A newly-formed coalition of farmers says it hopes to address mounting labor shortages faced by U.S. farms. Dubbed the “Grow it Here” campaign, the initiative is focused on the need for policy reform within the agriculture industry.
In a press call this week, Zach Rutledge, Michigan State University assistant professor and campus-based extension specialist in the Department of Agricultural, Food, and Resource Economics, said the agricultural industry relies on foreign workers, largely from Mexico.
Over the last several years, he said, the use of the H-2A visas for temporary agricultural workers has expanded. But recent research shows the US farm labor supply is declining at a rate of 1% per year.
“And what we basically find is if you reduce the labor supply, that does affect fruit and vegetable production. And specifically what we find is that a 10% reduction of the labor supply can cause as much as a 4.2% reduction in production,” Rutledge said.