Why the New H-2A Rules Undermine Growers
Let’s start with something we can all agree on: Increasing the amount of fresh fruits and vegetables that Americans consume is a good thing. The list of benefits is long and includes better health, decreased obesity, and reduced disease.
Strong farms and markets also benefit our rural, agriculture-based communities and economies. From the big picture, strong farms also afford our nation the opportunity to be self-sustaining and not to be reliant on other nations for our food supply.
Unfortunately, Southeastern fruit and vegetable producers find themselves in a precarious position at the crossroads of ineffective trade policy and an increasingly cost prohibitive guest worker program. The unlevel playing field facing our growers threatens the very future of our industry and our nation’s ability to feed itself.
Labor Policy
As our nation becomes increasingly urban, specialty crop farmers have long struggled to find a reliable and documented labor force. Georgia and Southeastern fruit and vegetable producers increasingly rely on the H-2A program to produce crops that remain heavily reliant on skilled labor.
It takes a lot of hands to bring high quality, fresh produce to the shelves of the local grocery store. Domestic laborers who are willing to do this work are exceedingly rare, if not nonexistent in many regions, and our industry relies on guest workers at every stage for planting, harvesting, and packing.
While the H-2A program is often the only option for growers, the program can be an administrative nightmare for small employers with burdensome paperwork, increasing fees, and a myriad of rules and regulations. The program can be so complicated in fact that many growers must now rely on contractors to help them navigate the complex system.
Southeastern users of the H-2A program were met with a nasty surprise in November 2022 when adjustments were announced to the Adverse Effect Wage Rate (AEWR). In Georgia, growers were shocked by a 14% increase that raised the AEWR to $13.67 per hour. Estimates are that this increase will cost the Georgia producers in excess of $120 million in additional wages in 2023 alone. Specialty crop producers who rely almost exclusively on H-2A workers, will be especially hard hit. Adding insult to injury, the increased AEWR will force our producers to contract less labor resulting in lost production for the state. Ironically, much of that production may shift to Mexico and other competitors from which many of our guest workers originate.
A program’s success hinges on the ability of its users to forecast costs. Given record inflation in 2022 and increases in cost-of-living, many growers expected an increase in wage rates. This was evidenced by the announced 8.7% increase in Social Security benefits for 2023. The 14% 2023 AEWR increase dwarfed the raise given to Social Security recipients and left many growers scrambling to figure out how to absorb such a drastic, one year rise in wages.
Fair Trade
As imports of cheap fresh fruits and vegetables continue to surge, Southeastern growers who are saddled with increasing wage rates find themselves competing with countries whose workers earn a fraction of what U.S. growers are required to pay. Numerous reports, investigations, and studies have documented the rise of imports and the impact they often have on prices when they flood our markets.
When prices dramatically drop due to imports, Georgia growers are often faced with choosing to harvest produce that will fetch less than their cost of production or leaving perfectly good food to rot in the fields. This is a travesty when there are Americans who still lack access to fresh fruits and vegetables.
Food security is national security and chillingly, surging imports and the impact they have on American producers ultimately threaten our national security by reducing our nation’s ability to produce its own food. The COVID pandemic provided a glimpse into how our trade policy impacts our growers and our food supply. As shortages loomed of consumer goods from toilet paper to beef, U.S. growers kept the produce shelves filled with high quality, fresh fruits and vegetables. If the unlevel playing field persists with cheap imports and unpredictable wage rate increases, those U.S. growers will struggle to keep the shelves stocked during the next crisis. As a nation, we cannot allow ourselves to become dependent on foreign producers to supply our food.
Georgia farmers are known for their resilience, and Georgia is blessed with abundant resources to produce the fresh fruits and vegetables that feed our country. It’s past time that our agriculture policies and guest worker programs align to support all specialty crop producers in this worthy pursuit. Let’s work to make sure that we are constructing policies and programs that support domestic producers to ensure that American consumers will always have access to fresh produce grown in America.
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