LATEST EVENT, HELD ON NATIONAL FARMER’S DAY, IN MULTI-STATE NATIONAL FOOD SECURITY FARM TOUR ORGANIZED BY ABIC ACTION AND AG LEADERS
“It’s quite appropriate that we’re gathered today on National Farmer’s Day. I would certainly hope that on this day next year, we’re not still lamenting that [the U.S. continues to be a net importer of food]. We’re asking elected officials to take immediate action to give U.S. food producers the tools we need to continue providing Americans with a safe and economical food supply.” — Bob Jones, owner of Farmer Jones Farm, site of the Culinary Vegetable Institute and a member of AmericanHort
Left to right: Weirs, Buurma, Kaptur, Davis, Higgins, Jones
Watch Livestream: HERE
MILAN, OH – On National Farmer’s Day, Wednesday, October 12, at 10:00 a.m. ET, the American Business Immigration Coalition Action (ABIC Action), Congresswoman Marcy Kaptur, AmericanHort, the International Fresh Produce Association, the Culinary Vegetable Institute, Mucci Farms, Wiers Farms, Willoway Nurseries and The Chef’s Garden convened a press event and roundtable entitled “Lower Food Prices, Keep Shelves Stocked: Common Sense Solutions to Ohio’s Farm Labor Shortage.”
With Senate negotiations ongoing, the event, held at Milan’s Culinary Vegetable Institute, called attention to the urgency of fixing Ohio’s and the nation’s farm labor shortage by passing new Senate agriculture workforce solutions. It was the latest event in an ongoing farm tour organized by the American Business Immigration Coalition Action that has already hit Wisconsin, Pennsylvania, Maine, Kansas, Missouri, South Dakota, North Carolina, Utah, North Carolina, Texas, Indiana and D.C.
Said U.S. Representative Marcy Kaptur (D-OH): “I’m on the Agriculture Committee in the House of Representatives. I believe very strongly that what America makes and grows [in turn] makes and grows America. I’m here today because I’m very concerned about the trend in agriculture in this country. I want to grow food, not import food, because I want America to be secure within her border.”
She concluded: “I’m the daughter of a grocer and grew up seeing how difficult it is to be supplied by farms, so I’m honored to be here today and I want to thank the American Business Immigration Coalition [for organizing today’s event].” She urged the U.S. Senate to “find a solution that will work for everyone, including food producers….I hope to be an ally to streamline that process.”
Said Bob Jones, owner of Farmer Jones Farm (site of the Culinary Vegetable Institute) and a member of AmericanHort: “It’s quite appropriate that we’re gathered today on National Farmer’s Day. I would certainly hope that on this day next year, we’re not still lamenting that [the U.S. continues to be a net importer of food].”
He continued: “Our workforce shortage keeps us up at night…this comes down to a simple and basic choice for Americans: Either import workers or import food….as a country, we’re becoming a net importer of food. That does not bode well for national security. We must reverse that trend, because the more food we import, the less oversight our federal agencies have over it. They already inspect less than 1 percent of imported food today.”
He urgently called for the Senate to pass farm workforce reform: “The Farm Workforce Modernization Act will make significant changes to the H-2A program, will phase in e-verify, which will add integrity to hiring practices, and it also improves our chances for a more secure border. We’re asking elected officials to take immediate action to give U.S. food producers the tools we need to continue providing Americans with a safe and economical food supply.”
Said ABIC director of outreach James O’Neill: “We’ve heard from all the speakers today that this is not a new problem, but now it’s more urgent,” he said. “Because of Senate inaction, we’ve seen farms changing what crops they’re growing, leaving land untilled, leaving crops to rot because they don’t have the workers to pick them, and selling their farms and leaving agriculture altogether. This is a threat to national security, but it also comes at a cost paid by small towns that rely on farmers and by consumers, who pay more at the grocery.”
He concluded: “We thank U.S. Senators Mike Crapo (R-ID) and Michael Bennet (D-CO) for taking the lead on negotiating this in the Senate, and we call on Ohio Senators Sherrod Brown and Rob Portman to be part of the solution to these problems.”
Said Scott Higgins, President and CEO, Ohio Dairy Producers Association: “When I started representing dairy farmers back in 1984 after milking cows my entire life, there were over 4,000 dairy farmers in Ohio with an average of 40 to 50 cows. Today, we’re down to 1,500 because small farms are no longer economically feasible. But we’re still milking 255,000 cows and putting out a billion more pounds of milk than we were in 1984. So how do you make sure that 255,000 cows get milked three times a day? You’ve got to have folks willing to work. Since 1984, as we’ve increasingly had no takers when we try to hire domestically, we’ve brought in talented labor from other countries—folks who actually like to work in livestock. They and their families have become part of the fabric of our country, and we want to make sure that we take care of them.”
