Tag: labor

Retailers are facing fresh mushroom shortages as producers struggle to find labor for their operations, said Rachel Roberts, president of the American Mushroom Institute.

These most recent videos from the farm spark anger, frustration, and heartbreak. This is not a feel-good story about saving asparagus from food waste.

Yakima County Superior Court Judge Blaine Gibson ruled in favor of agriculture groups, prohibiting the State of Washington from enforcing unreasonable emergency COVID-19 regulations farm leaders say don’t incorporate best science, the arrival of vaccines, and are pushing farmers out of business.

To sum up the future perspective, labor costs for growing fruits and vegetables in the United States are likely to increase. Large-scale mechanization will probably occur over the next decade, but it’s not here yet.

Fruit and vegetable growers have looked with a longing eye to mechanization as a way out of the chronic labor shortage. Certainly, there have been developments, although progress has been piecemeal.

The current guest worker program in agriculture is the H-2A program. Its origins go back to the Immigration and Nationality Act of 1952, which created the H-2 category for temporary workers coming to the United States.

The produce industry’s labor difficulties stretch back decades before anyone had heard of the coronavirus—to the early twentieth century.

Produce industry professionals, when asked what their biggest problem is, will often answer, “labor.”

The legislation has some bipartisan support in the House, which will help in the Senate. But it probably won’t be enough.

A California technology company promises increased production, better safety and labor savings with its driverless tractor technology.