Thousands turn to backyard 'victory gardens' during pandemic

Nate and Josie Harlow, ages 7 and 4, respectively, plant tomatoes in their family victory garden near Lake City, Fla. Photo courtesy of Erin Harlow/University of Florida
ORLANDO, Fla., April 21 (UPI) -- Large numbers of Americans have started vegetable gardens while staying home as the coronavirus pandemic complicates grocery shopping and interrupts food supply chains.

University extension offices in Oregon, Florida and other states reported a surge in the volume of questions and signups for gardening programs, and seed companies reported booming sales.

The attraction of gardening is a combination of a distraction at home with the ability to eat fresh food without going out, experts said.

"We have over 29,000 registered for the free, online vegetable gardening course. Normally we might get 20 or 30 registered all year," said Gail Langellotto, professor of horticulture at Oregon State University and statewide coordinator of the master gardener program.

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Gardening grants us solace - research bears that out.
Digging in the soil is good for our mental health and we need that more than ever as we follow Gov. Kate Brown's order to "stay home, save lives." https://t.co/dE123wxHrI pic.twitter.com/bcTCEaNNJy— OregonStateUnivExt (@OregonStateExt) April 3, 2020

Novice issues, such as where to find the best place in a yard to plant, what grows on a shady balcony and why do plants look wilted or unhealthy dominate what is being asked of program volunteers, Langellotto said.

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"Our volunteers are usually at county fairs, farmers markets or stores to answer questions," she said. "Now, we are totally online, offering [virtual] consults to home-gardening clients in some counties."

Parents with children stuck at home use gardening as a distraction for the whole family, Langellotto said.

That's one motive behind vegetable gardening for Katinka Merritt of Ocala, Fla., about 75 miles northwest of Orlando.

"I started gardening with my kids. Mostly it was to keep them busy since they are home from school," Merritt said.

Facebook groups

She also joined a Facebook group called Victory 2020 Garden, established by the University of Florida's Institute of Food and Agricultural Sciences Extension. She was one of many writing on the page about switching from flowers to vegetables.

"I just joined, and I'm already learning more about gardening and hearing about what other people are planting," Merritt said. "I have seven kids, so it has helped them learn about food and where it comes from. The kids get super excited."

Erin Harlow, commercial horticulture agent with the University of Florida, named the Victory 2020 Garden program as a reference to victory gardens planted by Americans during World War I and World War II. Members can sign up for an online class on how to grow vegetables.

"I expected to get maybe 40 people, but it's over 1,000 now and growing," Harlow said. "My intent was to also encourage social distancing connections."

The program received a $4,500 grant from the University of Florida to send free seed packets of corn, beans and squash to new members.

Seed companies like Gurney's, based in Indiana, and Botanical Interests in Colorado posted messages on their websites to ask customers for patience as they dealt with tremendous demand.

"We've seen a 600 percent increase in sales over last year," said Judy Seaborn, co-owner at Botanical Interests. "It's all for vegetables, or leafy greens, which makes sense."

Her company announced a pause for a week in taking new orders online due to a two-week backlog.

She split her workforce into two shifts to keep them more distant from each other, and narrowed the selection of each type of vegetable to focus on volume.

"I'm really proud of gardeners for getting out there and planting. I think we'll need it, and the mental break it provides," Seaborn said.

https://thecanadianencyclopedia.ca/en/article/victory-gardens-editorial

Home gardening blooms around the world during coronavirus lockdowns

By Christopher Walljasper and Tom Polansek, Reuters•April 19, 2020

Jaime Calder tends to her vegetable garden in Round Rock

By Christopher Walljasper and Tom Polansek

CHICAGO (Reuters) - Jaime Calder all but gave up on gardening after moving from the fertile soils of Illinois to dusty Texas, but the coronavirus changed her mind.

The magazine editor and her family of five planted collard greens, chard, onions, blackberries, watermelons and peppers this year, expanding their garden while buckling down at home during the pandemic.

People around the world are turning to gardening as a soothing, family friendly hobby that also eases concerns over food security as lockdowns slow the harvesting and distribution of some crops. Fruit and vegetable seed sales are jumping worldwide.

“It’s supplementary gardening,” said Calder. “There’s no way this would sustain a family of five. But we’re amping it up, so we can try and avoid the store a little more in the coming months.”

Russians are isolating in out-of-town cottages with plots of land, a traditional source of vegetables during tough times since the Soviet era, and rooftop farms are planned in Singapore, which relies heavily on food imports.

Furloughed workers and people working from home are also looking for activities to occupy their free time, after the cancellations of major sporting events and the closure of restaurants, bars and theaters. Parents too are turning to gardening as an outdoor activity to do with children stuck at home after schools shut.

"Planting a few potatoes can be quite a revelation to a child," said Guy Barter, chief horticulturist at Britain's Royal Horticultural Society, which has seen a five-fold rise in queries for advice on its website during the lockdown. Gardeners without yards are even planting potatoes in trash bags, he said.

Gardening could trim retail demand for produce but trips to the grocery store will still be necessary. Bert Hambleton, retail consultant for Hambleton Resources, said supermarkets will continue to see an overall increase in produce demand as would-be restaurant-goers eat at home instead of dining out.

SEED BOOMU.S. seed company W. Atlee Burpee & Co sold more seed than any time in its 144-year history in March as the contagious respiratory virus spread, Chairman George Ball said.

When they cannot find seeds in stores, would-be gardeners in Britain are seeking advice on how to extract them from tomatoes and squash purchased in supermarkets, Barter said.

In Russia, demand for seeds rose by 20%-30% year-on-year in March, according to online retailer Ozon.

Seed demand typically goes up in tough economic times, said Tom Johns, owner of Territorial Seed Company in Cottage Grove, Oregon. The company temporarily stopped taking orders over the phone due to a surge in demand and reassigned some phone workers to physically fill online orders, he said.

"It doesn't take long for people to become very concerned about the food supply - either the cost of food or getting food," Johns said.

Johnny's Selected Seeds in Fairfield, Maine, saw a 270% jump in orders the week of March 16, after U.S. President Donald Trump declared a national emergency over the coronavirus.

Canada-based Stokes Seeds, which ships to the United States and Canada, received 1,000 online orders during the weekend of March 21, four times more than normal, President Wayne Gayle said.

"We didn't have the staff even just to enter them into the system, let alone fulfill them," he said.

The company temporarily halted all online orders and is prioritizing orders from commercial vegetable growers "to ensure our food security this summer," according to its website.

'I GROW TOMATOES, YOU GROW CARROTS'

With so many digging into gardening for the first time, there has also been a push to pool resources and collective knowledge on home food production.

