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COVID-19 Shows Farm Labor System is Broken

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The coronavirus outbreak has exposed major flaws in the American farm labor system. 

Politico says that’s upping the pressure on the federal government to make migrant labor much more accessible to farmers.

It also highlights a lack of health and safety protections for these “essential” workers. 

Farmworkers who are still planting and harvesting crops have a higher than normal risk of being infected because they typically live, work, and travel in crowded conditions. 

Most don’t have any form of healthcare. 

Meanwhile, farmers are worried that the closure of U.S. embassies, especially in Mexico, will slow the flow of migrant labor into the U.S. 

That will make an already chronic labor shortage on produce, livestock, and nursery operations across the country that much worse. 

Farm labor lobbyists see an opportunity to slide labor provisions into an expected fourth stimulus bill that would provide some relief. 

Also, because food production has been declared a critical industry under federal guidelines, agriculture employers are giving undocumented farmworkers letters stating that they’re “essential.”

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