Michigan apple harvest hinges on workers staying well in pandemic

Apples are just another industry affected by a virus that has shuttered meat packing and processing plants, cleared grocery store shelves and closed restaurants.

Published Updated

It's a busy time in the area known as Fruit Ridge on the west side of Michigan.

Fall is here, and that means the apple harvest season is full swing. Most Michigan apples come from this area noted for its rich, loamy soil and lake-effect weather.

This year, Michigan's apple crop is estimated at 22.5 million bushels, according to the Michigan Apple Committee. It's the third largest in the country, behind Washington and New York. 

And all those bushels and bushels of apples are picked by hand, one by one. As some people pick from the lower part of the trees, other workers with ladders climb up to pick from the tops.

They carefully place each apple in a bag they have strapped to their bodies. Full bags hold three-quarters of a bushel and weigh more than 30 pounds each, depending on the variety. Workers empty the bags into large boxes set in the row. Each box holds about 18 bushels, and in an hour they've filled five boxes.

More: In one Michigan county, almost half the COVID-19 cases are tied to farm outbreaks

But a cloud hangs over the harvest this year because of the coronavirus pandemic. Apples are just another industry affected by the vitriol virus that has shuttered meat packing and processing plants across the U.S. because of infected workers, cleared grocery store shelves of disinfecting wipes and forced a staggering nearly 1 in 6 restaurants to close permanently or at least for the long term.

What would happen if there were a COVID-19 outbreak within the labor force?

Migrant Legal Aid workers drive to Fruit Ridge near Grand Rapids to do outreach at migrant camps in August.
Migrant Legal Aid workers drive to Fruit Ridge near Grand Rapids to do outreach at migrant camps in August. Mandi Wright, Detroit Free Press

Michigan apples

Michigan apples are sold in 32 states and 18 countries. They're in more than 100 retail chains from Michigan to Florida and just beyond on the Mississippi, according to the Michigan Apple Committee.

In 2018, fast food giant McDonald's System purchased nearly 17.5 million pounds of apples from Michigan. That’s a healthy bite of Michigan’s 946 million pounds for one single chain. 

Tony D'Anna is an independent McDonald's owner/operator with 12 locations in Michigan. Over the years, he has been around the state visiting suppliers like Peterson Farms, where apples slices for Happy Meals come from.

"We do a lot with Michigan agriculture," he said. 

In processing facilities across the state, apples are made into sauce, pureed and sliced. At the Nestle/Gerber facility in Fremont, apples are used to make juice, cider and puree. Heinz North America in Holland makes apple cider vinegar.

At Riveridge Produce Marketing in Sparta, they sort, store and pack more than half of the fresh apples in Michigan. 

In the short term, company president Don Armock said consumers won't see an impact, though it costs him more to test workers, transport them to job sites and socially distance them at packing facilities. Those precautions result in lower production per hour.  

"If it continues and becomes problematic for two to three years, prices will go up," he said. 

Despite the pandemic, with Mexico being a major source of H-2A workers and its economy devastated, Armock suspects he won't have trouble finding workers, another factor that could drive up food costs.

It's a workforce he calls "athletes and real pros."

"You and I couldn’t put a picking sack on our shoulders all day long and climb up and down ladders," Armock said. "We'd be exhausted."

Several other farmers and orchard owners the Free Press spoke with said that while some workers have tested positive, there has been no impact on the apple harvest. So far, they said, they have plenty of workers to pick the crop. 

But if workers become ill or test positive, they are out of commission. 

"If you are a small- to medium-size grower and you have 20 employees who are here for the harvest and lose two to four people, you’ve lost 10% of your work crew that is out a week to two weeks," Armock said.

Riveridge has tested everybody from management to H-2A workers and have had no positive results, he said.

Migrant workers lay down a reflective material to help apples with ripening on Aug. 31, 2020, at a farm near Grand Rapids.
Migrant workers lay down a reflective material to help apples with ripening on Aug. 31, 2020, at a farm near Grand Rapids. Mandi Wright, Detroit Free Press

The danger

Michigan employs an estimated 45,000 migrant and seasonal farmworkers. At least 46 COVID-19 outbreaks have occurred at agriculture, food processing and migrant camp settings as of Sept. 17, according to the Michigan Department of Health and Human Services.

