The U.S. Department of Homeland Security, the United States Department of Agriculture (USDA), and most U.S. states have categorized farms as Essential Critical Infrastructure— meaning that these operations remain open during the COVID-19 pandemic. Therefore, it is important that growers implement proper sanitation strategies to protect themselves and their staff from SARS-CoV-2 (Figure 1), the coronavirus that causes COVID-19.
USDA recommends that farms follow the Environmental Protection Agency (EPA) guidelines to handle cleanup of facilities (www.usda.gov/coronavirus).
In this e-Gro Edible Alert, a summary is provided of the options available for surface sanitation based on the Environmental Protection Agency guidelines.