Why Ag Labor Is a Growing Challenge Beyond the Farm
July 26, 2023 Ag labor has a public relations problem. Over the years I’ve been in the industry, I’ve noticed misinformation abounds. And it seems everyone outside of farming has a negative opinion about farm labor.
According to both conservatives and liberals I meet, agriculture is rife with illegal migrants. Depending on the speakers’ political bent, these illegals are robbing Americans of a living wage by being willing to work cheaply, or they’re being preyed upon by avaricious corporate farms. We all have heard these theories, and we’re all tired of setting the record straight.
Most of these views are misguided. But every so often, true abuses make headlines. Garnered wages, sexual assault, and even overtones of slavery hit the news every so often. Just about every time these truly awful cases come to light, the abusive employer isn’t a grower or farmer. It’s a labor contractor.
A full 70% of U.S. Labor Wage and Hour Division investigations of farms stem from contractors. And the violations investigated are more outrageous, according to a report from the Economic Policy Institute.
“A relative handful of ‘bad apples’ account for a large share of all violations and the back wages owed,” the report’s authors note. Those authors are an impressive lineup — Daniel Costa, Director of Immigration Law and Policy Research at EPI, Philip Martin, Professor of Agriculture and Resource Economics at the University of California, Davis, and Zachariah Rutledge, an applied economist with a Ph.D. from UC Davis.
In contrast, only 1.1% of farm employers are investigated in a given year, the report says.
How Are You Vetting Contractors?
I wanted to explore how vegetable growers ensure their contractors live up to their own standards, as well as gain insight into how common it is to hire contractors. So, we added those questions to our 2023 State of the Vegetable Industry survey.
From what I’ve seen when I visit farms, most contractors are just as careful to protect their workers as vegetable operations are. But those rare, corrupt contractors are a serious problem for our industry.
I asked renowned ag economist Dan Sumner (UC Davis) and Cornell’s agricultural workforce specialist Rich Stup to analyze those questions for our cover story. Both pointed out the weaknesses in how farms vet their contractors. Many more self-reported word-of-mouth than any other method. Those who take deeper steps like background checks, checking state, federal, and company records, and so on, are less common.
We must do better. I’d much rather discuss (for the 1,000th time) how few Americans apply for farm work than explain how a “bad apple” slipped through the cracks and actually committed crimes on our watch.
Oh, One More Thing
While we covered a great deal of the 2023 State of the Vegetable Industry survey results in the various articles in the July 2023 print issue, there are plenty more. Here are a few basic statistics not included elsewhere:
Thank You!
HM.CLAUSE generously supports our coverage of the American Vegetable Grower State of the Vegetable Industry survey.
Subscribe Today For