Several fruit and vegetable crops as well as processing facilities in major growing areas of the state were impacted by COVID-19 outbreaks this summer, according to Oceana County health department tracking spreadsheets and emails obtained by the Documenting COVID-19 project at the Brown Institute for Media Innovation at Columbia University and provided to the Free Press. 

Emails obtained under Freedom of Information Act requests show that health department officials in several counties had concerns around outbreaks and testing at farms well before the state health department mandated COVID-19 testing by agriculture employers and migrant labor camp operators in August. Among the findings:

  • Nearly half of Oceana County’s 441 COVID-19 cases by late July were connected to farm outbreaks.
  • In Branch County, along the state’s southern border, several pepper and tomato growers that employed migrant workers resisted mass testing after cases spiked in June, before the emergency order mandated testing. A “large proportion” of the county’s cases at the time were associated with Latino workers. 
  • In Branch and Oceana counties, health departments fielded complaints from citizens concerned that some farms weren’t taking preventive measures to keep their employees safe. A worker at a farm in Coldwater said she was upset that some employees were offered testing in June but her department wasn't.
  • Some health department officials across the state in early July suggested that they were overwhelmed and had little capacity to respond to businesses that are licensed by the Michigan Department of Agriculture and Rural Development, which includes food processing plants. One health officer wrote, "The migrant farm situation is a whole world of its own."

Peterson Farms is a family-owned packing facility based in Oceana County.

At the Shelby facility, fruits, including apples, are processed or packaged or frozen to be used in food service or other industries, according to its website. Thirty-seven people associated with the facility tested positive as of mid-June, according to health department emails. 

Calls and emailed interview requests to Peterson Farms were declined.

When COVID-19 positives and cases hit the meat industry, several packing and processing facilities across the U.S. shuttered. Those shutdowns caused spikes in prices, limits on meat and poultry purchases and shortages.

The apple industry, like meat processing, is heavily reliant on human labor. 

David Ortega, a Michigan State University food economist, said that is where the vulnerability lies in food industry sectors that rely on human labor. 

“In the meat sector it was processing and meat-packing plant workers,” Ortega says. “And there are concerns that we can have a replay of disruptions in sectors, like the apple industry here, where we rely on human labor.”

There are differences in the industries, however. In the meat industry, workers are confined and often work side-by-side in packing plants. 

With apples, it’s all done outdoors in the orchard and workers are not next to one another. And the CDC advises being outdoors in the fresh air is safer than being indoors.

“Working in the orchard isn’t the concern,” Ortega said. “The concern is the housing conditions that workers are in, which are often close quarters.”

Another concern is transportation to and from the orchard, traveling together in trucks and buses.

“While there are costs associated with testing workers ... if someone shows up positive, you don’t want them infecting other workers,” Ortega said. “Then, potentially, your entire labor supply could be contracting the virus. And it could have serious health consequences on these individuals.”

Gala apples are nearly ready for picking in August near Grand Rapids.
Gala apples are nearly ready for picking in August near Grand Rapids. Mandi Wright, Detroit Free Press

What's at stake

While Michigan is known for its auto industry, it's also an agricultural powerhouse.  

With ideal soil for growing conditions, micro climates and an abundance of water, the state produces more than 300 commodities.  

Gary McDowell, the director of Michigan Department of Agriculture and Rural Development, says in 2018 the agriculture industry brought in $104 billion to the state’s economy. It also accounts for more than 800,000 jobs, according to a 2018 MSU Extension Product Center report.

"In Michigan, it's a big part of the state's economy and defines who we are," McDowell says. 

Though there is no official ranking, McDowell says Michigan is second only to California in crop diversity. 

Apples, blueberries and cherries are top-ranking crops. Dry beans, asparagus, sugar beets, winter squash, pickling cucumber and even celery are abundant, according to the Michigan Vegetable Council. 

The state's agricultural umbrella also includes forestry, dairy and livestock. Dairy is the No. 1 commodity in the state, McDowell said. 

"The dairy cow and Michigan cows are the most productive," McDowell said. "It's a combination of weather — dairy cows like cooler weather — nutritious crops and the quality of our farmers. Our dairy farmers do a really good job."

Michigan is also home to a large egg producer.

The family-owned and operated Herbruck's Poultry Ranch, in Saranac, near the west side of the state, supplies much of the country with fresh shell and food-service eggs. The food-service eggs are used in the quick-serve and fast-casual restaurant business. Herbruck's also distributes eggs under several brands, including the popular Eggland's Best sold at most grocery stores.  

