Ag Continues to Face Workforce Crisis

In a recent editorial, the Detroit News cited the American Farm Bureau and our work in drawing attention to agriculture's workforce crisis. Michigan was among more than 20 states that experienced serious delays from a worker visa backlog at both the U.S. Department of Labor and the U.S. Citizenship and Immigration Services this spring and summer. These delays further highlight the need for reasonable immigration reform as some farmers were forced to leave their crops to rot in the field or on the vine, without a reliable workforce in place.

"Politics must yield to the practical reality that farmers need workers to pick their crops when they’re ready to be picked. They can’t wait on each new president to redefine immigration laws or for a federal bureaucracy to process paperwork at its leisure," the editors noted. "If Americans are unwilling to take the bountiful supply of agricultural jobs, farmers have to be able to bring in enough foreign workers to do the job."

Check out FB videos for our latest coverage on the ag labor crisis.