Per a press release, AeroFarms has been recognized in Fast Company's World Changing Ideas package for the third year in a row. The company placed in four categories: General Excellence, AI & Data, food and space and places and cities. AeroFarms was a finalist in both the General Excellence and AI & Data and a honorable mention in the food and spaces and places and cities categories.
AeroFarms' announcement read as follows:
"Our mission is to grow the best plants possible for the betterment of humanity, and we are honored to be recognized among a group of trailblazing companies working to change the world. At AeroFarms, we have developed our own patented indoor vertical farming technology to completely transform the way fresh, safe, healthy, and tasty food is grown at scale. We are not just a farm–we are a group of full-stack, world-class experts where horticulture intersects with engineering, food safety, data science, and nutrition, giving us the unique capability to understand plant biology in an unprecedented way.
In addition to being recognized for our innovative use of AI & Data to grow our plants, we are proud to be recognized for our commitment to revitalizing Spaces, Places & Cities, and bringing green jobs and fresh food to cities. Each of our farms has a unique story breathing new life into abandoned buildings. One of our commercial farms and corporate HQ is built on the site of a former abandoned steel mill in an industrial section of Newark, NJ.
And it doesn’t stop there — we are working with top tastemakers and chefs like David Chang, and leading researchers at Cornell and Rutgers and the Foundation for Food and Agriculture Research on cutting-edge science to create the next generation of Food that has greatest nutrient-density and flavor around…and the results have been absolutely delicious."
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How to handle a positive COVID-19 test
Follow these steps if one of your employees tests positive for the novel coronavirus.
As the number of COVID-19 cases rises each day, more and more business owners are finding out an employee has tested positive for the new coronavirus. Don’t let this possibility catch you flat-footed and wondering what to do.
Jonathan Theders, CEO of RiskSOURCE Clark-Theders, a Cincinnati-based agency that serves 4,000 customers nationwide, said it’s the employer’s responsibility to respond swiftly to a positive test. The company’s response should have two goals: protect the health of its employees while preserving the anonymity of the affected employee.
Here are a few steps to take if you find out an employee has COVID-19.
First, don’t freak out. When an employee notifies you that he or she is sick with COVID-19, respond calmly and empathetically. It can be easy to overreact, but you need to ensure that the infected employee is treated with compassion.
Reassure the employee that their identity will remain confidential. Be sure to help them coordinate taking leave or paid time off until they’ve recovered. When in doubt over how to handle that, defer to your company policy.
"The employer has the challenge of how they are going to address that from a compensation standpoint," Theders said. "Time off, sick leave, none: I’ll oftentimes go to whatever’s in their handbook."
Next, you need to ask the employee who they have been in contact with over the last two weeks. Obtaining this information is essential so that you can directly notify customers and other employees that they may have been directly exposed to COVID-19.
Notifying employees and customers
Without disclosing the identity of the infected employee, you need to notify their co-workers, customers and the rest of the company.
Theders said that it is important to respect the privacy of the employee throughout this situation.
"You’re not saying 'John has coronavirus!'" he said. "Will people figure it out when John isn’t at work? Probably. But that is not something you broadcast."
He also advises connecting with a labor attorney or HR risk consultant, who can dictate any particulars specific to your state or jurisdiction.
When notifying co-workers or customers, be sure to remain calm. Let them know that someone they have been in contact with or has been in their physical work area has tested positive for COVID-19.
"Because of their right to privacy you don’t say the person’s name, but you’d say ‘we have an employee who developed coronavirus, we have been told that you have had interaction with them, we’re going to ask you to self-quarantine for 14 days,'" Theders said.
Along with recommending self-quarantine, ask them to monitor themselves for the symptoms of COVID-19. If feasible, allow eligible employees to work from home during this time.
Be sure to notify the rest of the company by email or letter that an employee has tested positive for COVID-19, even if they haven’t had any interaction with the affected individual. Remember to keep the employee’s identity protected and be transparent about your response. The communication should include what steps your company will be taking to protect the health of other employees. If you plan on having employees work from home for the next 14 days or closing the office, this information should be disclosed in the communication.