Nathan Kleinman, co-director of Philadelphia-based Experimental Farm Network, said more than 2,000 people signed up and attended weekly calls to discuss gardening best practices as they begin putting seeds in the ground.

"The reaction was overwhelming," Kleinman said. "It struck a nerve with a lot of people."

Melanie Pittman, an teacher who lives on 5 acres near Crete, Illinois, said while everyone was stocking up on toilet paper, her partner ran over to the local home improvement store to stock up on seeds and gardening tools.

Pittman is more than doubling her garden, planting corn, beans, tomatoes, potatoes, onions and growing mushrooms. She is also working with other growers in her community to expand her reliance on local food.

“I try to reach out to other individuals who are growing food in the area, to avoid the overlap - ‘I grow tomatoes, you grow carrots,'” she said.

Gardening may be a rare positive trend to emerge from the crippling pandemic, said Diane Blazek, executive director of the U.S. industry group National Garden Bureau.

"We'll come out in the end and hopefully everyone will be eating better and gardening more and more self-reliant," she said.


(Reporting by Christopher Walljasper and Tom Polansek; Additional reporting by Nigel Hunt in London and Polina Devitt in Moscow; Editing by Caroline Stauffer and Lisa Shumaker)

How NOT to Wear a Mask

Tara Parker-Pope, The New York Times•April 19, 2020

Lakewood Chapel Pastor John Elleson, left, and his wife, Sue Elleson, wait to hand out free face masks at the chapel in Arlington Heights, Ill., Saturday, April 18, 2020, during the coronavirus pandemic. (AP Photo/Nam Y. Huh)

Almost overnight, masks in a variety of colors, styles and materials have appeared on the faces of people around us. While it’s good news that many people are doing their part to slow the spread of coronavirus, the bad news is that many people are wearing their masks wrong.

“Wearing a mask takes some getting used to, for sure,” said Dr. Scott Segal, chairman of anesthesiology at Wake Forest Baptist Health. “You are probably wearing it exactly right if it’s a little stuffy.”

One of the biggest mistakes people make is that they fidget with their masks, and pull them under their noses or completely off their faces to rest under their chins.

“You should absolutely not be pulling up and putting down your mask while you’re out,” said Shan Soe-Lin, a lecturer at the Yale Jackson Institute for Global Affairs. “If you’re going to go to the trouble of using a mask, leave it on.”

Here are the dos and don’ts of wearing a mask.

DON’T: Wear the mask below your nose.

DON’T: Leave your chin exposed.

DON’T: Wear your mask loosely with gaps on the sides.

DON’T: Wear your mask so it covers just the tip of your nose.

DON’T: Push your mask under your chin to rest on your neck.

DO: Wear your mask so it comes all the way up, close to the bridge of your nose, and all the way down under your chin. Do your best to tighten the loops or ties so it’s snug around your face, without gaps.

And once you’ve figured out the correct position for wearing your mask, follow these tips to stay safe:

— Always wash your hands before and after wearing a mask.

— Use the ties or loops to put your mask on and pull it off.

— Don’t touch the front of the mask when you take it off.

— For apartment dwellers, put the mask on and remove it while inside your home. Elevators and stairwells can be high-contamination areas.

— Wash and dry your cloth mask daily and keep it in a clean, dry place.

— Don’t have a false sense of security.

Masks offer limited protection, and work better when combined with hand washing and social distancing. “It’s not that one excludes the other,” said Dr. Siddhartha Mukherjee, assistant professor of medicine at Columbia University. “They compound the effects of the other.”

This article originally appeared in The New York Times.

© 2020 The New York Times Company

'That makes no sense': Anderson Cooper stunned by Las Vegas mayor during wild CNN interview
Jake Lahut

Las Vegas Mayor Goodman brought Anderson Cooper to the end of his patience in a meandering CNN interview. CNN


Las Vegas Mayor Carolyn Goodman pushed Anderson Cooper to the edge of sanity during a meandering and confusing interview on CNN on Wednesday afternoon.
Goodman, an independent, has called for casinos along the Vegas strip to reopen, with only the ones seeing the most infections being forced to close down instead of all of them.
The more Cooper tried to press Goodman for facts and evidence, the more the interview unraveled.

"You're talking about the disease — I'm talking about life and living," Goodman told Cooper.
"OK, that makes no sense," Cooper replied.

What was ostensibly an interview checking in on the mayor of a major American city dealing with the coronavirus went off the rails on CNN on Wednesday afternoon.

Las Vegas Mayor Carolyn Goodman tested CNN host Anderson Cooper's patience after offering a series of befuddling counterfactuals to his questions.

At one point Cooper removed his glasses, rubbed his eyes, and took a breath before continuing.
—Jason (@JasonBSTL) April 22, 2020
—Justin Baragona (@justinbaragona) April 22, 2020

Goodman's profile has risen amid the coronavirus because of her calls for what's been described as a "Hunger Games" or survival-of-the-fittest approach to reopening the strip.

"Assume everybody is a carrier," the mayor told MSNBC's Katy Tur on Tuesday. "And then you start from an even slate. And tell the people what to do. And let the businesses open and competition will destroy that business if, in fact, they become evident that they have disease, they're closed down. It's that simple."


Cooper didn't have much more luck getting to the bottom of Goodman's rationale, much less what she's actively doing to keep her constituents safe beyond the governor's stay-at-home order — which she called "insanity" in a local TV news interview on Tuesday.

The crux of the confusion came down to Cooper asking Goodman about what responsibility she has to keep casino patrons and employees safe. She insisted that competition, not government oversight, was the answer.

The more Cooper pushed for factual information, the more the interview came undone.
—Michael Tushaus (@MichaelTushaus) April 22, 2020

At one point Goodman seemed to indicate she would like to see the city be a "control group" for the coronavirus without social distancing measures, which left Cooper even more confused.
—Josh Marshall (@joshtpm) April 22, 2020

Cooper also tried to show Goodman a graphic demonstrating how the virus spread person to person in China early on, with a diagram of tables popping up on the screen before Goodman cut him off.

—Lis Power (@LisPower1) April 22, 2020

"Oh, you are good, Anderson — you are tough," Goodman said. "This isn't China. This is Las Vegas, Nevada."

"Wow, OK, that's really ignorant," Cooper shot back.

At another point, Cooper's patience waned as he offered a curt assessment of Goodman's performance given her role as a public servant.

"You're offering nothing other than being a cheerleader," Cooper said. "I don't understand. Do you not have any sense of responsibility?"

'WHAT THE ACTUAL F***?????': Heiress Abigail Disney slams company for furloughing workers but protecting shareholder payouts and executive bonuses
Taylor Nicole Rogers

Abigail Disney. John Lamparski/Getty Images


Abigail Disney criticized the company founded by her great-uncle, Walt Disney, for furloughing 43,000 employees while the coronavirus pandemic keeps its theme parks closed.

