Farmer and farm worker illnesses and deaths from COVID-19 and impacts on agricultural output

PLoS One. 2021 Apr 28;16(4):e0250621. doi: 10.1371/journal.pone.0250621. eCollection 2021.

Abstract

Farmers and farm workers are critical to the secure supply of food, yet this population is potentially at high risk to acquire COVID-19. This study estimates the prevalence of COVID-19 among farmers and farmworkers in the United States by coupling county-level data on the number of farm workers relative to the general population with data on confirmed COVID-19 cases and deaths. In the 13 month period since the start of the pandemic (from March 1, 2020 to March 31, 2021), the estimated cumulative number of COVID-19 cases (deaths) was 329,031 (6,166) among agricultural producers, 170,137 (2,969) among hired agricultural workers, 202,902 (3,812) among unpaid agricultural workers, and 27,223 (459) among migrant agricultural workers. The cases amount to 9.55%, 9.31%, 9.39%, and 9.01% of all U.S. agricultural producers, hired workers, unpaid workers, and migrant workers, respectively. The COVID-19 incidence rate is significantly higher in counties with more agricultural workers; a 1% increase in the number of hired agricultural workers in a county is associated with a 0.04% increase in the number of COVID-19 cases per person and 0.07% increase in deaths per person. Although estimated new cases among farm workers exhibit similar trends to that of the general population, the correlation between the two is sometimes negative, highlighting the need to monitor this particular population that tends to live in more rural areas. Reduction in labor availability from COVID-19 is estimated to reduce U.S. agricultural output by about $309 million.

Publication types

  • Research Support, Non-U.S. Gov't

MeSH terms

  • Agricultural Workers' Diseases / epidemiology
  • Agriculture / economics
  • Agriculture / trends*
  • COVID-19 / economics*
  • COVID-19 / epidemiology*
  • COVID-19 / transmission
  • Farmers / statistics & numerical data
  • Food Supply / economics
  • Humans
  • Pandemics / prevention & control
  • Prevalence
  • SARS-CoV-2 / pathogenicity
  • Transients and Migrants / statistics & numerical data
  • United States

Grants and funding

This work was financially supported by a grant from the Foundation for Food and Agriculture Research under award number – Grant ID: DSnew-0000000017. The content of this paper are solely the responsibility of the authors and does not necessarily represent the official views of the Foundation for Food and Agriculture Research. The research was also supported by a monetary gift from Microsoft to Purdue. The funders provided support in the form of salaries for the authors JL and RV but did not have any additional role in the study design, data collection and analysis, decision to publish, or preparation of the manuscript. The specific roles of these authors are articulated in the ‘author contributions’ section.