A new report examining the labor required to supply food for the U.S. Thanksgiving market highlights the need for a stable agricultural workforce across production and processing. Third-generation North Carolina farmer Linda Pryor told Brownfield that labor shortages affect every stage of the supply chain. "Without a reliable workforce, a farmer can grow great crops, but without employees to help get them ultimately to someone's table, then all of those crops would go to waste," she said.
Pryor raises apples, corn and works with the nonprofit Grow it Here, which advocates for improved access to agricultural labor. She said farmers return for many products used in Thanksgiving meals are not keeping pace with rising input costs, particularly labor. "We need long-term reform, and labor can't be a political bargaining chip every time the administration changes," she said. "That does nothing but set us back. Farmers and farmworkers both need stability and consistency, and that's what we want more than anything."
The group's first Thanksgiving impact report outlines the cost structure of farm labor and reliance on the H-2A guest worker program. According to the report, labor accounts for about 60 percent of operating costs in apple production. It also states that 60 percent of potato growers report using H-2A workers, and as much as half of frontline employees in meat and poultry processing are undocumented.
Last month, the U.S. Department of Labor announced an interim rule affecting the H-2A program, noting that a legal and consistent workforce is needed to support farm operations. The agency said persistent labor shortages and rising production costs could reduce U.S. competitiveness, affect food production, and lead to higher consumer prices.
The United Farm Workers of America and the UFW Foundation have filed a lawsuit against the Department of Labor over the interim rule. The lawsuit argues that the revised methodology for determining farmworker wages violates the Administrative Procedure Act, undercuts wages for domestic agricultural workers, and could expand the H-2A program.
The report and related policy developments indicate ongoing concerns from both growers and labor groups about the availability, cost, and structure of agricultural labor in the United States.
Source: Brownfield