Disney slammed the company's decision to furlough employees without first canceling plans to pay shareholder bonuses and executive bonuses in a 25-tweet thread Tuesday night

Top executives have taken pay cuts to conserve the company's cash during the crisis, but their potential to still earn bonuses is "the REAL outrage," Disney tweeted.

Disney has been outspoken about her concern over the US' growing income inequality, repeatedly criticizing Disney Executive Chairman Bob Iger's pay package.

Disney executives may have taken pay cuts last month as the coronavirus crisis forced the company to close its theme parks, but they're still getting paid too much, according to one member of the Disney family.

In a 25-tweet thread Tuesday night, Abigail Disney slammed the company's decision to furlough 43,000 employees from its theme parks without first canceling plans to pay dividends and executive bonuses.

"This is why I was quiet in March when executives at the company made a big pr push to Call attention to the fact that they were giving up a portion of their salaries for the year," Disney tweeted. "I told people to wait until we heard about the rest of the compensation package, since salary is a drop in the bucket to these guys. The real payday is in the rest of the package."

—Abigail Disney (@abigaildisney) April 21, 2020


Company executives aren't guaranteed the full bonuses Disney cited, however. The Financial Times article she quoted says that CEO Bob Chapek has the potential to receive a bonus equal to 300% of his salary, but isn't guaranteed it. Bonuses are largely performance-based and unlikely to be paid out in full as the company's share price has fallen 28% since the start of the year. All of Disney's theme parks in the U.S. have been closed since March, costing it $1.5 billion in revenue per month, Business Insider's Ashley Rodriguez reported.

Top Disney executives have taken some pay cuts to help the company conserve cash amid the crisis. Still, Chapek is earning far more than most furloughed park employees, according to The Financial Times. Florida's unemployment benefits are some of the country's lowest, The Times reported.

Disney, who is also an award-winning filmmaker, has long been an outspoken critic of the eponymous company founded by her grandfather Roy Disney and great-uncle Walt Disney. In 2019, the heiress made headlines by attacking the salary of then-CEO and current Executive Chairman Bob Iger and co-signing a letter with 18 other ultra-wealthy Americans that advocated for a moderate wealth tax. Disney said in July that she has a $120 million fortune, inherited from her father.

The Walt Disney Company is one of countless organizations furloughing workers amid the coronavirus pandemic. Disney World furloughed 43,000 employees whose "whose jobs aren't necessary at this time," starting April 19. Across the nation, an unprecedented 22 million workers have filed for unemployment benefits in the past four weeks alone amid the pandemic that has killed more than 44,000 Americans.

THIRD WORLD USA
'Will we have enough food?:' Millions of Americans are now unemployed and hungry. Food banks worry they can't feed them.

Paulina Cachero

San Antonio Food Bank workers give out food at drive-thru pop ups amid the coronavirus crisis. Courtesy of San Antonio Food Bank

Stay-at-home orders have put 22 million Americans out of work, leaving them without money to pay the bills or put food on the table during the coronavirus pandemic.

Around 95% of the food banks at Feeding America, a national network of food banks, reported an increase in demand for food assistance compared to last year. They've had an average increase of 70% since the pandemic began.

As food banks witness an increase in demand, they are also balancing a decrease in food supplies and a forced shift in the way they distribute food to keep people safe from infection.

Many food banks and food pantry leaders worry that they won't have enough to continue feeding the unprecedented number of hungry Americans if the coronavirus lockdowns continue.

Images of the miles-long lines of cars waiting to get a small box of groceries the San Antonio Food Bank painted a picture of the devastating impact of the coronavirus lockdowns that have put millions of Americans out of work — and have left them hungry.

"These lines that are forming that are longer than I've ever seen in my life. I mean, I just have never seen this kind of demand," Eric Cooper, the president of San Antonio Food Bank since 2001, told Business Insider.

His food bank saw an unprecedented number of 10,000 hungry families waiting to get food last week.

"The end of the crisis is not in sight, just like the end of the line of cars is not in sight," he said.
—ricburton 🐚 @ShellProtocol (@ricburton) April 10, 2020

The San Antonio Food Bank serves 16 counties in Texas, Cooper said. Before the coronavirus swept the nation, the organizations served 60,000 people on average a week. Now, they're serving 120,000 people a week, with as many as 10,000 families showing up to a single distribution.

Cooper said some families have begun lining up 12 hours before the food bank distribution time to make sure they're one of the lucky few to get a box of meat, produce, and more.

However, the San Antonio Food Bank is hardly the only organization struggling to keep up with the demand of the 22 million Americans who have been left unemployed.

The pandemic has created a 'perfect storm' of circumstances that poses an unprecedented challenge for food banks

School closures and sky-rocketing unemployment due to quarantine and stay-at-home orders have left many families without money to pay the bills and for meals needed on the table.

In Los Angeles, where more than 50% of the population is now unemployed, thousands of residents lined up outside of food banks. In New York, the epicenter of the US coronavirus outbreak, food banks are buckling under the weight of demand.

Feeding America, a network of 200 food banks across the country and 60,000 partner food pantries, including the San Antonio Food Bank, found that 95% of its food banks reported an increase in demand for food assistance compared to last year, with an average increase of 70% since the pandemic.

Feeding America estimates that they could see an additional 17.1 million people experiencing food insecurity if the virus continues to plague the country.

Many of those who now wait in miles-long lines have never experienced food insecurity before. Cooper said he has seen both unfamiliar and unexpected faces at food distributions.

"I've seen so many in our line who knew of the food bank because they had volunteered here — now they're being served here," Cooper said

However, the overwhelming surges of hungry Americans aren't the only obstacle food banks face.

As food banks witness an increase in demand, they are also balancing a decrease in food resources and a forced shift in the way they distribute food to keep staff, volunteers, the families they are serving safe from infection

Katie Fitzgerald, Feeding America's vice president and chief operating officer, told Business Insider that the pandemic has created a "perfect storm" of circumstances that has posed an unprecedented challenge in its 50 years of service.

Texas Army National Guardsmen are deployed to the East Texas Food Bank Courtesy of Feeding America

Although food banks are serving exponentially more people, many are working with skeleton crews to meet the demand. In some states, the national guard have been deployed to help hand out food and package produce.

"There is a lack of volunteers and workers now because people are unemployed or volunteers are afraid that they are going to catch the virus," Cheryl Jackon, the founder of Minnie's Food Pantry in Plano, Texas, told Business Insider.

