Here we are, in the middle of a second week of hanging out at home, waiting for the Coronavirus. Now is when we see the numbers start to climb. Soon they will grow at a frightening, exponential rate. It’s hard to just sit and home and watch it happen.
Of course, agriculture is an exempt industry. So growers can go to work. And that’s good, as crops and critters don’t grow themselves, no matter what some folks might think.
In farming, there’s always another job to do. So farmers can go about their business, and their workers can travel from home to work. However, they should carry a letter that says what they do, who they do it for, and that their job is exempt.
This is all part of this strange new world we are in. It is going to get worse. The numbers are going to climb. The stay at home order is being enforced by law enforcement in some areas, and people are being threatened with jail time if they break the new rules. What’s more, the Governor has called up the National Guard, allegedly to pass out food in the Sacramento area.
This stay at home order feels so wrong, so un-American, yet the course of the disease in China and Italy shows this is the only thing that will work. Some people don’t seem to understand that we’re faced with a disease that is easily transmitted from person to person, and people are highly contagious before they know they are sick. That’s a very bad combination. Add to it that the disease can be deadly, especially to seniors or people with underlying health problems, and we have a big problem.
Fortunately, it is a problem time will solve. This too shall pass. In a few days or weeks, it will peak, then it will slow and, we hope, disappear. We can beat this disease. All we have to do is sit on our couches and wait it out. It is time to do nothing, which will be the best of all things to do.
I’m Len Wilcox and that’s the Western View from AgNet West and Citrus Industry Magazine.
About the Author
Len Wilcox
Len Wilcox is a retired scientist who also ran a newspaper and has written for agricultural publications since the 1980s. He was a regular contributor to California Farmer Magazine. His commentary “The Western View” is a regular feature on Farm City Newsday and AgNet West.