Committee To Help Food and Agricultural Workers Formed

(KNSI) – Minnesota will gather experts to help frontline workers who continue to feed everyone through the pandemic.

Executive Order 21-14 establishes the Governor’s Committee on the Safety, Health, and Wellbeing of Agricultural and Food Processing Workers. The governor signed the order on Friday.

The committee’s goal will be to remember and protect everyone who grows and prepares the food we eat.

The committee has started coordinating resources to ensure worker safety as the COVID-19 pandemic continues. The committee will focus on housing, transportation, and workplace safety.

Committee members will also help plan and give recommendations for changes to protect agricultural and food processing workers.

According to Governor Tim Walz, farm and food industry workers often worked long hours under tough conditions to put food on peoples’ tables – and the work continued despite the pandemic. Now more than ever, agricultural and food processing workers’ health and safety must be a top priority for Minnesota.

The committee will bring together community groups, labor leaders, employers, and representatives from state agencies to help keep workers safe as the COVID-19 pandemic continues. The committee will focus on housing, transportation, and how workers are treated on the job.

Committee members will also help plan for future needs and provide recommendations for state policy and legislative changes to protect agricultural and food processing workers.

According to a press release, COVID-19 has made it clear that many workers we may not think about every day are truly essential to our lives.

The governor says grocery store workers, daycare providers, and custodial staff are frontline workers, just like first responders.

Agricultural production and food processing in Minnesota generates over $112 billion annually in total economic impact and support more than 431,000 jobs.

___