Food producers stiffen biosecurity
Protocols for plant health can protect humans, growers group official says
When a farm worker showed up for work last month at Lakeside Produce with a cough, it triggered a fast and furious response by the large-scale grower.
And that prepared rapid response proved effective and provides possible lessons for other businesses during a global pandemic.
Well before COVID-19 arrived in North America, likely aboard a passenger jet from abroad, the
Leamington-based business, with about 530 employees engaged in growing, harvesting and selling greenhouse tomatoes, peppers and cucumbers, studied and then concluded last year that it was just a matter of time before some awful new disease would invade its hightech agricultural operation
“Whether through a plant or a person, there would be a virus — it was inevitable,” Sudeshna Nambiar, Lakeside’s chief operating officer, told the Star.
Last November, the company launched a plan with a set of guidelines that included educating workers on possible dangers — including SARS, another contagious coronavirus that predates COVID-19 — and established processes and protocols to help counter such perils.
An emergency biosecurity team was created and, armed with tablets, its seven members have been making the rounds and ensuring ever since the new guidelines are enforced and training continues.
“It wasn’t easy,” said Nambiar, whose education background includes a master’s degree in immunology.
On March 17, the province declared a COVID-19 emergency, a day after Lakeside had already taken the initiative of closing all entry and exit points at its local greenhouse operation, restricted visitors and erected a testing area under a tent at a single entry point. Arriving workers are questioned, temperatures checked and face masks, shields, gloves and body suits distributed.
On April 1, a Lakeside employee from Windsor arrived for work — and coughed.
The worker was immediately instructed to return home for a five-day observation period. Using workplace video surveillance and entrance logs, the employer quickly tracked who that worker had been in close contact with over the previous 72 hours, and six other employees were also instructed to remain at home.
“They had no symptoms, but we pulled them out the same day,” said Nambiar. Those workers were also asked to self-isolate for a five-day period, and local public health authorities were alerted and asked to test them for COVID-19.
Another local contract worker brought the coronavirus in on April 13. In total, 13 Lakeside workers — 10 locals and three migrant seasonals — tested positive for COVID-19 and were instructed to self-isolate for 14 days. To monitor their progress, Nambiar said the company calls each twice a day, while the Windsor-essex County Health Unit also makes a daily checkup call.
On Saturday, the last of the quarantined employees returns to work at Lakeside.
“That’s all, we don’t have any more cases — we broke the chain,” said Nambiar.
Compare Lakeside’s experience to Greenhill Produce, a greenhouse vegetable grower that employs 250 in Chatham-kent.
As of this week, Greenhill had reported 52 COVID-19 positive cases among its employees to the Chatham-kent Public Health. But it’s worse — while that figure represents more than half of Chatham-kent’s total current caseload, it does not include about a dozen additional workers from the Leamington area who tested positive for the virus but whose cases were reported to the Windsor-essex County Health Unit.
Chatham-kent medical officer of health Dr. David Colby said it wasn’t migrant workers who started the outbreak at Greenhill but it was among the seasonal employees living in crowded bunkhouse conditions the disease was able to spread more widely.
“We recognize this is a more high-risk group,” said Windsor-essex County Health Unit medical officer of health Dr. Wajid Ahmed. Housing, culture and language are all factors that make the thousands of foreign workers employed in agriculture in the local region more vulnerable, he said.
Ahmed said his health unit is working closely with farm industry groups, municipalities, health organizations and those who help migrant farm labourers. One of its tasks is inspecting seasonal housing. Most local growers are “pretty good” at abiding by “strict (Ontario) Ministry of Labour guidelines,” he said.
Justine Taylor, science and government relations manager with the Ontario Greenhouse Vegetable Growers organization, said local farmers are keenly aware of what’s needed to avoid costly problems due to COVID-19.
“The same protocols put in place for plant health can be used for human health,” she said. Greenhill Produce was “very fortunate,” said Taylor, with a strong community response that saw about 100 residents and recruitment agency hires respond to an urgent appeal for assistance during peak harvesting season when many regular employees were sidelined due to the coronavirus.
Highline Mushrooms in Kingsville reported four migrant workers testing positive for COVID-19 in late April, while Leamington cannabis grower High Park Co., a subsidiary of Tilray Inc., reported a positive case of a worker “from a third-party employment agency” to the local health unit on May 11 and responded by doing contact tracing and then having 12 of its workers from the same shift or who were in close contact go into self-isolation.
In a message on the company website, Highline president and CEO Aaron Hamer said Plexiglas screens have been installed between work stations and shifts have been increased to allow for increased distancing and reduced numbers of people to accommodate during lunch and other breaks. Hamer said employees not feeling well won’t lose their pay “because of medically necessary quarantining or because we have asked them to stay home” due to Highline’s policy on dealing with COVID-19.
“We will be closely monitoring the situation to ensure the health and safety of our employees and the Leamington community and will advise the health unit in the days ahead,” Tilray spokeswoman Chrissy Roebuck said in a statement to the Star on Wednesday.
Nambiar said Lakeside Produce wants to be transparent and educate the public about how it is dealing with COVID -19 and about the measures being taken to protect workers, the company and the community.
“We want to thank all the doctors and all the nurses for what they are doing,” she said. “But we are also an essential service because we produce food.”