Farm Bureau Members Advocate for a Labor Fix

Boelts: We've been short of workers for well over two decades, and over the last year or two, we've been watching the use of that explode. When we're seeing H-2A used that heavily, we're in crisis mode in U.S. agriculture. It's an expensive program to use. It's bureaucratically challenging, and it takes a reasonable manner of expertise to navigate the system and actually get workers.

Boelts: We’re back here asking particularly for a freeze in the Adverse Effect Wage Rate that's part of the H-2A program and asking for a suspension to the disaggregated worker pay rates that were introduced in 2023 so that more farms can stay in business because we have really got to that point where we're so desperate that farms are deciding to shut down.

Boelts: Call and contact their representatives in Congress and talk to folks with the administration about the issue, but also ask their workers and their employees to speak up to change this situation for all employers and employees. And I think the consumer needs to get the message as well, so we need to be talking to consumers, and we need to be talking to our customers.