在蒙特雷参加会议。“他们前往全国各地提供重要的劳动力，这些劳动力支撑着我们的经济支柱，也就是农业。”

About 250.000 workers came to the U.S. on H-2A visas last year, the majority of them from Mexico. They've become an increasingly important piece of America's food industry.

去年，大约有25万持H-2A签证的工人来到美国，其中大部分来自墨西哥。它们已经成为美国食品行业中越来越重要的一部分。

Late in the day on Monday, the U.S. Embassy in Mexico City announced that it is suspending nonemergency visa appointments because of concerns for the health of its employees and visitors.

周一晚些时候，美国驻墨西哥城大使馆宣布，出于对雇员和访问者健康的担忧，暂停非紧急签证预约。

At the same time, though, the embassy notified farm employers that many — perhaps most — of these farm workers still can get their visas, because they participated in the program last year and don't require an in-person appointment at the consulate.

不过，与此同时，美国大使馆通知农场雇主，这些农场工人中有许多人，或许是大多数人，仍然可以获得签证，因为他们去年参加了这个项目，不需要亲自到领事馆预约。

Ryan Ogburn, visa director at wafla, which helps farms manage the flow of H-2A workers in the Pacific Northwest, says that 85-90% of their workers will qualify for this exemption. Meanwhile, influential farm organizations in the U.S. are pushing the Trump administration to ease the entry of more guest workers.

帮助农场管理西北太平洋地区H-2A工人流动的wafla签证主管瑞恩•奥格本说，他们85-90%的工人将有资格享受这一豁免。与此同时，美国有影响力的农场组织正在推动特朗普政府放宽更多外来务工人员的入境。

The continuing availability of agricultural workers illustrates the paradox of America's food supply in the age of COVID-19.

农业工人的持续存在说明了COVID-19时期美国粮食供应的矛盾。

One end of the food supply chain has been completely upended as restaurants go dark and consumers prowl half-empty aisles of supermarkets. Food producers, though, are operating almost as normal — at least for now.

食品供应链的一端已经完全颠倒了过来，餐馆关闭，消费者在超市半空的过道里徘徊。不过，食品生产商的经营几乎与往常一样——至少目前是这样。

Slaughterhouses, dairies and vegetable producers say that they are open for business, ready to feed the nation. Howard Roth, president of the National Pork Producers Council, wrote in a statement that "telecommuting is not an option for us; we are reporting for work as always."

屠宰场、奶牛场和蔬菜生产商说，他们已经开始营业，随时为全国人民提供食物。全国猪肉生产商委员会主席霍华德·罗斯在一份声明中写道，“远程办公不是我们的选择;我们像往常一样报到上班。”

Food distributors and wholesalers in the middle of that supply chain, meanwhile, are trying to perform logistical miracles, redirecting truckloads of food from shuttered businesses toward places where people now crave it — mainly grocery stores.

与此同时，处于这条供应链中间的食品分销商和批发商正努力创造物流奇迹，将一车车的食品从停业的企业转移到人们现在渴望得到它们的地方，主要是杂货店。

There's an even bigger worry hanging over the food industry: The prospect of workers testing positive for COVID-19.

食品行业还有一个更大的担忧:工人检测出COVID-19呈阳性的前景。

When it happens, the response likely will go beyond sending that individual home — although that alone can be catastrophic to field workers who are paid, in part, based on their production. This week, the United Farm Workers union called on employers to expand paid sick leave for workers.

当这种情况发生时，人们的反应很可能不仅仅是把那个人送回家，尽管仅此一点就可能给那些部分根据产量获得报酬的现场工作人员带来灾难性的后果。本周，美国农场工人联合会呼吁雇主为工人增加带薪病假。

Vegetable growers are considering policies that would require quarantine for everyone who worked in close proximity to the infected person. That could easily include two dozen or more people. Workers on H-2A visas often live together, sharing kitchens and bedrooms and traveling together on buses. The virus could spread quickly, and measures to stop it will be extremely costly.

蔬菜种植者正在考虑制定相关政策，要求对所有在感染者附近工作的人实施隔离。这很容易包括二十多个人。持H-2A签证的工人经常住在一起，共用厨房和卧室，一起乘公共汽车旅行。病毒可能会迅速传播，而阻止它的措施将是极其昂贵的。

According to Steve Alameda, a vegetable grower in Yuma, Ariz., losing an entire 30-person work crew overnight will be extremely disruptive. Farmworkers already are hard to find, and replacing so many people immediately could prove impossible.

据亚利桑那州尤马市的蔬菜种植者史蒂夫·阿拉梅达说，一夜之间失去一整支30人的工作队伍将是极具破坏性的。农场工人已经很难找到了，要立即替换这么多人可能是不可能的。

"We've got enough disruption," Alameda says. "We don't need to disrupt our food supply, that would be really catastrophic."

“我们已经有足够的破坏，”阿拉梅达说我们不需要破坏我们的粮食供应，那将是真正的灾难。”