“We urge you to firmly engage in this effort,” reads a sign-on letter, “and be part of the solution to the labor shortages facing Maine’s agriculture sector and to sustain our state’s economy as a whole.”
AUGUSTA, ME – With Maine facing severe farm labor shortages and rising prices, today the American Business Immigration Coalition (ABIC) Action, Maine Chamber of Commerce and other Maine business and community groups delivered a letter (full text below) to Maine Senators Susan Collins and Angus King urging them to support Senate agriculture workforce solutions to address inflation, lower food prices, ensure grocery store shelves remain stocked, and enhance our national food security by protecting domestic agriculture production.
The letter’s signatories include high profile Maine agriculture and business leaders, including Harry Ricker, Owner of Ricker Hill Orchards; Jenny Tilton-Flood, Flood Brothers’ Farm; Jake Pierson, Co-Owner, Pierson’s Nursery and a member of AmericanHort; Maine State Chamber of Commerce President & CEO Dana Connors; HospitalityME President Matt Lewis, Maine Grocers and Food Producers Association Executive Director Christine Cummings, and ABIC Boardmember David Barber, Business Development Specialist, Tyson (former President and CEO of Barber Foods).
Background
According to Maine Farm Operations, immigrants make up 18 percent of all farmworkers in the state. Recently, 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.
FULL LETTER
Dear Senator Collins and Senator King,
On August 25, 2022, two members of your local staffs, Alex Holderith and Bonnie Pothier, respectively, joined a roundtable where business and agricultural leaders discussed the need for Senate agriculture workforce solutions to address inflation, lower food prices, ensure grocery store shelves remain stocked, and enhance our national food security by protecting domestic agriculture production.
As was stressed at the roundtable and at the press conference that preceded it, due to labor shortages, many farm operations in Maine are already having to make painful decisions to either cut production or exit the business entirely. Without passage of urgently needed reforms to offer permanent residency to the immigrant farm workforce that for decades has been the backbone of our ability to get food from farms to U.S. tables, and to greatly improve the H-2A agricultural worker visa program, this reality will only intensify in Maine.
The USDA predicts that next year, for the first time in U.S. history, we as a country will be importing more agricultural goods than we export. If we do not solve this labor shortage, that trend will continue, threatening our food independence.
Recently, Texas A&M University released data from a new economic study on the link between stabilizing the agricultural workforce and decreasing inflation and consumer prices. The study shows that ensuring farmers have a stable, secure, reliable, and legal workforce is strongly related to keeping America’s grocery shelves stocked, combating inflation, and lowering food prices (including milk, eggs, meat, and produce) for all domestic consumers. Additionally, the pandemic underscored the weak links in the nation’s food supply chain, and the critical importance and resilience of local food systems. A path to permanent residency for undocumented immigrants who are integral to the nation’s and Maine’s existing farm workforce, and improvements to the H-2A program including year-round visas, reduced bureaucracy for farmers, and provisions ensuring fair wages and working conditions for farm workers, are critical reforms needed to provide the agricultural sector with a consistent and reliable labor supply.
Maine’s farms need harvesting and our cows need milking. We need a stable workforce to get it done, and the safety of our nation’s food supply hinges on it. In addition, farmworkers and their families are vital members of our communities. Ensuring safe and fair working conditions and providing them with a path to permanent residency is simply the right thing to do for these individuals who have already contributed so much to Maine and the nation.
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. We are encouraged by their leadership, and we urge you to firmly engage in this effort and be part of the solution to the labor shortages facing Maine’s agriculture sector and to sustain our state’s economy as a whole.
Sincerely,
Penny Jordan, Co-Owner, Jordan’s Farm
Jenny Tilton-Flood, Farm family member, Flood Brothers’ Farm
Harry Ricker, Owner, Ricker Hill Orchards
Jake Pierson, Co-Owner, Pierson’s Nursery; Member, AmericanHort
Heather Spalding, Deputy Director & Sr. Policy Director, Maine Organic Farmers and Growers
Association (MOFGA)
Ellen Griswold, Vice-President, Maine Farmland Trust
Christine Cummings, Executive Director, Maine Grocers and Food Producers Association
Dana Connors, President. Maine State Chamber of Commerce
Matt Lewis, President, HospitalityME
Kelly Flagg, Executive Director, AGC- Maine
Curtis Picard, President & CEO, Retail Association of Maine
Beth Stickney, Executive Director, Maine Business Immigration Coalition
Betsy Biemann, CEO, Coastal Enterprises, Inc. (CEI)
David Barber, Business Development Specialist, Tyson (former CEO of Barber Foods)
Suzanne LaFreniere, Director of Public Policy, Roman Catholic Diocese of Maine
Ben Conniff, Co-founder & Chief Innovation Officer, Luke’s Lobster
Jim Brady, President & Director, Fathom Companies
Andrew Taylor and Arlin Smith, Big Tree Hospitality – Hugo’s, Eventide Oyster Co., and The Honey Paw
Dana Street, Street and Co., Fore Street, Scales, Standard Baking Co., and Upstream Trucking
Jon Stein, Co-founder and owner, Fogtown Brewing Co.
Maine Beer Co.
References list:
Portland Press Herald: https://www.
NewsCenter Maine (NBC6): https://www.
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 16 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.
The Maine State Chamber of Commerce, founded in 1889, is Maine’s largest business association, serving as The Voice of Maine Business on behalf of thousands of employers of all sizes and sectors across the state. The Maine State Chamber focuses on three pillars – Advocacy, Access, and Awareness – to advance a positive business climate and secure a strong state economy in which Maine businesses can compete and succeed.