On Wednesday, October 23, the Mosbacher Institute for Trade, Economics, and Public Policy at The Bush School of Government and Public Service at Texas A&M University hosted a panel discussion entitled, “Agriculture and Immigration: Voices of American Farmers” as part of their Conversations in Public Policy series. This conversation included agricultural leaders from Texas and Idaho, who discussed how the ongoing stalemate of immigration policy reform impacts the farming industry. Panelists included Director of Government Affairs for the National Council of Farmer Cooperatives, Mary Nowak Armstrong; CEO of the Idaho Dairymen’s Association, Rick Naerebout; and Executive Director of the Texas Association of Dairymen, Darren Turley.
The panelists discussed the challenges farmers face when it comes to finding workers. The agricultural industry is dependent on a migrant workforce. According to Naerebout, 90% of Idaho’s agricultural workforce is foreign-born because Americans do not want to work the entry-level jobs farmers need to fill. He maintained that farmers are forced into dependence on the migrant population, which poses a unique set of challenges.
“We can’t even feed ourselves as a country without an unauthorized workforce right now,” said Naerebout.
Turley noted that that there seems to be a change in the personality of the current immigrant population, who are less interested in farmwork. He explained that instead of coming across the border and heading to farms for work, migrants choose to go to the cities for more service-based jobs that pay just as well.
“Even though we have more people coming across the border than ever, they have no intention of coming to farms looking for labor,” Turley said.
Many farmers also find difficulty securing year-round workers, especially in places like Idaho, where there is no year-round visa program. According to Armstrong, even in states that have access to the H-2A Visa program, farmers face increased bureaucracy and labor costs, such as proving their inability to employ domestic workers; paying thousands of dollars in the application process; and providing housing, transportation, and meals for the workers.
Armstrong stated that due to the difficulty of finding either domestic workers or documented immigrants, farmers depend on undocumented workers. She went on to say that while it is difficult to get exact numbers, she estimates that more than half of the agricultural immigrant workforce in America is undocumented. She asserted that without these workers, many farms risk going out of business.
As she continues to lobby on behalf of farmers, Armstrong has found that Congress is sympathetic to their needs. However, when she starts talking about immigration, that attitude changes. She described immigration as a multi-layered and polarizing topic that many in Congress are hesitant to speak directly to. One angle Armstrong continues to draw attention to is how the current labor shortage has an impact that extends beyond agriculture, even affecting trade and national security.
“We have seen in the last two years a shift. We used to be a country that had more exports than we imported when it comes to our food,” said Armstrong, “That has now changed. We now import more agricultural commodities than we export. And we start talking about national security issues with that when we start becoming more reliant on other countries for our food.”
Naerebout, Armstong and Turley all agree that the key to finding a solution that works for everyone is educating members of Congress and the American public on the scope and impact this issue has on farmers and the entire country. Opportunities to discuss these issues, like Conversations in Public Policy, are a fundamental step in the right direction.
Watch the full event recorded on our Youtube Channel.
