Lack of Understanding
From the Ag Information Network, I’m Bob Larson with today’s Fruit Grower Report. It’s no secret to growers that labor is perhaps the biggest problem facing agriculture today.
But to the rest of the world, U.S. Representative Dan
Newhouse says with the labor shortages and expenses, there is a lot of misinterpretations of the ag labor force in general …
NEWHOUSE … “Overall, I think the American population and, you know, Congress being a cross-section of that, overall, they just don’t understand the urgency of having a, not only an adequate number of farm workers, but the need to have a legal source of farm workers..”
The good news, Newhouse says is that specialty crop growers have been speaking up and helping lawmakers understand their needs …
NEWHOUSE … “Federal agencies have been taking some steps to make the H-2A program be more efficient and more responsive, try to be faster, but that’s always a challenge. You know, when people need workers they need them now, not next week.”
And then, Newhouse says there is another major challenge to consider …
NEWHOUSE … “Also the cost is, frankly, it’s almost prohibitive to a lot of growers to take advantage of H-2A when it costs so much to transport and house and, you know, there’s a lot of expenses there that you don’t have if you are able to hire domestic workers. And so, some of those things we’re trying to address.”
Newhouse says SAWA, the Sustainable Agricultural Workforce Act could go a long way to help ease some of these problems.
