With
harvest season about to begin in earnest, farmers are desperate for
laborers to pick their fruit and vegetables. Already in the Pacific
Northwest, much of the cherry crop was left to rot because of the
shortage of agricultural workers.
The crisis
will soon roll into Michigan, where apples, cherries, blueberries,
asparagus and other crops are rapidly ripening. Hand-picked specialty
crops are a $6.3 billion industry in Michigan, supporting 41,000 jobs.
The
shortage of farm workers has been building for years, due to an aging
agricultural workforce, competition from more lucrative and less
grueling jobs and restrictions on immigrant labor.
This
year, it is exacerbated by the Trump administration's crackdown on
unauthorized immigrants and the deportation of those who have entered
the country illegally.
Estimates are that 42%
of farm workers are undocumented migrants. Recent Immigration and
Customs Enforcement raids on farms employing migrants have frightened
away many of those workers from the fields where they had been working.
But
the work they do hasn't gone away. Fruit and vegetables still need to
be harvested. If they're not, it will lead to food waste, shortages and
higher prices on the grocery shelves.
When
asked about the worker shortage, Agriculture Secretary Brooke Rollins
said the solution lies in greater mechanization of farms and matching
the 34 million able bodied Americans who must find jobs or lose their
Medicaid benefits with farmers who need workers.
While
Rollins is correct that those who can work should be expected to, it's
doubtful even the risk of losing health care benefits will coax the
jobless into hot, backbreaking farm work.
Her solutions will take time and large capital investments. They won't save this year's harvest.
The
Trump administration must take emergency action to assure there are
enough workers to bring in the crops this summer and fall.
Rather
than deporting migrants willing to fill essential jobs such as
harvesting, the administration should grant them seasonal visas and a
no-deportation guarantee as long as they are working on farms.
Beyond
that, reform is needed for the H-2A visa program that allows farmers to
legally employ temporary workers from another country. The application
process is too complex and time-consuming. It must be simplified;
farmers need help now.
Also at issue is the
federal mandatory minimum wage for H-2A visa holders, now set at $18.50
an hour. That's nearly $8 an hour higher than the state minimum wage in
Michigan. When added to housing and other costs for these workers, many
farmers have to limit their use of the visas.
Longer
term, resources should be devoted to recruiting domestic workers for
the agriculture industry. Farmers are also being encouraged to raise
wages for native-born workers, add benefits and improve working
conditions.
All of that is expensive and will
inevitably show up in grocery prices. But so will the shortages caused
by allowing crops to rot in fields.
The most
sensible option for this season is to back off deportation of farm
workers while solutions are pursued for either replacing them or giving
them legal status.
