Michael ponders a difficult issue:

The most dynamic discussion at Red Tomato’s Core Grower Meeting last week was about farm labor.  Many RT growers rely on a government-regulated guestworker program for agriculture known as H-2A for much or all of their seasonal farm labor. These workers come from Jamaica, Mexico, Thailand. And without them, there might not be a harvest. In some cases, there might not be a farm. No wonder the discussion was dynamic.

But that’s only part of the story. A 2008 report from the Southern Poverty Law Center called Close to Slavery lashed out against the H-2 guest worker programs (H-2A for ag and H-2B for hospitality workers), citing examples of contract violations, sexual harrasment, inadequate housing, and more.

Growers in our network were offended by this report; they follow the H-2 program guidelines, pay the wage rate, pay transportation to and from the host country, provide government-approved  housing, and they treat their H-2A employees respectfully; I’ve seen them in action. Most of them work with their H-2A employees year after year, in some cases for more than a decade (it makes business sense, especially for the skilled jobs). Some rely heavily on H-2A workers. Other farms employ a mix of year-round local workers, seasonal local workers, plus seasonal H2A workers. Without the seasonal H-2A workers, the other year-round jobs would be threatened.

We’ve got a sizeable problem (here in the United States), but it’s not new—over the past hundred years, fruit and vegetable farms in general have relied less and less on family and local labor, and more on immigrant and migrant labor. The H-2A program offers one of the best solutions to farms who need both skilled and unskilled farm employees for months at a time (but not year-round). Without it, the survival of farms in our region is threatened. The abuses cited in the Southern Poverty Law Center report are serious and disturbing, probably concentrated in the major vegetable producing areas in the West and South.

Getting the farm labor situation right–that is, getting it right for growers, farmworkers, policy makers, and consumers, all at once–is enormously complicated and difficult, as political conversations over the past ten years have proven. I’m a student of this dilemma. For background on farm labor, check out the USDA ERS newsletter Amber Waves April 2008.

There’s a website called Movie Mom that ends some of its reviews of films-the-whole-family-can-watch, with questions. Good questions. Sometimes, we actually sit around at home answering them when the film ends.

In that spirit: What impact will the economic downturn have on farm labor? Will local unemployed people turn toward agriculture for work, in a way they haven’t for a long time? If they do, will they be the reliable, consistent workforce that growers must have? If so, what will happen to the farmworkers they displace? If it takes a higher paid labor force to satisfy the needs of our economy and labor laws, is the American public ready and willing to pay more for food? Or, would the American public prefer to buy ever more from the global supply of cheaper fruits and vegetables, produced with farm labor overseas that is paid considerably less than what farmworkers earn here? What matters to you most?

More about the author

Michael Rozyne has been a marketer of small farm products for three decades. He worked on conventional and organic farms in Maine, and was Purchaser and Marketer for a regional food distributor in New England. He was cofounder of the fair trade coffee company, Equal Exchange. He started Red Tomato in 1996 and is now RT’s Co-Director. He lives with his partner Kimberly and two daughters in Middleborough, Massachusetts.

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