Many farms, from vertical farming startups to traditional specialty crop growers, are marketing greenhouses as a way to shelter crops from climate extremes. But overlooked are the experiences of workers inside, who may swelter under high heat and humidity, reports Toronto City News.
To harvest tomatoes, peppers and cucumbers, to clip herbs, to prune and propagate succulents, people work in oppressive heat and humidity. Some wring out shirts soaked with sweat. Some contend with headaches, dizziness and nausea. Some collapse. Some hover on the brink of exhaustion, backs straining, breathing heavily, reports the Huron Daily Tribune.
"The heat is unbearable and the humidity equally so," said Estela Martinez, speaking in Spanish of the six years she worked in a nursery in Florida. "I lost too much weight because my T-shirts were coming out soaked, soaked from the heat inside."
The number of greenhouse and nursery workers has increased by over 16,000 in recent years, according to the latest U.S. agricultural census, and there are still no federal heat rules to protect them.