He continued: “Dairy farmers milk 365 days a year, but we don’t have access to year-round labor under the current H-2A program. That’s why we need the Senate to take action now. We need to fix the farm labor crisis right now.”
Said Kathy Davis, Owner and Operator, Ayers Valley Farm, Russellville, OH: “I’m a seventh-generation dairy farmer along with my parents, aunt and uncle, cousins and 20 laborers. Our workforce is aging and we need to replace them with other quality folks willing to work long and hard…When COVID came around, we thought that, with everything closing, lots of [domestic] people would be applying. But nobody applied.”
Thus, she said, she needed foreign workers. “But H-2A doesn’t work for us because we milk all day every year. That’s why we need quality employees who can come to the U.S. securely and legally.” She said to U.S. Senate members: “I ask you to work to push this bill through so we can do what we need to do in Ohio and the U.S. to produce quality food.”
Said Joel Buurma, Buurma Farms, Willard, OH, a member of the International Fresh Produce Association (IFPA): “In my family’s 126 years of farming, labor has always been our biggest issue. This country’s health, wealth and security all hinge on access to affordable and nutritious food, which is dependent on farm labor. That’s why this is something all Senators should be able to get behind.”
Said Tyler Wiers of Wiers Farm, Willard, OH: “We’ve been on this farm since 1896, but farm labor in this country as it stands right now is unreliable. I’m here calling for action. We need to pass legislation that keeps workers working in American fields to harvest produce that keeps this country fed.”
He continued: “We use over 500 H-2A workers but still find ourselves unable to staff our year-round needs. It’s becoming more and more difficult to do even the most basic things around the farm. The Senate needs to take action to solve this problem.”
Said Tom Demaline, president of Willoway Nurseries, Avon, OH and member of AmericanHort: “We as a wholesale grower have become reliant on H-2A over the last 10 to 15 years, but the program is costly and unpredictable. It’s time to come together in the Senate to fix this problem. We’ve been kicking this can down the road since the late 1990s. Now, we’re at more than a crossroads. It’s a crisis.”
He continued: “It’s time to fix the problem with common sense. We bring up 300 guest workers on H-2A to get here March 1, and the next day we’re out there getting ready for spring. You can’t wait til tomorrow to milk cows or plant vegetables, so it’s critically important that we finally have a guest-worker program that works.”
Background
In 2021, the U.S. House of Representatives passed the Farm Workforce Modernization Act with bipartisan support. That was a good start, and now in the Senate, Senators Mike Crapo (R-ID) and Mike Bennet (D-CO) have taken the lead on negotiating improvements on the House’s solutions and moving the process forward. Passing new Senate legislation is critical to solving labor shortages facing the Ohio agriculture sector and sustaining the state’s economy as a whole.
According to a new Cato Institute report, the House-passed Farm Workforce Modernization Act would “would reduce labor costs for H-2A farms by about $1 billion in the first year and $1.8 billion in the second, which would result in many more workers being hired, more productivity, and lower prices for consumers.” For Ohio farmers, this would amount to $39.5 million in savings over two years (see report).
Additionally, a report from New American Economy indicates that immigrants make up 4.7% percent of Ohio’s population, pay $6 billion in taxes annually and make up nearly 18% of its animal production and aquaculture workforce and 19% of its other agriculture workers. Ohio farmers desperately need a stable, year-round workforce—dairy farms, for example, are currently excluded from the H-2A program and cows must be milked 365 days a year.
On the national level, Texas A&M International University released data from a new economic study on the link between stabilizing the agricultural workforce and decreasing inflation and consumer prices, showing that ensuring farmers have a stable, secure, reliable, and legal workforce is crucial to keeping America’s grocery shelves stocked, combating inflation, and lowering food prices (including milk, eggs, meat, and produce) for all domestic consumers.
Addressing workforce shortages facing farm employers and stabilizing the H-2A visa application process is also crucial for enhancing our national food security by protecting domestic agriculture production. According to the USDA, next year, for the first time in U.S. history, we as a country will be importing more agricultural goods than we export.
ABOUT
ABIC Action is the political arm of the American Business Immigration Coalition (ABIC), a bipartisan coalition of over 1,200+ CEOs, business owners, and trade associations across 17 mostly red and purple states. ABIC Action promotes common sense immigration reform that advances economic competitiveness, provides companies with both the high-skilled and low-skilled talent they need, and allows the integration of immigrants into our economy as consumers, workers, entrepreneurs, and citizens.