Labor Looms Large. Farmers Need Action

Heading into another harvest season, no policy issue looms larger in agriculture than the acute, worsening shortage of workers on American farms.

An independent analysis of Labor Department data suggests that the U.S. agricultural workforce decreased by 7% between March and July. Well-publicized stories of aggressive immigration enforcement, including on dairies, can’t help but raise concerns.

The need for a stable, secure workforce is certainly top-of-mind in dairy, where in some ways the shortage is even more challenging because of milk production’s year-round nature. Many dairy farmers rely on foreign-born labor to care for animals, operate complicated equipment, and the physical rigors of chores that goes on day and night. With the U.S. border effectively closed, with many workers returning to their home countries, and with more intense immigration enforcement, the finances and futures of many dairies are less certain now than they would be with a solid immigration policy that brought reassurance to anxious farmers.

And that’s why, on this politically and emotionally difficult issue, we’re working with both the administration and with lawmakers to find solutions that put the dairy workforce, and dairy farms across America, on sound footing moving forward.