Nowhere are the effects of the multiple crises that hit California this year more visible than in the state’s agricultural valleys.
The region faced a list of challenges almost too long to comprehend: record-breaking heat, smog and smoke from historic wildfires resulting in air quality too poor to be outside in. High rates of Covid-19 infections and the anxiety, isolation and job losses that go with it. Tensions around a divisive election. Fears and conflict over immigration policies.
In 2020, California’s Central, Eastern Coachella and Imperial valleys were no longer the outlying edges, but the center of the state’s troubles. A two-week reporting trip in October and November revealed that not knowing the outcome of so much, not knowing where things will go from here, has created a tenor of uncertainty that vibrated through the small towns and across the broad fields.
Lamont, Kern county, California. Discarded shoes. The small town of Lamont has a population of 15,131, and 32.8% of residents live below the poverty level.
Buttonwillow, California. More than 43% of Buttonwillow’s 1,583 residents live below the poverty line.
Left: Taft, Kern county, California. Taft has a population of 7,294 and 24.5% of residents live below the poverty level. Like many other parts of the state, the city was under a “red-flag warning” for severe fire conditions in mid-October. Right: Mendota, Fresno county, California. Mendota has a population of 11,307 and has seen more than a 1,000 cases of Covid-19. Ninety per cent of California’s 381,000 farmworkers come from Mexico. Covid-19 has disproportionately affected Latino communities, accounting for 58% of all cases in the state as of August.
Huron, Fresno county, California. Alleyway. Huron has a population of 7,019, with 45.7% of residents living below the poverty level. Fresno county, where Huron is located, has recorded41,460 cases of Covid-19, with 514 deaths.
Left: Tulare, Tulare county, California. Tulare has a population of 59,278 and 23.6% live below the poverty level. The city has had 2,848 cases of Covid-19. Tulare county, has had 23,662 cases of Covid-19, and 319 deaths. The unemployment rate is 12.2%. Right: Avenal, Kings county, California. Avenal has a population of 9,567. The nearby Avenal state prison is the most Covid-infected facility in California. The prison has had nearly 3,000 infections, and eight deaths.
Bakersfield, Kern county, California. A Trump supporter cheers on a caravan in support of Donald Trump’s re-election from an overpass of Highway 99.
Ducor, Tulare county, California. Almond plantings. Over-pumping groundwater for agriculture has caused the land to sink in parts of the central valley. The Friant-Kern canal near Ducor has lost 60% of its carrying capacity due to sinking ground.
Left: Traver, Tulare county, California. Traver has a population of 834 and has had 131 cases of Covid-19. Right: Mecca, Riverside county, California. High winds, swirling dust, and heightened fire risks throughout the fall led to warnings about power shutoffs in Mecca, which has a population of 7,174. Unemployment in Riverside county is 10.4%, but 39.5% of residents live below the poverty level.
El Centro, Imperial county, California. In the early months of the pandemic, Imperial county had a positivity rate of 10.32 cases per 1,000 in population, the highest rate then recorded in California. The county has had 17,733 cases of Covid-19 and 367 deaths.
Calexico, California. Since the coronavirus outbreak began, 10.21% of Imperial county’s population has tested positive for Covid-19. With 21.5% of the population out of work, the county has both the highest unemployment rate and the highest rates of infection in the state.
Left: Niland, Imperial county, California. A brush fire in Niland this summer killed one person, destroyed about 40 homes, and displaced 130 people. East of the Salton Sea, Niland has a population of 515, and 57.3% of people live below the poverty level. Right: El Centro, Imperial county, California. Homeless encampment.
Borrego Springs, California. Abandoned farm well. Borrego Springs is in San Diego county, which recorded a new single day Covid-19 record 1,802 cases on Thanksgiving day.
Barstow, California. A man sleeps in an empty lot. Barstow has a population of 22,750 and 36.6% live below the poverty level.
Left and right: Calexico, California.
Barstow, California. A rural home.
Victorville, California. A burned and overturned car. Victorville is home to the Adelanto Ice Processing Center, where activists have regularly gathered to demand the release of detained immigrants with health conditions that make them vulnerable to Covid-19.
Left: Firebaugh, California. Firebaugh has a poverty rate of 27.7%, and its farm worker residents must continue to work picking crops despite the pandemic. The wildfires in the state exacerbated already tough working conditions for valley farm workers. Right: Fresno, California. A fire at a homeless encampment downtown. Fresno has a population of 961,820 and 24.1% live below the poverty level.
Ducor, California.