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.
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
Growing Produce: Opinion: Give Tech Companies the Expertise They Lack
While I was eating lunch during United Fresh 2017 in Chicago, a venture capitalist for precision ag sat down next to me. He told me he and his firm are seeking specialty crop technology firms to invest in, but he’s running into a problem. Not many startups understand real-world growing. Read More
South Carolina Community Would Be Ghost Town Without Immigrants, Says Businessman
Saluda businessman Hector Ortiz knows exactly what would happen if the town’s foreign-born population was deported or left out of fear. “Without the immigrants to work at the poultry plants, this would become a ghost town,” he says. Ortiz, who runs an insurance company in the town of 3,500, points to… Read More
Millions of Dollars at Stake When Visas for Japanese Roe Technicians Delayed
It’s hard not to marvel at the organization of the Alaska seafood business, which maintains a reliably healthy fishery while pumping billions of dollars into the national economy every year. It begins with rigorous resource management by the state and ends with an elaborate, private, global distribution system. Smack in… Read More
The Edmond Sun (OK): Opinion: Immigration reform is necessary for Farmers and Ranchers
Why don’t they just get in line? This is the question many ask when it comes to immigrants attempting to enter our country to work. At this point, it is important we acknowledge that under our current immigration laws, it is simpler to come here illegally… 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.
America's story is an immigrant story.
