Colorado Fruit and Vegetable Growers Meet Ag Sec.

Colorado Fruit and Vegetable Growers Meet Ag Sec.

Maura Bennett
Maura Bennett

Colorado Fruit and Vegetable Growers met with Agriculture Secretary Sonny Perdue asking for help finding quality legal labor.

Robert Sakata of Sakata Farms, is CFVGA president and hosted the event.

He said labor is farmers' number one challenge.

Sakata added that growers would appreciate the H2A program for foreign workers being more flexible

Other growers echoed their reliance on foreign laborers but the H2A Visa is and expensive unwieldy process.

Perdue says he has been told some changes farmers want can't done on a regulatory basis and must come through the much slower legislative process.

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Bruce Talbott of Talbott Mountain Gold in Palisade told the Secretary that it is a myth that foreign workers are taking agricultural jobs from Americans.

He said in the 13 years he's used the H2A program for hundreds of workers, just two local workers applied.

Secretary Perdue is on tour around the country listening to farmers concerns. Growers urged Perdue to appeal to President Trump to negotiate trade deals that keep their agricultural products flowing into foreign markets.

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