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Coronavirus and food supply: Visa bottleneck raises labor concerns - Los Angeles Times
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- Coronavirus and food supply: Visa bottleneck raises labor concerns - Los Angeles Times
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Christopher Valadez, president of the Grower-Shipper Assn. of Central California, an industry group in Salinas, said he scrambled to assure that early adopters of restrictive ordinances exempt all sectors of the food supply chain from their prohibitions on crowds and personal interactions. Several of the Bay-Area counties appeared to have overlooked food processing, which can include anything from chopping and mixing greens in prepared salad bags to making pizza sauce from tomatoes. Monterey County's ordinance, crafted with substantial industry input, included a wide exemption for agriculture. "We believe because of what's planted and what's going to be harvested that we can meet the demand and maintain the continuity of the food supply, " Valadez said. "The question is the labor equation. The crops are going to be there. But what are we going to be able to do to get the crops out of the ground? " Carole Shandler, chief executive of SGS Produce in Los Angeles, said she was pleasantly astonished when her workforce of about 90 pledged to stay on the job.
Countries and communities without electricity access present a major barrier to this goal. Energy poverty matters
Australia enjoys a relatively reliable electricity network, even in remote parts of the country. There are also systems in place to keep vaccines cold in the event of a power outage, such as backup power. But around the world, even in the Pacific neighbourhood, energy poverty is widespread and persistent. Covid-19 has created a vicious circle for these nations. The pandemic has forced governments to shift priorities, leading to less funding for electricity infrastructure. In some countries, progress in electricity access has reversed for the first time in many years. The International Energy Agency (IEA) says this reversal is being worst felt in Sub-Saharan Africa. Makeshift huts in Port Moresby with a cruise ship in the background. Energy poverty is widespread in the Asia-Pacific. Photo: Saeed Khan/AFP
There, 580 million people lack access to electricity – three quarters of the world's total.
Australia's nearest neighbour, Papua New Guinea, is battling an unfolding Covid crisis. The Morrison government is urgently deploying 8, 000 vaccine doses to the nation's health workers – but poor electricity access means there are serious questions over PNG's broader vaccine roll-out. Vaccine supplies must be stored at cold or ultra-cold temperatures along the supply chain. Importantly, when the vaccines reach hospitals and medical centres in PNG, stable electricity will be needed to power refrigerators to store the doses before they're administered to patients. Currently only about 13% of Papua New Guinea's eight million people have reliable access to electricity. This is not an isolated problem. In 2019, about 770 million people globally lived in "energy poverty", without access to electricity – and the problem has grown worse due to Covid. Australia is working to provide one million doses for wider distribution in PNG. But the pandemic only truly ends when the vaccines are rolled out globally.
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Community Health Centers of the Central Coast had no confirmed cases among the 110, 000 rural patients served at 31 clinics in Santa Barbara and San Luis Obispo counties, said Steve Mahr, director of marketing and communication for the not-for-profit network. About 40, 000 of the network's clients report their occupations as farmworkers, Mahr said. The network was setting up heated tents for triage at some of its 31 centers that don't already have separate "sick rooms, " Mahr said. Valadez said transportation from packing facilities appears to be operating well, a sentiment confirmed by large shippers contacted by The Times. Two reported an uptick in demand consistent with supplying grocery stores beset by panic buyers. The Trump administration has suspended time limitations on truck drivers as part of its virus response. An agriculture industry source said operations dependent on food-service clients could suffer irreparable economic harm. The inability of the retail side to absorb the unused supply could leave a paradox of empty bins in grocery stores while food rots in the fields.
Rabobank Research predicts that effects of the pandemic will last several months. It already has affected parts of the food economy few think about, such as the boxes it's packed in — cardboard production largely halted in China in January and February, driving up prices. Aside from the concerns about the coronavirus outbreak, growers were dealing with a more familiar uncertainty: weather. Wholesalers report that unusually heavy rains have created an "extreme" market for many produce items, including carrots, peppers, squash, potatoes and cauliflower. California's citrus industry has had to slow or pause harvest during the prolonged rains of the last week, according to California Citrus Mutual. The industry had hoped to overcome most of the supply imbalances as it shifted production north and into additional states. Then the pandemic hit.
Fewer than 11% of countries in Africa and South Asia reported having such a program. This was thought to be partly due to a lack of systems for storage and delivery. Alarmingly, a recent study suggested more than 85 less-developed countries will not have widespread access to COVID vaccines until 2023. Many are relying on the World Health Organisation's COVAX initiative, which aims to secure six billion doses of vaccine for less developed countries. Similarly, the Quad regional grouping – Australia, the US, Japan, and India – recently pledged to boost vaccine production and distribution for Asian and Pacific island countries. But without access to reliable electricity, the roll-out of these vaccines will be hampered. This is particularly an issue in countries with remote and dispersed populations. There, keeping the vaccine cold over the "last mile" of distribution and storage may prove impossible. Energy access is key
Communities experiencing energy poverty, such as in PNG, face other setbacks when it comes to managing the pandemic.
The United Farm Workers union said hygiene practices and worker protection are hardly uniform across California crops and fields. "Historically, farmworkers are so used to not having healthcare they just put up with being sick, " said Armando Elenes, secretary-treasurer of the United Farm Workers. "They're going to go to work, and on the way to work, they'll be in a car with four, five or six workers. So 'social distancing'? Forget that. " Workers seeking information from employers are not getting it, while they are bombarded with rumors on social media, Elenes said. They also report being asked for doctors' notes or facing ridicule for asking for any of the 24 hours of paid sick leave mandated by law, Elenes said. Coronavirus cases have been confirmed in agricultural counties across the state, such as San Diego, Sacramento, Riverside, Imperial, Ventura, Santa Barbara, Fresno, Marin, Monterey, San Joaquin, San Luis Obispo, Solano, Sonoma, San Benito, Stanislaus, Tulare and Yolo. There is no indication the virus has so far reached farmworkers themselves.
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Former Vice President Joe Biden's leftward shift on political issues is garnering the attention of prominent media outlets across the country, most notably now the Washington Post and the Wall Street Journal. On Sunday, the Post reported that a slew of new policy recommendations from the unity task force set up earlier this year by Biden and his vanquished primary rival, Sen. Bernie Sanders (I-VT), indicated "a fundamental shift in the political landscape. " "It's a remarkable turn for a candidate who was once defined by incrementalism but is now attempting to show voters how he'd grapple with tens of thousands of Americans dying from a global pandemic, an economy in tatters, and a country wracked by a reckoning over racism, " the outlet reported, adding that some of the task force's proposals, such as building "500 million solar panels, slashing U. S. carbon emissions within 15 years, and rapidly expanding a government-sponsored health care plan, " would have been unthinkable just a few years prior.
The losses they made from investing in Equity Income on the back of its support for the fund will not be made good. The revamp is not without its faults. Eyebrows will be raised at the continued involvement of Mark Dampier in the overseeing of the so-called Wealth Shortlist. It was Dampier, as head of research at Hargreaves Lansdown, who did more than anyone to champion Woodford and ensure his funds (Equity Income and Income Focus) remained on the Wealth 50 – the precursor to the Shortlist. In keeping him on board, it could be argued that Hargreaves Lansdown has not made a clean enough break from its past problems. Then, there is the omission of some of the country's most respected investment funds – for example, Fundsmith Equity and Lindsell Train Global Equity – which casts doubts on the robustness of the list. There is also not one investment trust among its 68 fund favourites which seems crazy given many of these are among the country's biggest listed companies. In addition, you could argue the Wealth Shortlist is no more than an extension of Wealth 50 with 18 added funds.