National

The U.S. food system depends on up to 2.7 million farmworkers, most of whom are undocumented, to pick fresh fruits and vegetables, Michael Haedicke, an agricultural sociologist at Drake University, writes.

Driving the news: Their living and working conditions do not lend themselves to social distancing.

Up to 10 people may live in dormitory-like bunkhouses with shared bathrooms. 

They travel from site to site in shared cars and trucks.

They’re exposed to dangerous pesticides and lung irritants, such as pollen and crop dust, that contribute to coronavirus complications and worsen infections.

Not many clinics or hospitals are available in rural areas.

Undocumented farmworkers are not covered by the Affordable Care Act.

The pandemic is making a farmworker labor shortage worse:

U.S. embassies are operating on reduced staff and services, which means longer wait times for the H-2A worker visas.

International travel restrictions resulted in a two-week delay in the arrival of farmworkers to Vermont from Jamaica. The state’s Agency for Agriculture had to charter a plane to bring workers into the state, Alyson Eastman, the agency’s deputy secretary, told lawmakers last week. 

Canada, which also relies on some 60,000 seasonal farmworkers to pick fruit and vegetables, has a 14-day quarantine period before farmworkers who enter the country can start working, per Reuters.

One Ontario farmer, Mike Chromczak, told Reuters his farm stands to lose more than half its revenue if the labor from Jamaica doesn't arrive within the next two weeks to pick asparagus. 

Pruning work, which affects fruit yields, on another Ontario farm is past due because the farmworkers are in quarantine.

The bottom line: “If the farm doesn’t produce, the city doesn’t eat,” Abad Hernandez Cruz told Reuters as he harvested onions in Georgia.

Farmworkers risk coronavirus to keep supermarkets stocked with fresh food

The U.S. food supply depends on 2.7 million farmworkers.

Agricultural workers have become essential workers in the race to maintain Americas food supply while simultaneously staying healthy. Photo: Brent Stirton/Getty Images

Health Care

Coronavirus

Business

<p>The U.S. food system depends on up to 2.7 million farmworkers, most of whom are undocumented, to pick fresh fruits and vegetables, <a class="gtmContentClick" data-vars-link-text="Michael Haedicke" data-vars-click-url="https://katu.com/news/coronavirus/how-coronavirus-threatens-seasonal-farmworkers-at-the-heart-of-the-us-food-supply" data-vars-content-id="3b006a8b-6f5a-4b92-ac04-454b170321d6" data-vars-headline="Farmworkers risk coronavirus to keep supermarkets stocked with fresh food" data-vars-event-category="story" data-vars-sub-category="story" data-vars-item="in_content_link" href="https://katu.com/news/coronavirus/how-coronavirus-threatens-seasonal-farmworkers-at-the-heart-of-the-us-food-supply" target="_blank">Michael Haedicke</a>, an agricultural sociologist at Drake University, writes.</p><p><strong>Driving the news: </strong>Their living and working conditions do not lend themselves to social distancing.</p>

The U.S. faces a range of health care flashpoints — unaffordable drugs, opioids, vaping — as we debate whether to adopt universal care. For now, the Affordable Care Act is the law of the land, but Republicans want to issue it a final death blow.

Health

After a record economic expansion, the coronavirus pandemic sent the U.S. economy into a recession as unemployment soared to staggering heights. The country now faces urgent questions about how much stimulus is needed for reeling consumers and businesses, and what a recovery might look like.

Economy & Business

West Bank annexation appears to be off the table for now, after the U.S. brokered a normalization deal between Israel and the United Arab Emirates.

Why it matters: Trump spoke about for annexation for the first time since presenting his peace plan on January 28. However, Israeli Prime Minister Netanyahu and UAE Crown Prince Mohammed Bin Zayed gave contradictory remarks about the annexation in their statements on the deal. 

Netanyahu characterized it as a temporary suspension, while Bin Zayed said the deal stopped annexation.

For the record: Trump twice deferred questions about the differences between Israel and the UAE to the U.S. ambassador to Israel, David Friedman, who said: “We prioritized peace in the region over West Bank annexation...you can't have peace and annexation at the same time"

What Trump is saying:  “Israel agreed not to annex parts of the West Bank. It is more than taking it off the table — they agreed not to do it. This is a very smart concession by Israel. It is off the table now”. 

What the U.S. ambassador is saying: Annexation is off the table now but might be discussed again in the future.

What's next: Trump also said at the press conference he wants to convene a summit between Israel and the United Arab Emirates at the White House in three weeks to sign the deal. 

The U.S. president sees the Israel-UAE deal as one of his landmark foreign policy achievements and a boost his election campaign. 

Trump said more Arab countries are already talking to the White House in order to follow the UAE and normalize relations with Israel.

Trump: West Bank annexation is "off the table" after Israel-UAE normalize relations

But Israel and the UAE are at odds over whether annexation will be revisited.