To keep the volume of food moving and adhere to CDC guidelines for social distancing, food banks are doing 24-hour warehouse operations to space out packaging food, increase sanitization, and more. Fitzgerald added that many food banks are increasing to a six or even seven-day a week schedule.

"In four weeks we've had 22 million unemployment claims — it certainly has never happened in the history of modern food banking. We are navigating this as everyone else," Fitzgerald noted.

San Antonio Food Bank workers deliver food to hungry families through their car window. Courtesy of San Antonio Food Banks

At many food pantries, where the produce from food banks is given to distribute the food, they've had to revamp their entire operations to keep safe distances. Many have up a drive-thru to give boxes through open windows to minimize contact. Jackson said these precautionary measures have taken the heart out of her food pantry.

"People can't see the smile behind a face mask and we can't show you we care with a hug because of social distancing. Everything that shows that you care has been stripped from our country," Jackson said. "We're all walking like zombies."

Although the face masks and gloves she requires her food pantry workers to use take the personal touch out of the service they deliver, she worries she will run out the critical protective gear, forcing her to close her doors.

"These people are making sure families have meals," Jackson told Business Insider. "As their leader, I want to make sure that I'm protecting my food pantry workers as much as hospital leaders want to protect their nurses and doctors."

Food banks worry they won't have enough food to feed millions of hungry Americans

The coronavirus lockdown measures have hit food bank's resources hard. With people panic-buying food at grocery stores and restaurants who usually donate leftover food closed indefinitely, the resources they usually turn to are dwindling.

"The has been a 40% to 60% decrease in donations. Food banks are having to meet this demand with less food," Fitzgerald told Business Insider

As food banks struggle to source groceries to give, farmers are dumping thousands of gallons of milk and burning millions of pounds of fresh produce due to a lack of infrastructure to distribute it to food pantries in need, according to a report from The New York Times.

However, Feeding American and the American Farm Bureau are working to get that produce and dairy to hungry families in need through the Families First Coronavirus Response Act, which includes $1 billion in nutrition assistance, including $400 million for The Emergency Food Assistance Program (TEFAP) — a program that helps USDA and farmers connect with food banks to get surplus food to people in need — and the Supplemental Nutrition Assistance Program (SNAP) — a federal entitlement program that gives qualifying families nutrition benefits on an electronic benefits card to purchase food at grocery stores.

People queue to pick up fresh food at a Los Angeles Regional Food Bank giveaway of 2,000 boxes of groceries, as the spread of the coronavirus disease (COVID-19) continues, in Los Angeles, California, April 9, 2020. Lucy Nicholson/Reuters

However, Cooper fears the nutrition assistance programs will not arrive in time. He said the first trucks from the USDA will likely come mid-summer, "but families have to eat in the meantime."

"I realize that the lines are just going to get longer before they get shorter in that we have to be prepared to feed them," Cooper said. " And that's the biggest challenge. Will we have enough food?"

Jackson said she can't even remember the number of times Minnie's Food Pantry has run out of food to give in the last three weeks. She has reached out to countless non-profits, food manufacturers, and restaurants to donate what food they can spare — but she worries about what will happen if the coronavirus continues for much longer.

"I'm afraid that we don't have the food," Jackson added somberly. "The longer this pandemic goes on, the more people we will have to serve. I'm afraid that a lot of food pantries will shut down because they will not be able to handle the load."

Cooper said they have been fortunate enough to receive enough financial support to keep up with the demand. However, he also fears the daunting challenges food banks face to make sure American families don't go hungry.

"I guess in a lot of ways we're praying for a miracle — I can't see how our food supply will last," Cooper worried. "But I'm gonna keep believing and exercise in the faith that the resources, the resources will come together and that we'll get through this."

---30---

Air-conditioning spread the coronavirus to 9 people sitting near an infected person in a restaurant, researchers say. It has huge implications for the service industry.

AC FEEDS LEGIONNAIRES DISEASE BACILLUS

Shira Feder Apr 21, 2020

The dining section is closed off at East Side Pockets, a small restaurant near Brown University, in Providence, Rhode Island. It isn't the restaurant mentioned in the researchers' letter. Associated Press

In an early-release research letter in the journal Emerging Infectious Diseases, researchers said they found that nine people sitting near one another at a restaurant in China in January got COVID-19, the illness caused by the coronavirus, and that it likely spread because of the restaurant's air-conditioner.
The authors advised restaurants to increase the distance between tables and improve ventilation.
As restaurants look to reopen, experts say they will need to take extra safety measures, such as reducing capacity, having employees wear masks, and capping how long diners can stay there.

Three seemingly healthy families were struck by COVID-19 in January after dining at neighboring tables in a windowless restaurant in Guangzhou, China.

Researchers studying the case think that the restaurant's air-conditioner blew the viral droplets of one person who was asymptomatic farther than they might have normally gone. Nine other people across the three families later got sick.

The researchers described their findings in an early-release research letter published in the journal Emerging Infectious Diseases earlier this month. You can see a diagram of the seating plan here.

It's a frightening prospect for people trying to keep a healthy distance from others. But in a potentially hopeful finding for the locked-down restaurant industry, none of the 73 other diners and eight employees in the restaurant at the time got sick, the researchers added.

"To prevent the spread of the virus in restaurants, we recommend increasing the distance between tables and improving ventilation," they wrote.

For the struggling restaurants desperate to reopen in the coming months, the researchers' findings are evidence that work will not just return to normal after the pandemic, but there might be ways to limit the risk of spreading the virus. There will likely be caps on how long patrons can spend eating, restaurants will operate at lower capacity, air-conditioning or heating may have to stay off, and employees might be advised to wear masks.

Researchers think the source of this outbreak was a 63-year-old woman who did not show symptoms — such as a fever and a cough — until later in the day. She went to a hospital and tested positive for COVID-19.

Within two weeks, four of her relatives had also gotten sick, as did five other diners in two other families, who seemed to have no other connection except for their time in the restaurant.

It surprised the researchers, since the novel coronavirus is transmitted by droplets, or heavy particles that tend not to float farther than 1 meter, and the families were sitting farther apart than that. They said it seemed that the air-conditioning could have blown the viral droplets farther.

The restaurant industry has been hit hard by the pandemic

Since March 1, the restaurant industry has lost over 3 million jobs, the National Restaurant Association said. And one in five US restaurants could close permanently because of the pandemic, according to a UBS estimate.

The National Restaurant Association this week asked Congress for $240 billion to help the struggling industry.

While most Americans have indicated they want to wait before resuming their daily routines, opening up restaurants means reopening a supply chain for restaurateurs, farmers, produce sellers, cooks, and servers.

Restaurants will need new rules when they reopen, but it could vary by state

The researchers who studied the outbreak at the Guangzhou restaurant did not replicate the phenomenon in a lab, and they don't have other cases to compare it to, so their findings have to be taken with a grain of salt.

