Labor shortages are hurting growers of several commodities across the nation.
In an effort to bring more awareness of the ag labor shortage and the need for a permanent solution, the Idaho Alliance for Legal Workforce was created.
The coalition of industry leaders and advocates is working to raise awareness about how the current visa limitations are impacting farms, ag workers, and rural communities across the state.
Rick Naerebout of the Idaho Dairymen’s Association and the Workforce coalition, citing recent academic research, said these workers, many of whom are foreign-born, have a dramatic impact on Idaho agriculture.
“If you took away just half of those unauthorized workers, that’s about 25,000 individuals, you would also remove an additional 27,000 jobs that Idahoans, American-born Idahoans, fill today. Because if you don’t have a worker to milk the cow or to harvest the crop, you can’t then process that commodity into a finished product, so you don’t have all the jobs in food processing.”
Naerebout added that the research shows removing all foreign–born workers could reduce the state’s economic output by $5.1 billion and impact more than 55,000 jobs. He added that difficult conversations will need to take place, so the issue of farm labor is properly addressed.
“Consistently, we get reports back that 50 percent of the on-farm labor in this country is here without status, and that means we cannot feed our own neighbors and our own communities without these workers. We can’t feed ourselves, as America, if we don’t have these workers, and if we don’t find a way to fix this policy issue in a very thoughtful manner and one that is well-rounded.”
Naerebout says one piece of this conversation that’s key to the livestock and dairy sectors is access to a year-round visa program.
Moving forward, he pointed out, an avenue must be provided for workers here without status, a way for them and their families to gain legal status.
“If you go back to January, Boise State [University], they do a public policy survey every year going into session. And one of the questions they asked is, would you be in favor of a dairy worker that’s here without status being given legal status to them and their family? 79 percent of Republicans answered that they would be in favor of that, and so, clearly Republicans are wanting to have a logical fix to this, which is contrary to what you saw during the legislative session where you saw a number of bills, you know, targeted at, you know, mandatory E-Verify and trying to get at removing these workers from the workforce.”