Pork Industry Needs Workforce

National Pork Producers Council President Duane Stateler says a priority right now is finding a path forward to ensure an ag workforce continues.

“This is a lot bigger than the illegals that or those people across the borders. In the last four years. I mean, we've sort of had an open border situation and in the past 20 years. I mean, there are a lot of undocumented, you know, here that have tried, and then they haven't been able to get citizenship because everything is so backed up and or get their visas renewed. And then if you want to renew your visa, you got to do certain things.”

Stateler points to the case of an Ohio State University professor who has lived and worked in the US for 20 years but has been unable to gain citizenship after years of renewing visas. Her most recent request was denied, something he says is hurting the industry and adding to the larger labor challenge.

“I am 100% in agreement we do not need convicts or something like that, or here, but there are a large majority that are finding work here, and that we need at the farm level. Because our rural areas there's nothing holding our children here. The workforces are in the cities, and they leave the rural areas, and so we don't have a vast amount of people to come from.”

National Pork Producers Council President Dwayne Stateler.