But William Schaffner, a professor of infectious diseases at Vanderbilt University, said the research letter was a good resource to help us understand what restaurant reopenings would look like.

"We are going to open back up," Schaffner said. "But the trick will be to open slowly, do it in a phased fashion," he said, including "opening restaurants and doing so at half capacity, spacing out the seats."

It's unclear whether spacing and capacity rules could do the trick, though it's highly likely they would be employed anyway — and we could start to see rural areas, which generally haven't been hit as hard by the virus as cities, try them first.

Schaffner, who lives in Tennessee, which had about 7,300 coronavirus cases as of Tuesday, said he had seen the mounting pressure for restaurants to reopen.

Jennifer Horney, the founding director of the University of Delaware's epidemiology program, told Business Insider that she foresees a slow relaxation of states' or regions' emergency orders, which would allow restaurants to reopen with some tweaks to traditional service. Eating out in a state with relaxed guidelines might include paying through touchless methods, using disposable menus, and seeing staff members wearing face masks and gloves.

Scientists say restaurants should reduce capacity when they reopen, but it may be a hard rule to enforce

Horney said that rather than creating restrictions, such as banning air-conditioning or outdoor dining, restaurants might find it easier and just as effective to adapt existing rules, such as those about room capacity.

"Existing regulations, like fire-code occupancy numbers, could be used to set a maximum number, like 25% of usual occupancy, that could be safely served at any time," Horney said.

But Schaffner was skeptical about how to ensure that restaurants adhere to capacity rules.

"Some restaurants will say, 'Listen, we're getting a lot of business. Let's just open up a few more tables. The COVID police are not going to catch us tonight,'" he said.

Smithfield Foods Is Blaming “Living Circumstances In Certain Cultures” For One Of America’s Largest COVID-19 Clusters

New details show how Smithfield Foods failed to take action in the crucial days before the plant turned into one of the nation’s largest coronavirus clusters.

ANTI LATINX RACISM FROM CHINESE OWNED SMITHFIELD

KETTLE CALLING POT BLACK (WUHAN WILD ANIMAL MARKETS)

Posted on April 20, 2020

Shannon Stapleton / Reuters
The Smithfield Foods pork plant in South Dakota is closed indefinitely in the wake of its coronavirus outbreak.

Was there any way to prevent the Smithfield Foods pork processing plant in South Dakota from becoming one of the country’s largest known coronavirus clusters, with more than 700 workers infected? It’s hard to know “what could have been done differently,” a Smithfield spokesperson said, given what she referred to as the plant’s “large immigrant population.”

“Living circumstances in certain cultures are different than they are with your traditional American family,” she explained. The spokesperson and a second corporate representative pointed to an April 13 Fox News interview in which the governor of South Dakota, Kristi Noem, said that “99%” of the spread of infections “wasn’t happening inside the facility” but inside workers’ homes, “because a lot of these folks who work at this plant live in the same community, the same buildings, sometimes in the same apartments."

But internal company communications and interviews with nearly a dozen workers and their relatives point to a series of management missteps and half measures that contributed significantly to the spread of the virus. A BuzzFeed News investigation has uncovered new information showing the company did little to inform or protect employees during the critical two weeks after the first case at the plant surfaced. Then, with confirmed cases rising quickly, Smithfield introduced new safety protocols but applied them unevenly across the plant’s departments, leaving hundreds of workers exposed.

In late March, as word of the first confirmed case leaked, workers began seeing flyers on notice boards and doors. “If you are at work and feeling sick,” the flyers stated, “tell your Supervisor and go directly home.” But the directive was posted only in English, three employees said, even though many of the plant’s 3,700 workers have limited comprehension of English. Safety notices at the plant are usually translated into as many as five languages.


Provided to BuzzFeed News
A flyer at the Smithfield plant.

On April 1, the company took the unusual step of offering free lunch. The gesture was meant to show appreciation for those still coming in — but it was also an incentive for workers from all eight floors to pass through the cafeteria.

On April 6, two weeks after the first confirmed case and with the number of infections rising, Smithfield implemented mandatory temperature checks and shut down at least one floor “for cleaning & sanitation,” according to a company text message to employees. Yet the rest of the plant stayed open.

As more people called in sick, Smithfield management stayed mostly silent about the severity of the crisis at the Sioux Falls facility, only informing employees about a confirmed case if they’d recently been “in contact” with the person, according to the spokesperson, while encouraging others in company text messages to “Please report to work as previously scheduled.”

Eighteen days after the first case, once 238 workers had tested positive, Smithfield paused operations on all floors for 48 hours to deep-clean the plant, as well as install cardboard dividers at workstations and plexiglass shields on cafeteria tables. Even then, it moved slowly: Smithfield announced the temporary closure on April 9 but said it would not occur for another few days to allow for an orderly reduction in supply.

On April 10, Michael Bul Gayo Gatluak, a 22-year-old immigrant from South Sudan, clocked in at the hog kill department on the sixth floor. His job requires him to stand for hours on a platform “really, really close” to other workers along the production line where pig carcasses are chopped. “The job is so heavy,” he said. “You have to breathe so hard.” When he got home that night, he started feeling ill. He said he tested positive for COVID-19 three days later.

“With how we work on the line, I would say I got sick because of them not taking safety measures,” Gatluak told BuzzFeed News. “When they had their first case, I don’t think they acted accordingly.”

The plant is now closed indefinitely, cutting the country off from about 5% of its national pork supply. With 725 confirmed cases among workers and 143 more traced to them, the Smithfield outbreak has eclipsed most of the country’s worst-hit nursing homes and prisons among the largest community outbreaks. One Smithfield worker, 64-year-old Agustin Rodriguez, died on April 14 from COVID-19 complications.

Smithfield denied that company policies contributed to the spread of the virus, and said that it has prioritized employees’ well-being and communicated with them extensively about safety protocols. The corporate spokesperson whom the company provided to answer BuzzFeed News’ questions — on the condition that her name not be used — said that higher-ups have worked “around the clock” from the beginning of the outbreak and posted handwashing directives as early as February, but have been hindered by national shortages of protective equipment. Last week, Smithfield shut down plants in Wisconsin and Missouri after employees there tested positive for COVID-19, and announced it was providing all 40,000 company employees with “a $100 million Responsibility Bonus,” which amounts to around $2,500 per person.

Presented with a detailed list of questions, the spokesperson said that it was “purposefully misleading” to portray Smithfield “as reacting to a positive case rather than the very proactive approach” that the company took to the pandemic when it began, but she did not contest any specific facts.

