Alabama Agriculture Commissioner Rick Pate chooses his words carefully when he talks about the need for more legal guest workers on Alabama farms. Talking about any kind of immigration — even the long-standing, federal H2-A visa program that allows temporary immigrant labor in the agricultural industry — can quickly get political.
But Pate and others say more and more the visa program is keeping Alabama farms operational. “If you’re going to be in business, you have to have a workforce,” Pate told Alabama Daily News.
With record-low unemployment and lower-than-average labor participation, that local workforce isn’t available anymore. Produce farmers in Alabama have struggled to find workers for more than 20 years, said Blake Thaxton, executive director of the Alabama Fruit and Vegetable Association and director of the Alabama Farmer Federation’s Greenhouse, Nursery and Sod Division.
“But we’re seeing now (labor) become an issue in other parts of agriculture, like row crops and livestock,” Thaxton said.
Read more at aldailynews.com