Farmers Talk Labor Shortage with White House, DOL and USDA
Farmers and ranchers are taking center stage as the new administration learns more about the labor shortage impacting U.S. agriculture. Chad Smith has more.
Smith: Officials with the White House, Department of Labor, and USDA hosted a roundtable with farmers and ranchers to talk about labor challenges facing agriculture. North Carolina Farm Bureau member Faylene Whitaker says the conversation centered around two main topics.
Whitaker: The H-2A Program, how we keep it here, but how we keep it affordable. The adverse wage effect, how we bring that into line with other prices here, and how we preserve the farm.
Smith: Whitaker, who grows specialty crops with the help of employees on H-2A visas, says one of her main messages to the administration was how vital the temporary workers are to her farm.
Whitaker: How much that I could not farm without them, because I would not have a workforce. Also, how my wages have went up due to the way the adverse wage effect affected North Carolina about three years ago, and then that following year, and how dependable we are in the United States on this to grow vegetable and fruit crops.
Smith: Whitaker says that if other farmers and ranchers are concerned about the labor market, the best thing they can do is reach out to their elected officials and tell their own stories.
Whitaker: They need to tell how it affects their farm personally, and how it affects their neighbor's farm, and what it means to have a legal workforce here.
Smith: Learn more at fb.org/labor. Chad Smith, Washington.
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