The American Farm Bureau Federation says there’s broad support for legislation addressing the ag labor crisis.
John Walt Boatright says the Securing Agriculture Workforce Act is expected to be released today.
He tells Brownfield, “Now that we’re in our 40th year of no legislative passage of reform efforts, the situation continues to get more and more prominent.”
Boatright says U.S. House Ag Committee Chair Glenn “GT” Thompson’s legislation builds on previous efforts to reform the H-2A guest worker program.
“It truly is a group of agricultural associations and business associations who are lining up to say something has to happen, something has to be done to stabilize this workforce and to improve our competitiveness for our family farmers,” he says.
During a call with reporters on Monday, AFBF President Zippy Duvall said labor is one of the biggest issues impacting their members.
“It always comes out of every farmer’s mouth that they can’t find enough good, qualified labor to be able to get their work done on their farm, it is definitely a workforce crisis,” he says.
Arizona Farm Bureau President John Boelts says a four-day delay getting H-2A workers on his 3,000-acre farm meant nearly $500,000 in cantaloupes went to waste this spring.
“We wrapped up just a week and a half ago with harvest, and we lost money on it,” he shares. “If we’d have been able to harvest that first little bit, it would have really helped us, and that’s just kind of the nature of what we need in agriculture for labor. We need a legal and reliable workforce, and we need to be able to depend on them being there when we need them.”
Ryan Akin is a partner on a diversified dairy farm in New York and says local workers aren’t available.
“About 15 years ago, we went into the H-2A program to have access to stable, legal labor for the cabbage, but the dairy side of our business still does not have access to stable and legal labor,” he says.
Boatright says discussions with the U.S. Judiciary Committee are underway to move the bill forward.
