Farmers Market Workers Brace for Winter Cold

Pio Tsai works the Greentopia Farms stand under the rain in Bartel-Pritchard Square. (Credit: Roman Broszkowski)

Pio Tsai sat behind a table adorned with boxes of mushrooms. The Bartel-Pritchard Square farmers market in Brooklyn was quiet on this day — it was raining, and the weather was getting colder. As his third winter working farmers markets approached, Tsai knew it would only get worse.

“[The winter] it sucks,” he said. “The worst part is that you just can’t get warm. … The extremities are the first thing to go — your toes. Just like being so close to the cement, you’re standing on your feet for eight hours or whatever, and there’s just no heat source.”

Sarah Rosenwald, who works at the Lynnhaven Goat Farm stand at the Union Square market, shares the sentiment.

“The hardest days in the winter are when it’s raining or sleeting because the day just drags on,” she said. “And then the cardboard or rug to stand on stops being effective because it’s soaked through.”

Roughly a quarter of New York City’s 134 farmers markets stay open all year. Those who work the stalls are usually not the farmers themselves but local employees earning $15 to $25 per hour. Some shifts last 10 hours, and most workers spend it outside with only a tent between them and the elements. Farm stands are usually one- or two-person operations, so breaks are infrequent, at best.

“I just want to go home and warm up after an 8 a.m. to 4 p.m. [day] … of no heat except maybe 15 minutes at the Pret [A Manger] at 2 o’clock or whenever somebody has time to watch the booth,” Rosenwald said.

Working that long in the winter can also be dangerous.

“It’s important to be aware of how potentially hazardous cold stress can be,” said Brenda Jacklitsch, a research health scientist at the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention’s National Institute for Occupational Safety and Health. “It can result in these cold-related illnesses like hypothermia, can result in some nasty illnesses, as well as, in worst cases, death.”

Market workers must rely on themselves or their bosses to stay warm, because there are no state or local mandates around either hot- or cold-weather work. Some farmers invest in space heaters and enclosed tents. Others provide hand warmers — or nothing at all.

A bill introduced by State Sen. Jessica Ramos during the 2023-2024 legislative session — the Temperature Extreme Mitigation Program (TEMP) Act — would have set requirements for what employers must provide their staff in the heat and cold.

For days below 60 degrees, employees would have mandated heating breaks. Employers would also have to provide a plan to deal with cold weather and allow workers to acclimatize to cold weather by requiring shorter initial shifts for two weeks before ramping up.

But the bill didn’t pass before the Legislature ended its session.

“The climate crisis has put workers on the front line of dealing with temperature extremes, and our job in Albany is to make sure the senator’s colleagues understand the urgency of passing the bill,” a spokesperson for Ramos said. “We will absolutely be re-introducing the bill and intend to prioritize it in the 2025 session.”

Most of New York City’s year-round farmers markets and farm stands — 83 percent — are run through the same environmental nonprofit, GrowNYC. Farmers pay the group to rent a space. If they can’t make it to a market, they have to notify GrowNYC by noon the day before or face fines. After three unnotified absences, farmers can lose their spot for the year. While there are exceptions for “severe weather,” GrowNYC doesn’t define the term.

Andrina Sanchez, a communications staffer for GrowNYC, noted in an email that “decisions on site closings due to inclement weather are carefully made on a case-by-case basis and involve consideration of a variety of factors including directives by the NYC Office of Emergency Management. The health and safety of our staff, farmers, and customers is our highest priority.”

Some workers disagree and want GrowNYC to do more.

“My first winter, I worked a blizzard; I wasn’t prepared at all. Snow was coming in from the side, and I was turning away from it so much that I tweaked a nerve in my neck,” a long-time worker at the Columbia University farmers market said, speaking on the condition of anonymity. “GrowNYC doesn’t close the market for anything, and sometimes I wish that they did. It’s not safe.”

For some farmers, inclement weather doesn’t outweigh the financial incentives.

Luke Samascott is the market manager for his family’s farm, Samascott Orchards in Kinderhook, N.Y., at several GrowNYC markets.

“Rain, snow, shine, whatever it is, we got the gear to protect the fruit and still sell,” he said. In the winter, Samascott’s stand has a smaller selection of products. They sell baked goods made with fruit harvested earlier in the year, as well as apples and potatoes. Although there is less demand in the winter, Samascott said continuing to operate stands throughout the year is essential for maintaining customer loyalty.

Samascott said he makes sure he, his workers, and his produce stay comfortable during the winter. He brings kerosene and electric heaters to the market. Samascott can also put up plastic tent walls to block the wind.

However, Samascott believes that other farmers shouldn’t be held to the standard he’s set. He worries that such requirements would be too costly for smaller stands.

“It’s a lot harder to get into the markets if you have to have all this stuff before you even start selling anything,” Samascott said. “I’ve always thought of the markets as being for the small business entrepreneurs and the more regulations and mandates you have, the harder to just start up any type of small business.”