An ongoing BuzzFeed News investigation has exposed how companies around the country have put hourly workers at risk of exposure to the coronavirus. With hundreds of workers in tight confines passing chunks of raw meat through the building, meat processing plants have been especially vulnerable. More than a dozen have fully or partially stopped production since the pandemic began, with hundreds of workers falling ill at plants across the country. Workers at JBS meatpacking plants in Colorado and at a Tyson Foods poultry processing plant in Georgia have died from COVID-19.

But for now, the Smithfield facility in South Dakota stands out. The first case arrived when the pandemic was in full swing, with much of the country shutting down and companies everywhere changing the way they worked. The outbreak spread faster than at any other plant.


Provided to BuzzFeed New
A letter provided to Smithfield employees for use in case they are asked why they are out.
Gatluak recalled hearing about a confirmed case on March 24 from his manager. Though this was the first known exposure at the facility, the manager announced “no changes” to operations, he said. The English-language notices telling people to go home if they felt ill appeared the next day, Gatluak recalled. “People were still reporting to work normally.”

The Argus Leader, Sioux Falls’ newspaper, broke the news of the first positive case on March 26. The next day, another Smithfield worker who had been out sick for several days began feeling short of breath and drained of energy, barely able to get out of bed, said her 20-year-old daughter, Amy Cruz. She went to the doctor, took a COVID-19 test, and four days later received a positive diagnosis. She immediately called a Smithfield HR representative to convey the result, Cruz said.

In the days that followed, as more workers called in sick with symptoms and tested positive, Smithfield bosses informed only employees “who may have come in contact with that person,” the spokesperson said — not the whole floor. The spokesperson said that exposed employees were placed on two-week paid quarantine leave but declined to say how many there have been.

The rest of the workforce continued on for a week without knowing how many of their colleagues had been infected, and with no additional protective equipment. Like many of the hundreds of thousands of hourly workers who supply the country with food and other necessities, they faced the choice of going without a paycheck or risking their health for jobs that typically pay less than $20 an hour.

Some Smithfield employees who spoke to BuzzFeed News requested anonymity because they feared getting fired, but two allowed their children to discuss the matter openly. For both daughters, Amy Cruz and Sara Telahun Birhe, the Smithfield plant was an ever-present backdrop since their earliest memories

Cruz’s mother, four of her uncles, and an aunt have all worked at the plant for more than two decades since migrating from Guatemala; one of those uncles tested positive two weeks after Cruz’s mother did.

Birhe was 6 when her mother started working at the plant 16 years ago, after emigrating from Ethiopia, where she owned a café. They lived near the facility, in a neighborhood in northeastern Sioux Falls, where Birhe grew close with the children of other Smithfield workers: families from Mexico, Nepal, Honduras, the Democratic Republic of the Congo, El Salvador, and elsewhere. “Family events and birthday parties and weddings and quinceañeras,” she said. “Our parents worked this job, and because of that we were all friends.

Her mom earned $17 an hour, which is nearly double the state's minimum wage, which went a long way in Sioux Falls. Over her years at the plant, she bought a car and a house and saved enough money to pay Birhe’s college tuition. She knew of one former Smithfield worker who went on to open a restaurant, another a grocery store

Birhe and her cousins were used to seeing their parents come home from work exhausted, plopping down on the couch to rest before dinner, going to bed early for 6 a.m. shifts. But their parents’ sacrifice took on a new light when the pandemic reached the Smithfield plant. Birhe recalls a series of conversations with her cousins about whether they should try to get their parents to stop going to work. “Our parents were worried about paying our bills, and we were worried about their health,” she said.

Unemployment benefits aren’t available for people who quit their jobs without being sick or at a high risk, and many at Smithfield had built stable careers with higher pay than what would be available if they started fresh elsewhere. One worker’s daughter, who requested anonymity, said that she, her brother, and her mother had all been laid off or furloughed from their own jobs. For her father, who began at the plant 15 years ago after migrating from Mexico, “it wasn’t an option if you go to work,” she said. “He’s proud of what he does. He feeds so many people.”

Over the week following the first confirmed case at the plant, workers continued to dine in the cafeteria as normal. To keep production flowing seamlessly on all floors, crews synchronized their breaks based on their position on the processing line: On each floor, a team of workers would take lunch once they finished a batch and passed it down to the next team. They filed through hallways and staircases, joining teams from other floors in the sixth-floor cafeteria, which is mostly staffed by immigrants from Latin American countries. Gatluak found the meals delicious, he said: “Every day we get something new.” Three employees estimated that at least 200 people from various floors would be in the cafeteria at any given time.

On April 1, a day after Cruz’s mother tested positive, Smithfield management directed entire floors to take lunch breaks in deliberately staggered shifts to reduce crowds. But alongside those precautions came the announcement that lunch was now free, though some employees preferred to eat their homemade meals in the locker room rather than risk passing through the dining area. A Smithfield representative declined to comment on the free lunch.

Over the next few days, Smithfield started introducing new safety measures. Management put up new flyers encouraging social distancing in the cafeteria and set up tents outside the facility for mandatory temperature checks. Those with a fever were sent home with instructions for where to get tested.


Bloomberg / Getty Images
A sign outside the Smithfield plant notifies employees that their temperatures will be taken before entering work, April 15.

Still, many workers brought their own masks because Smithfield provided only hairnets for their faces. “That doesn’t do any good,” one worker said. And, as the Argus Leader first reported, the company offered a $500 bonus to employees who didn’t miss any shifts in April. “That was not a good move, because if anyone fell sick they’d be like, 'Oh, I have to go to work because I have to get that bonus,'” Gatluak said.

When the company ceased operations on the eighth-floor packing department on April 6, workers assumed it was because of the virus, two employees said. Company text messages noted that the floor was “shut down for cleaning & sanitation”; the department’s workers were told they should not come to work but would be paid for the week. “All other departments will be operating as scheduled,” the message stated. Smithfield did not respond to a question about why it closed that floor and not the other

It is unclear how many cases Smithfield was aware of during this time. The company declined to comment, citing employee privacy protections. But on April 8, the state health department announced an outbreak of 80 confirmed cases at the plant.

The next day, the company announced it would “suspend operations in a large section of the plant” — but not until April 11. Only on April 12 and 13 would the plant “completely shutter” for “rigorous deep cleaning” and the construction of “additional physical barriers to further enhance social distancing.

Gatluak said he clocked in at work on April 10. For weeks, he’d been taking precautions to minimize the chances of exposing his mother and brother at home. He washed his hands regularly and sanitized everything he came into contact with, “from doorknobs to stair rail, the handles, countertops,” he said. “I know I was a risk because of where I was working.”

He began to feel a headache, fever, and chills after returning home from his shift. The next morning he called the hospital, then took a test at a drive-through center.

