Pictured are (left to right) Daisy Benavides and Diana Barrera, both staff members at the Betty Jo McNeece Receiving Home for Children who worked 12-hour shifts to care for a 3-year-old girl who needed to be quarantined at the facility earlier this month for three days based on reports she might have been exposed to the coronavirus before she was taken to the receiving home. The girl ultimately was not infected, but for those three days, the two staff members risked their safety to manage the child’s care. The Betty Jo McNeece Receiving Home, pictured in the background, is a temporary care facility for children removed from their homes by Child Protective Services.

At the Betty Jo McNeece Receiving Home for children, the effort of
staff to care for children in the program has continued unphased by the coronavirus
lockdowns as workers report each day to the facility.

They must.

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Pictured are some of the 35,000 cattle at Mesquite Cattle Feeders, a Brawley-area feed yard that is part of the Imperial Valley’s $470 million cattle industry. Deemed an essential business, the Valley’s cattle industry continues to operate twenty-four hours a day, seven days a week to ensure the cattle are cared for and a safe food supply reaches consumers nationally and throughout the world.
Photo courtesy of Mesquite Cattle Feeders

During this period of shelter in place directives in light
of the Coronavirus, essential businesses must continue operations to meet the
needs of society. The Imperial Valley cattle industry is among those essential
services.

Imperial-San Diego Currents reached out to Joe Dan Cameron,
manager of Mesquite Cattle Feeders of Brawley, to discuss how the Valley’s
cattle industry has reacted to the Coronavirus and the safety steps his
operation has taken.

Joe Dan Cameron, manager of Mesquite Cattle Feeders, was interviewed by IV-San Diego Currents regarding the safety measures

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Pictured is Imperial Valley farmer Scott Howington, president of the Imperial Valley Vegetable Growers Association, who recently spoke to Imperial Valley-San Diego Currents about the ongoing efforts of those who work in agriculture as the world faces the challenges of the Coronavirus.

With the world struggling through the impacts of the Coronavirus
pandemic, Imperial-San Diego Currents interviewed (by phone) Imperial Valley
farmer Scott Howington, president of the Imperial Valley Vegetables Growers
Association, on how vegetable growers in the Valley are coping with the crisis.

The short answer is that agriculture remains an essential
service not only to serve California, but the nation and the world, and to that
end the harvesting of vegetables is ongoing and expected to continue as the
Valley heads toward the final weeks of the winter vegetable crops.

“We have not to this point been impacted,” said Howington,
whose farm operation, Oasis Farming Inc., focuses on organic crops, but he emphasized
that food safety

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