May 1, 2019

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Labor

Featured stories covering labor in this issue.

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Air quality advisory levels. Sources: Washington State Department of Health and State of Washington Department of Ecology. (Jared Johnson/Good Fruit Grower)

Healthy strategies for smoky skies

Reducing the risk of listeria: Video

Lessons learned from leafy greens

Tents and mobile housing give Coral Beach Farms’ seasonal employees sweeping views of the cherry blocks and surrounding hills of Coldstream, British Columbia. Flanked by outdoor recreation and picturesque views, the tree fruit industry of British Columbia is a hot spot for employees who are backpacking through the region and are allowed to camp on the farms. Foreign laborers hired through federal government work programs must have separate and more structured resident units. (TJ Mullinax/Good Fruit Grower)

Working holidays a lifestyle for some ag workers

Recruiting researchers requires patience

Vineyards require a lot of skilled labor, but local workers are increasingly in short supply. Here, Bob Miller harvests Merlot grapes at a Lake Roosevelt vineyard near Creston, Washington, in 2016. (Shannon Dininny/Good Fruit Grower)

Small growers find a new way to H-2A

Communication key to managing workplace complaints

Easing restrictions for farmworker housing

A gift of genetic diversity

The dream of automated tractors nears reality, with add-on technology such as this equipment that can turn a regular tractor into a robot, as Washington growers and industry leaders saw on a recent trip to the Netherlands. A new approach to the technology roadmap aims to outline the need for such innovations to guide entrepreneurs and growers into the future of orchard management.(Courtesy Washington State University)

On the road to tech

Rogue economics in the vineyard: Video

Randomization of on-farm trials keeps field variability and other factors from clouding the results with bias, to let the effect of treatments shine through. In the example above, a grower has only two treatments — a treatment and a control — and uses blocking to reduce variability in soil content, moisture or ambient temperature due to a hillside. (Courtesy Sustainable Agriculture Research and Education)

DIY science in the orchard

Willett: A long history of scraping by

A 2-pound bag for the Cosmic Crisp apple.(Courtesy Proprietary Variety Management, PVM)

Packaging options for Cosmic Crisp

Michael Mitterer, a young grower from Kastelbell, South Tyrol, Italy

Grading on a Cosmic scale