But apples are the state's largest cash-value fruit crop. In 2019, the crop was valued at more than $258 million, according to the National Agricultural Statistics Service, Great Lakes Region. More than 14.9 million apple trees cover 34,500 acres, according to the Michigan Apple Committee. Those apple trees are tended to on 775 family-owned farms. 

Farms like Schweitzer Orchards.

In the era of Covid-19, nonprofit Migrant Legal Aid workers hand out personal protection equipment, including masks and hand sanitizer, to migrant workers in August near Grand Rapids.
In the era of Covid-19, nonprofit Migrant Legal Aid workers hand out personal protection equipment, including masks and hand sanitizer, to migrant workers in August near Grand Rapids. Mandi Wright, Detroit Free Press

Grower concerns

In August, Nick Schweitzer, a fifth-generation apple grower at Schweitzer Orchards in the rolling hills of Sparta, was worried at first that coronavirus testing was scaring workers away. 

Schweitzer relies on a set crew of 20-30 people to harvest the apples from his 200-acre orchard each year. Last year, they harvested more than 4 million pounds of apples. He has had the same crew leader for 30 years who helps him find workers.  

“That’s the way we’ve always operated in finding a domestic workforce,” Schweitzer said. “The guys he knows are good employees.”

From now until the harvest wraps up in early November, the crew heads out 6½ days a week to pick apples. 

Schweitzer's crew leader, he said, knows a lot of people because he works other crops in other states.

"He's heard of some people leaving and heading back to Florida because of testing, but they had started testing there as well," Schweitzer said. Some workers got sick.

This hasn't been a problem for Schweitzer Orchards, he said, because workers aren't refusing to be tested.

"I explain that I took the test and it is a requirement per the executive order, and try to answer any questions or concerns they may have," Schweitzer said. "It's just something we have to do this season and, hopefully, next year we won't have to do it again."

For the apple harvest season, Schweitzer's crew lives on orchard property. 

"We have housing trailers, smaller cabin units and a building that has three apartments in it," Schweitzer said.

Some of the trailers have separate bathrooms while other units share them.

A few of Schweitzer's workers did test positive for the virus, he said. They went to nearby YMCA Camp Pendalouan in Montague to isolate.

The camp has been contracted by the state since August to provide housing for farmworkers who test positive for the virus. Workers decide whether to go, and they are given transportation to and from the camp, meals and a stipend.

"Workers are either asymptomatic or have symptoms that are mild," said Gabrielle Gerlach, associate executive director of the camp. "These are people who can't isolate on the farm — especially during peak apple-growing season.  

"The idea is to provide them with a safe relaxing place and to heal," she said. "At the same time, we are helping the farms and farm community and protecting our food supply sources as well." 

As of Sept. 27, according to the Michigan Department of Health and Human Services, twenty-two workers have used the camp.

A list of different varieties of apples at the Dexter Cider Mill in 2007.
A list of different varieties of apples at the Dexter Cider Mill in 2007. KATHLEEN GALLIGAN, Detroit Free Press

Tough year

With mandatory testing, masks, frequent hand-washing and sanitizing, and temperature checks, fruit and vegetable farmers say 2020 has been difficult. 

Fred Leitz, a fourth-generation farmer with 700 acres of fruits and vegetables in Sodus in the southwest corner of the state, has about 170 H-2A workers, 30 domestic migrant workers and 10 to 15 seasonal and year-round workers. 

The Berrien County farmer says COVID-19 has meant more education and training for workers. 

"It's been a hard year, " he said. "We do not have the HR staff to do all the stuff the state wants."

And with restaurants being closed and more people eating at home, Leitz said he hasn't been able to market his vegetables like he used to. Some smaller markets, though, have been more profitable than before.

"Your local fruit stands, cider mills are doing a bang-up business this year," he said. "Which is good, because the general public is now going out and experiencing the splendor of Michigan."

Contact Susan Selasky: 313-222-6872 or sselasky@freepress.com. Follow @SusanMariecooks on Twitter. Support local journalism and become a digital subscriber to the Free Press.

Michigan apple harvest guide: When to find your favorites in 2020
Whether you're picking them from an orchard or from a shelf in the grocery store, here's a look at the different varieties of apples in Michigan and when they're harvested, so you know when to be on the lookout for them in 2020.
Detroit Free Press
Published Updated