Agriculture
Agriculture and farming is a cherished part of American identity and remains an important part of the American economy. In 2020, the agriculture, fishing, and forestry industries contributed more than $175 billion to U.S. GDP and supported more than 2.3 million workers. The health of America's farms and the agriculture industry, however, is tied directly to immigration. Farmers frequently worry about finding enough workers as few Americans seem willing to take on the most difficult and physical farm jobs—particularly those harvesting fresh fruits and vegetables. Yet the H-2A visa, the only agricultural visa currently available to American farms, is too expensive and cumbersome to work for many U.S. growers. We explore this issue—and the way it costs our economy—below.
AgriNews: Duvall: Farms struggle to find workers
Thanks to scientific innovation in agriculture, farmers and ranchers are using fewer resources to grow an abundant, sustainable food supply. But I wonder how far our new technology and techniques will take us if farmers are left without one of the most critical resources to keep our farms sustainable: a… Read More
Fresh Plaza: Michigan apple growers may lose millions of dollars without migrant workers
Apples are big business in Michigan. As the state’s most valuable fruit crop, apples brought in $293 million in 2016, according to the National Agricultural Statistics Service, Great Lakes Region. And as the season winds down, getting the crop off the trees is not easy for the migrant workers who… Read More
Cherry Farmer to Washington: Give Our (Mexican) Workers Flexibility to Travel
Fifth-generation cherry farmer Dean Devine harvests around 110 acres of cherries on his properties in Modesto and Lodi, in California. He has been in the cherry business for 40 years and knows how important it is to treat the fruit with care. Cherries are one of the most labor-intensive crops. Read More
Immigration Policy Hurting California Orchards
Santa Barbara County resident Rick Shade has been in the orchard business for generations, so he knows how time-sensitive the harvest is for crops like peaches, flowers, and lettuce. “When that stuff is ready, man, you’ve got to get it harvested today,” he says. “Not yesterday, not tomorrow — today.”… Read More
The Economist: If America is overrun by low-skilled migrants…
NEAR the massive packing warehouse at the headquarters of Limoneira, one of America’s largest lemon producers, sits a row of small white clapboard houses with neat front lawns and American flags flapping over their doorways. The homes are rented to farm workers at 55% below the market rate in Santa… Read More
Albany Times Union (NY): ICE raids, rhetoric make America view farm workers ‘as criminals again’
Recent crackdowns by federal immigration agents have made communities more hostile towards minority farm workers, according to a new report. Farm owners, meanwhile, fear they’ll soon be unable to fill labor-intensive farming jobs that Americans no longer want. The report, from two Cornell University agriculture and labor experts, draws on surveys with New York… Read More
U.S. Farmer Moves His Operations South — Where the Workers Are
Each winter, an estimated two-thirds of the vegetables consumed in the United States are grown in California’s Imperial Valley. One of the largest operations there is the Scaroni Family of Companies, a multimillion-dollar farming enterprise that employs more than 5,000 people and, according to owner Steve Scaroni,… Read More
Without Immigrant Pickers, U.S. Mushrooms Scrapped for Fertilizer
This year C.P. Yeatman & Sons, Inc., a Pennsylvania farm that sells under the brand Mother Earth Organic Mushrooms, faced a problem it hadn’t encountered in more than 35 years: It didn’t have enough people to pick the mushroom crop. “A lot of harvesters will go back to Mexico for… Read More
Immigrant Worker Shortage Devastates U.S. Mushroom Crops
It was early January and Jim Angelucci had a problem. His Oxford, Pennsylvania, farm had mushrooms ready to harvest, but not enough workers. “The worst thing for a grower is to go to work at 4 o’clock in the morning and not have anyone there,” says Angelucci, the general manager… Read More
New York Times: One Ohio Town’s Immigration Clash, Down in the Actual Muck
Migrant workers arrive here every spring to work in the “muck,” which is what everybody calls the fertile soil that makes this part of Ohio the perfect place to grow radishes, peppers, cucumbers and leafy greens. The temporary workers can be seen planting, weeding and,… Read More
Immigrants and American Farms
In 2019, more than half of all hired farmworkers in the United States were immigrants, or roughly 450,000 workers. In many states known for their fresh produce, immigrant farm laborers make up large shares of miscellaneous agriculture workers—the occupation that includes those hand picking crops in the field.
Share of Miscellaneous Agricultural Workers in Crop Production, Undocumented, 2019
Farm Labor Shortages
In recent years, the number of new immigrants arriving in the country to work in agriculture has fallen by 75 percent. Rising wages indicate this has led to a major labor shortage on U.S. farms—making it difficult for many growers to stay in business or expand their operations. The workers left are also aging rapidly, meaning shortages will likely worsen as they retire.
Decline in Key States
The Aging of Foreign-Born Farm Workers
The Cost of Our Farm Labor Shortage
Because agriculture is intertwined with so many other industries in our economy—such as transportation, packing, and irrigation—a shortage of farm workers hurts the U.S. economy more broadly. We estimate U.S. growers would have produced $3.1 billion more in fresh fruits and vegetables per year by 2014 had farm labor not been an issue. The table in this section shows the costs to the U.S. economy for failing to meet this target.
Rising Imports
In recent years, there has been a dramatic increase in the amount of fresh fruits and vegetables Americans eat that is imported. Although many factors play into this phenomenon, we estimate labor shortages alone explain 27 percent of the market share decline experienced by U.S. growers from 1998-2000 to 2010-2012. Had growers maintained their hold on the domestic market, an estimated 89,300 additional U.S. jobs would have been created by 2012.
Jobs Americans Won’t Do
U.S. fresh produce growers have long said that few, if any, American workers are willing to take on the most arduous farm jobs. We studied this issue in North Carolina, examining how many American workers actually applied for heavily advertised farming positions in 2011, a period when the country was still recovering from the recession. The table in this section shows the results.
The H-2A Visa
The H-2A visa program, the only visa currently available to bring in temporary agriculture workers, is too cumbersome and unworkable for many farms. Farmers desperate for workers frequently go through the application process only to receive their laborers late, resulting in crop loss.
Sources:
1 “Why Domestic Agriculture Needs New, Workable Farm Labor Alternatives Now,” National Council of Agricultural Employers, 2011. Available online.
2Ibid.
3Ibid.
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