That day, the number of confirmed cases at the plant hit 190. Still, Smithfield maintained its plans to reopen the plant after the 48-hour shutdown. But on April 11, Sioux Falls Mayor Paul TenHaken and Gov. Kristi Noem published a letter asking Smithfield’s CEO to close the plant for longer. The next day, Smithfield complied, closing it down indefinitely.

The company warned of the economic impact of an extended shutdown.

“It is impossible to keep our grocery stores stocked if our plants are not running,” Smithfield President and CEO Kenneth Sullivan said in a statement that day. “These facility closures will also have severe, perhaps disastrous, repercussions for many in the supply chain, first and foremost our nation’s livestock farmers.”

Two days later, Gatluak said he received his positive test result. He has had relatively mild symptoms. Another member of his crew has also tested positive, he sai

Smithfield workers and their relatives now account for more than half of South Dakota’s confirmed cases, a pool of residents who may soon have the option to volunteer as test subjects for the nation’s first statewide clinical trial for hydroxychloroquine, an antimalarial drug promoted by President Donald Trump as a potential coronavirus treatment but which has not yet been proven as effective against the virus. Noem announced last week that the testing would begin once at least 2,000 people signed up. While 45 states have issued stay-at-home orders, the governor has declined to do so.


Provided to BuzzFeed News
Text messages sent to Smithfield workers.

On Monday, April 13, a Smithfield worker in his fifties received a company text message: “You are essential to prepare the Sioux Falls facility for a full shutdown. Please report to work on Tuesday as previously scheduled.”

One of around 50 workers at the plant that day, he deboned ham in the basement freezer and filled in on several other jobs to make up for the reduced staff. Though most of the plant had shut down, his department was near the end of the processing line, just before the meat was packed and loaded. Operations would continue until all the meat in stock had made its way through the system and into the trucks.

He kept the mood light around his children, especially when they expressed concern. When his daughter showed him a news story listing his plant as one of the five biggest outbreaks in the country, he quipped, “Oh boy, I’ve never been in the top five of anything!”

By April 14, Smithfield had built plexiglass barriers on cafeteria tables, installed cardboard dividers between worker stations, and provided plastic face shields. The basement worker ate his lunch in the locker room, as he had every day in recent weeks. He worked 13 hours that shift, until every piece of pork passing through his station was packaged.

When he returned home, he took a seat at the kitchen table, his shoulders slumped, and told his family he didn’t have to go into work anymore.

“He was just so relieved,” his daughter recalled. “I’ve never seen him so tired.”

When she asked him if everyone else was done too, he shook his head and said, “Others still need to go in tomorrow.” ●

Albert Samaha is an investigative reporter for BuzzFeed News and is based in New York.

Katie Baker is an investigative reporter for BuzzFeed News and is based in London.

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Nearly 200 COVID-19 cases force Tyson Foods to 'indefinitely suspend' operations at its pork processing plant in Waterloo, Iowa, but the city's mayor says this move came 'too late'

Rhea Mahbubani

A Tyson Fresh Meats plant stands in Waterloo, Iowa, date not known. On Friday, April 17, 2020, more than a dozen Iowa elected officials asked Tyson to close the pork processing plant because of the spread of the coronavirus among its workforce of nearly 3,000 people. (Jeff Reinitz/The Courier via AP) Associated Press
Meat supplier Tyson Foods, Inc. decided on Wednesday to "indefinitely suspend" operations at its pork processing plant in Waterloo, Iowa, which has been blamed for a large COVID-19 outbreak.

Nearly 200 people have tested positive for coronavirus, and others, scared of contracting the disease, have been staying home.

The closure will impact the country's meat supply because "the plant is part of a larger supply chain that includes hundreds of independent farmers, truckers, distributors and customers, including grocers," Tyson Foods said in a statement.

But Waterloo Mayor Quentin Hart told CNN that this step came "too late."

Tyson Foods, Inc. announced on Wednesday that it plans to shut down its largest pork plant, located in Waterloo, Iowa, after nearly 200 workers were infected with the coronavirus.

In a press release, the company said it will "indefinitely suspend" operations at the facility where about 2,800 are employed. Team members can return for COVID-19 testing later this week, it added.

In addition to some 180 people who have fallen sick, hundreds — afraid of catching the virus — have stayed home, forcing the plant to cut back on its production levels, the Associated Press reported.

"Despite our continued efforts to keep our people safe while fulfilling our critical role of feeding American families, the combination of worker absenteeism, COVID-19 cases, and community concerns has resulted in our decision to stop production," group president Steve Stouffer said

This closure will trigger "significant" ripple effects outside Tyson Foods, Stouffer added, because "the plant is part of a larger supply chain that includes hundreds of independent farmers, truckers, distributors and customers, including grocers. It means the loss of a vital market outlet for farmers and further contributes to the disruption of the nation's pork supply."

Although pleased with the plant's closure, Waterloo Mayor Quentin Hart told CNN that this step came "too late."

"We went from 21 cases of Covid on April 9 to about 380 yesterday, and we even doubled that number in two days from 191 to 380. So at this point, closing, cleaning, testing people, is the best scenario for it," he said

Hart stressed that battling the coronavirus should be a bipartisan issue.

"It hurts when it feels like your pleas to people falls on deaf ears," he told CNN. " This isn't a political issue. It's not a Republican, not a Democrat [issue]. This is a humanitarian issue. And we needed proactive steps to be able to squash this spread."

Tyson Foods has already shuttered its Columbus Junction pork processing plant in a bid to safeguard employees from COVID-19, after 186 people tested positive for the illness, the Hill reported. Four workers at Tyson Food's poultry processing plant in Georgia died of the coronavirus.

The Waterloo plant alone can process around 19,500 hogs a day, AP said. Its closure, combined with that of the Smithfield Foods pork processing facility in Sioux Falls, South Dakota, is sure to disrupt the meat supply nationwide.

Hart acknowledged that the Waterloo plant's closure will affect the national food chain, but underscored that "in order to be able to stop the spread, this was the best course of action to support the workers that prepare our food," according to CNN.

Multiple sources told Hoosier Ag Today that Tyson Foods is also preparing to shut down its plant in Logansport, where an unknown number of employees have tested positive for the coronavirus. Production was called off on Wednesday, according to the media organization that covers Indiana's agriculture industry. Tyson Foods has not yet confirmed this information.

Tyson Foods closes Iowa plant, will test workers for COVID-19

A healthcare worker administers a COVID-19 test at the White House in Washington, D.C., on Tuesday. Photo by Kevin Dietsch/UPI | License Photo

April 22 (UPI) -- Tyson Foods announced Wednesday it's suspending operations at its Waterloo, Iowa, plant after almost 200 workers tested positive for the coronavirus disease.

