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You can work from home, shop from home, and call friends from home.

But you can’t farm from home.

That’s why La Conner area farmers and farmworkers are adopting new habits as they comply with new rules from the Washington State Department of Labor and Industries.

To protect workers from the COVID-19 virus, agricultural employers must implement an effective social distancing plan, ensure frequent and adequate handwashing by employees, and increase cleaning and sanitation of commonly touched surfaces. Sick workers must stay home or be isolated and everyone must be educated in how to prevent transmission in a language they understand.

All workers wear masks at Ralph’s Greenhouse on Calhoun Road, which grows leeks, spinach, and other specialty vegetables.

Owner Ray deVries says one person is assigned to sanitize doorknobs and other items the crew touches. The farm is using cloth towels, due to the recent shortage of paper towels. “We are like a fancy restaurant,” he said. “We’re not totally sure whether we’ll go back because we don’t want to waste paper, and cloth is pretty nice.”

In the fields, people work hard to maintain a six-foot distance, and when it’s time to move from one field to another, “we take two buses instead of one, so people can sit in every other row.”

At Hedlin Farms, workers stagger themselves as they weed down rows, and hot water handwashing stations are everywhere.

Another farm near LaConner that began taking precautionary measures in February now washes “everything we touch, even cars” said the crew manager, who asked not to be identified. Because workers stay home except to work and buy groceries, “everything is good.”

But are the rules strong enough? LaConner resident Rosalinda Guillen, Executive Director of Community to Community Development, is not sure. Her organization was one of several that filed a lawsuit in Skagit County in April urging Labor and Industries to strengthen health and safety standards to protect agriculture workers from COVID-19.

“One person on a tractor, fine,” she said. “But when you’re talking about pruning, stringing berries, working in a potato packing shed—these workers are used to working in groups, and the information from Labor and Industries is confusing.”

Guillen says phrases like ‘if you can’ and ‘we recommend’ are not strong enough. She also notes that growers are not mandated to report COVID-19 cases to the county health department, and she has doubts about the state’s capacity to respond to dangerous working conditions.

“Workplace safety rules in agriculture are complaint-based. Labor and Industries has told us that responding to a complaint could take up to three months,” she explained. “The fastest response would be a couple of weeks—during a pandemic!

“The only way to save lives right now is to establish rules that are enforceable and have the mechanisms, funding and the personnel to enforce them.”

Guillen’s work primarily focuses on corporate farms that operate in eastern Washington. Having grown up on a farm near LaConner, “I know people like the Hedlins are doing everything they can to keep farmworkers safe,” she said. “They are not the problem.”

“The problem” is hydra-headed for farmworkers considered essential, but often treated as unwanted. Immigrants who work on farms of all sizes are demonized by the prevailing political climate and don’t qualify for stimulus payments and other aid.

Because they tend to be paid by the hour and are not insured by their employers, they may have difficulty accessing health care, although a new state rule extends COVID-19-related coverage to “Alien Emergency Medical Clients”.

In and around LaConner, farmworkers are essential and wanted.

“We appreciate the people who work for us and the work that they do,” said DeVries. “Just like electricians or carpenters, they are skilled workers. They know how to run machinery and know what they are looking for when picking, and they are very hard to replace.”

Dean Swanson agrees. Two generations of the Sanchez family of Mount Vernon have “worked their tails off” at Swanson’s Farm every summer for 15 years—going on to higher educations and professional careers.

“The second year I told them, ‘think of this as your farm’,” he said.

At the core of the Hedlin Farms crew are four brothers who have worked for the Hedlins for over 20 years. “They are as close to family as you can get, and there is no divide in how we are managing family versus farmworkers,” said Farm Manager Kai Ottesen.

To Guillen, farmworker safety means community safety during the pandemic.

“Protecting farmworkers from COVID-19 is not about apples, and isn’t an issue between labor and employer,” she said. “It’s about community health. These workplaces are in our communities. It affects all of us.”

“There’s no room for a double standard,” said Ottesen.