A clean environment
After notifying the rest of the company and your customers about the positive test, you must ensure a safe work environment for your other employees.
According to the Centers for Disease Control, COVID-19 can stay on hard surfaces for up to 12 hours. This creates a risk of transmission. You may want to consider closing the office for a few days after the positive test was discovered until a thorough cleaning can take place. All surfaces that the infected employee may have touched should be disinfected, including commonly touched surfaces, like countertops, cabinets, doorknobs, handles and chairs.
Penn State Extension is hosting a webinar on U.S. travel restrictions on foreign workers due to the coronavirus crisis. As changes to the H-2A visa program for temporary workers threaten to disrupt the harvest for growers and the production/supply of essential food items overall, this educational event will help produce growers understand the new H-2A rules to ensure that their crops are picked and processed in a timely manner.
The webinar, on May 7 from 6:30 - 8:00 p.m. EST, will be a live town hall style event. It is free of charge but registration must be completed, at the latest, by 5:30 pm on the day of the webinar. Click here to register.
The subject-matter experts include rook Duer, Staff Attorney at the Penn State Center for Agricultural and Shale Law; Grant Meckley, Pennsylvania Keystone Health’s Agricultural Worker Program; Scott Sheely, Executive Director of the Lancaster County Agriculture Council; and Richard Stup, Agricultural Workforce Specialist at Cornell Cooperative Extension. Also joining us will be Alyssa Charney, Agriculture Legislative Assistant from Senator Casey’s Office.
A red pepper growing in a Greenhill Produce greenhouse
Photo: Greenhill Produce
43 workers at Canadian operation Greenhill Produce have the coronavirus
The virus spread among workers who occupied a shared living space.
Public health officials in Chatham-Kent are working to contain a major COVID-19 outbreak among migrant workers at a greenhouse facility.
The public health unit said that as of Monday evening there were 43 positive cases at Greenhill Produce in Chatham-Kent.
"No one should panic whatsoever," cautioned Medical Officer of Health Dr. David Colby. “Chatham-Kent’s numbers are among the lowest in the province, even taking this into account."
About 250 people work at Greenhill, and come from a number of countries including Guatemala, Jamaica and Mexico. They stay on-site in bunkhouses, and for that reason Colby said the virus is easier to contain.
"This is not a company that the public has access to, so we will be able to contain this in the situation where it is. None of the cases are severe enough to require admission to hospital. They can be isolated where they are."
The U.S. Department of
Agriculture (USDA) Agricultural Marketing Service (AMS) released its
solicitation for proposals for the Farmers to Families food box program to
purchase and distribute $100 million a month of fresh fruit and vegetables for
approximately six months. USDA will award contracts to entities that can
procure, package, and deliver fresh produce boxes to identified food banks,
food pantries, churches, schools, community groups, and other non-profit and
governmental organizations.
Tomorrow:
Webinar Notice The USDA Agricultural Marketing Service (AMS) will host a webinar
on Wednesday, April 29,
2020, at 2 p.m. EDT, for farmers
(growers), shippers and other suppliers interested in learning
more about the Farmers to Families Food Box Program. This webinar is an
opportunity for these parties to learn how to supply produce, dairy and meat
products to vendors supplying food boxes to non-profits and other entities
feeding hungry Americans. Interested participants should register for the webinar. Recordings of USDA’s previous
webinars and calls can be found here.
United Fresh Farmers to Families Webpage Please visit United Fresh’s new Farmers to Families webpage for a host of information about this program, including:
Link to RFP and important dates
FAQs
Links to previous webinars
Additional Resources
*New* Feeding America Resource Document USDA’s RFP encourages collaboration with nonprofits including food banks, food pantries, schools, churches, and other 501c3 organizations. Feeding America is one of the network of food banks that can be included in the proposal.
Please find a guidance document on working with Feeding America and their direct website for parties interested in distributing to their food banks