The Springdale, Ark.-based company said the pork plant closure will be indefinite, depending on the health of its workforce.

Tyson said operations have been running at reduced levels in recent weeks as workers missed work due to ill health. Local officials told The Courier in Waterloo more than 180 employees tested positive for COVID-19 and one died.

The company said it plans to invite the Waterloo workers, which number 2,800, back to the plant later this week for testing.

"Despite our continued efforts to keep our people safe while fulfilling our critical role of feeding American families, the combination of worker absenteeism, COVID-19 cases and community concerns has resulted in our decision to stop production," said Steve Stouffer, group president of Tyson Fresh Meats.

"The closure has significant ramifications beyond our company, since the plant is part of a larger supply chain that includes hundreds of independent farmers, truckers, distributors and customers, including grocers," he added. "It means the loss of a vital market outlet for farmers and further contributes to the disruption of the nation's pork supply."

Waterloo Mayor Quentin Hart said he's pleased with the company's decision to suspend operations.

"This is the action we have been waiting for," he told The Courier. "Now we must do everything we can to make sure testing and support are in place and personal precautions are maintained. The virus is here. We must all do what we can to contain it."

Tyson said employees at the plant will be paid while it's closed. Other Tyson facilities throughout the country are still in operation, some at reduced levels due to the pandemic.

There have been more than 3,600 confirmed cases of COVID-19 in Iowa and 83 deaths, according to The New York Times. Black Hawk County, where the Tyson pork plant is located, has the fourth-highest number of cases in Iowa (366) and two deaths. The county's case growth rate indicates the number of infections has sped up in recent days.

To date, there have been almost 835,000 coronavirus cases in the United States and nearly 46,000 deaths, according to Johns Hopkins University.

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Poland's biggest nature reserve fights largest fire in years

WARSAW (Reuters) - Wildfires have been ravaging the marshes of the Biebrza National Park in northeastern Poland, home to moose, beavers and unique wetland birds, since Sunday, as the country faces the severest drought in decades.
Firefighters try to extinguish a fire burning at the Biebrzanski National Park near Bialystok, Poland April 22, 2020. Grzegorz Dabrowski/Agencja Gazeta via REUTERS

Hundreds of firefighters are tackling the blaze, which has spread to around 6,000 hectares. The area of the Biebrza Nature Park, Poland’s biggest, is 59,000 hectares.

“Spring is an abrupt explosion of life. It is impossible to calculate the loss. This is a tragedy, it cannot be described. We may have to fight this fire for months,” Janina Agnieszka Zach, a tour guide at the park, told TVN broadcaster.

The Environment Ministry said the fire was most likely caused by illegal grass burning.

“Fires in the Biebrza National Park break out every year, but such a large one has not been there for years. The situation is very serious,” Environment Minister Michal Wos said in a statement.

“The wind and the unique drought this year make it very difficult to put out the fire,” the ministry also said.

Environmentalists say that the fire reflects ongoing climate change and urge the government to change its water management policies to fight the drought.

“We regulate rivers, straighten their banks, conduct harmful maintenance works, which accelerate the outflow of water, we build dams and hydrotechnical barriers, dry marshes. We forget that it is natural rivers and their valleys that counteract drought, and wetlands are the best areas for natural retention,” said World Wildlife Fund (WWF) Polska in its latest report on drought in Poland.

Last year Poland announced a 14 billion zlotys plan to fight drought that was designed to increase water retention.

“Instead of building retention reservoirs, efforts should be made to renaturate already damaged rivers,” said Przemyslaw Nawrocki from WWF Polska.


On Wednesday President Andrzej Duda called on Poles to use water reasonably.

The fire rages as the world on Wednesday celebrates Earth Day, an annual event to demonstrate support for environmental protection.


Reporting by Agnieszka Barteczko; Editing by Steve Orlofsky

Wildfire ravages Poland's largest national park on Earth Day

Thousands of hectares of precious wetland have burned as the world marks Earth Day in honor of protecting the environment. Experts have blamed climate change and the Polish government's water polices.

Some 6,000 hectares of Biebrza National Park in northeastern Poland were ablaze on Wednesday, as more than 120 firefighters rushed to extinguish the flames. Biebrza is home to 59,000 hectares of wetlands, wildlife such as moose, beavers, and unique species of birds, and hiking trails.

"It is impossible to calculate the loss. This is a tragedy, it cannot be described. We may have to fight this fire for months," park employee Janina Agnieszka Zach, told Polish broadcaster TVN.

Environment Minister Michal Wos said that the fire, which began burning on Sunday, was likely caused by illegal grass burning – a method sometimes employed to clear swaths of dead grass.

Read more: 2019 was Europe's hottest year on record

"Fires in the Biebrza National Park break out every year, but such a large one has not been there for years. The situation is very serious," Wos said in a statement.

"The wind and the unique drought this year make it very difficult to put out the fire," the ministry added.

More than 100 firefighters were dispatched to the scene

Wildfires pose major problems for agriculture

A smaller wildfire also broke out in the Dutch town of Herkenbosch on Wednesday, a sign of Europe's ongoing drought. There are worries now across the EU that drought brought on by man-made climate change, compounded by the lack of workers available to travel across borders to harvest food, could wreak havoc on the bloc's food supply chain.

Read more: Wildfires: Climate change and deforestation increase the global risk

Polish environmentalists called on their government to change its wasteful water policies, which they said were partly to blame for the fire.

"We regulate rivers, straighten their banks, conduct harmful maintenance works, which accelerate the outflow of water, we build dams and hydrotechnical barriers, dry marshes. We forget that it is natural rivers and their valleys that counteract drought, and wetlands are the best areas for natural retention," said World Wildlife Fund (WWF) Polska in its latest report on drought in Poland.
The WWF Polska has also noted that "agriculture is a major sector affected by losses from extreme weather phenomena," and that "drought is one of the most common threats" influencing agriculture.

Last year, Poland announced a 14 billion zloty ($ 3.3 billion) plan to fight drought, which focuses on water retention throughout the country. In response to the blaze in Biebrza, President Andrzej Duda called on Wednesday for Poles to use water more responsibly, but did not announce any concrete steps.

es/msh (dpa, Reuters)


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Europe's hot summer weather could worsen the effects of COVID-19

The coronavirus has pushed climate change out of the headlines. But as summer approaches, experts say record temperatures and drought could compound problems created by the virus. (10.04.2020)

Fire forces 4,000 inhabitants to flee Dutch village

Around 4,000 people have been driven out of their homes in a village in the southern Netherlands due to a fire burning in a nearby nature reserve. (22.04.2020)

Date 22.04.2020


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