World

Israeli-Palestinian peace process

Politics

Israel

<p><br/></p><div><div class="iframe-responsive-wrapper"><iframe allowfullscreen="" frameBorder="0" height="270" scrolling="auto" src="https://cdn.jwplayer.com/previews/PImmEC84-AeXnLRNE" title="Public Affairs Events-5 59 41 Pm - 6 00 43 Pm-2020-08-13" width="480"></iframe></div><div style="display:none"></div></div><p>West Bank annexation appears to be off the table for now, after the U.S. brokered a normalization deal between Israel and the United Arab Emirates.</p><p><strong>Why it matters: </strong>Trump spoke about for annexation for the first time since presenting his peace plan on January 28. However, Israeli Prime Minister Netanyahu and UAE Crown Prince Mohammed Bin Zayed gave contradictory remarks about the annexation in their statements on the deal. </p><ul><li>Netanyahu characterized it as a temporary suspension, while Bin Zayed said the deal stopped annexation.</li></ul><p><strong>For the record: </strong>Trump twice deferred questions about the differences between Israel and the UAE to the U.S. ambassador to Israel, David Friedman, who said: “We prioritized peace in the region over West Bank annexation...you can&#x27;t have peace and annexation at the same time&quot;</p><p><strong>What Trump is saying: </strong> “Israel agreed not to annex parts of the West Bank. It is more than taking it off the table — they agreed not to do it. This is a very smart concession by Israel. It is off the table now”. </p><p><strong>What the U.S. ambassador is saying: </strong>Annexation is off the table now but might be discussed again in the future.</p><p><strong>What&#x27;s next: </strong>Trump also said at the press conference he wants to convene a summit between Israel and the United Arab Emirates at the White House in three weeks to sign the deal. </p><ul><li>The U.S. president sees the Israel-UAE deal as one of his landmark foreign policy achievements and a boost his election campaign. </li><li>Trump said more Arab countries are already talking to the White House in order to follow the UAE and normalize relations with Israel.</li></ul><span data-ad-status="NO_AD_LENGTH" data-ad-type="midStoryAd"></span>

China is becoming the most formidable rival America has faced, and the risk of confrontation with Russia, North Korea or Iran still looms. Authoritarians are rising, the chaotic Afghanistan exit revealed the limits of U.S. power, and the pandemic, climate change and other critical challenges continue to pose grave threats.

The concept of community policing, or a framework for forging stronger relationships between police departments and the communities they serve, is seeing renewed interest in cities as a way to rebuild trust and repair racial rifts.

Why it matters: A national shift back to true community policing would reshape how officers spend their time and resources, with a much greater priority on solving everyday problems in neighborhoods before they develop into the need to make arrests and issue tickets. 

While this policing strategy has been criticized as too "soft," proponents say the emphasis on de-escalation, daily engagement with residents and a greater sense of empathy and tolerance is exactly what's needed to defuse the national outrage over police brutality against African Americans. 

"When people have an understanding of what community policing really is, the practicality of community policing, they are much more receptive. People want to see their neighborhood police officer because they know that person is the one who's going to respond. So when something does happen, it's a more positive interaction regardless of the situation, because of that relationship."

The backstory: Community policing was popular in the 1990s, but was de-prioritized after 9/11. Responding to possible terrorism threats became a larger focus, officers took on more homeland security-related duties, and a more militaristic culture took hold in police forces.

Since then, law enforcement experts say community policing has taken a back seat to more tactical police strategies. 

Now, people are seeing the value of it again as Americans look for ways to rebuild trust between police departments and the people they're supposed to serve. 

How it works: The Justice Department’s Community Oriented Police Services (COPS) program, created during the Clinton administration, was a top-to-bottom overhaul that moved police departments away from the traditional paramilitary structure to more transparency and community involvement. 

The program leveraged substantial grants and local commitments to add about 100,000 additional police officers to departments around the country. 

In 1997, 85% of police departments had implemented or were in the process of implementing community policing, before 9/11 shifted the mission of police departments.

Funds for community policing also withered during the economic downturn of the early 2000s.

By the numbers:  The Justice Department has proposed merging the COPS program into the Office of Justice Programs starting in October. 

The move would retain the hiring program and promote "policing innovations." 

The merger would slash COPS proposed funding to $99 million, less than one-third of its current appropriation, at a time when communities are asking for more training in de-escalation and other techniques to prevent excessive use of force. 

What's happening: Now, the community policing model has been getting new attention and, for some, is an argument against reallocating police budgets. 

At a Senate Judiciary Committee hearing this week, Durham, N.C., Police Chief Cerelyn "C.J." Davis said community engagement "would be the first section to go" if budgets are cut.  

"I don't think this country realizes how much work police do and have taken on in the social services realm," said Davis, who is president of the National Organization of Black Law Enforcement Executives. 

Effective community policing requires dedicated funding and detailed strategies to be effective, said David Thomas, former police officer and professor of forensics at Florida Gulf Coast University. 

As a police officer in Gainesville, Fla., in 1995 — the height of community policing — Thomas was part of a three-person team assigned to a high-crime area of town. He spent his time walking neighborhoods by foot, talking to local business owners, and sitting on porches with residents to find out what was happening on their block. 

When it was clear that rampant crack cocaine trade was the most pressing problem, they turned their attention to taking dealers off the streets, making 300 arrests for dealing in an eight-month period.

The drug forfeiture money was used to create a basketball program for the neighborhood kids. 

The other side: Community policing isn’t cheap and doesn’t lead to instant, quantifiable results. Building relationships, networking and information-sharing with residents don't always align with the modern data-driven methods that put a priority on increased arrest and warrant numbers. 

Some police unions have pushed back against the mandate, arguing playing football with kids and taking complaints from residents isn't the best use of uniformed officers' time. 

The bottom line: Improving relationships between the police and the public requires a broader change in police culture, a significant undertaking that won't happen overnight, said Greg Evans, a member of Eugene, Oregon's city council who also provides civil rights and anti-discrimination training for the Lane County Sheriff's Reserve Academy.

"Our police are trained on tactics, not on community service and engagement, and the curriculum is outdated," Evans said. "We really need structural reform in the department if we're ever going to make any substantive progress toward community policing and de-escalating reactions."

The return of community policing

There's renewed interest in it as a way to rebuild trust and repair racial rifts.

Illustration of a chalk drawing of a police badge on sidewalk.

Michele Salcedo

Stories

Trump: West Bank annexation is "off the table" after Israel-UAE normalize relations

The return of community policing

Farmworkers risk coronavirus to keep supermarkets stocked with fresh food