At the American Farm Bureau Federation’s 105th Convention, held this week in Salt Lake City, UT, delegates adopted policies to guide the organization’s work in 2024. Key topics ranged from artificial intelligence, to labor, to crop insurance. Recognizing the challenges of maintaining a strong agriculture workforce, delegates voted to stabilize wage rates for guest workers and revise H-2A and H-2B programs.
Indiana Farm Bureau President Randy Kron says there are several issues within the Adverse Wage Rate requirements that need updating.
“We have a number of members scattered all over the state, growing anywhere from tomatoes to watermelon, sweet corn, and cantaloupes, and most of those are harvested and planted by H-2A workers,” Kron said. “The last two years our members have been calling almost weekly because in the last two years, their wage rates have gone up twenty percent. So, a huge increase.”
In an interview before the delegates’ meeting, Kron pointed out more adjustments that he thinks are needed within the H-2A program.
“It needs to be updated. Part of the impact is the classification of the jobs. If they do one job for just a few minutes, they change to that (job title) the whole time and not just for a few minutes or maybe a day. And so, there’s a lot of things like that,” Kron said. “There needs to be more availability, make it easier. A lot of the workers that come to the farms that I’m familiar with are the same ones year after year. They have to go through the same process. It would be nice if they’ve been here a few years, to streamline the process to get them here.”
During the meeting, delegates decided AFBF may accept caps on the number of visas for a year-round agricultural worker program, should such an immigration deal come up in congress. This is a reversal of its years-long stance of opposing caps on labor visas to ensure the number of workers needed for crops around the nation.
This year, delegates argued that agreeing to a cap gives the AFBF a voice in the debate and would lead to a more favorable outcome than remaining against or even neutral to the idea. Some delegates remained firmly against the idea of accepting caps, however the majority voted to change the official policy.
In an email correspondence, a spokesperson for AFBF tells us of the policy, “Prior to Tuesday, we called for an uncapped year-round ag guest worker program. Today, we still call for an uncapped year-round ag guest worker program, but the new language will allow us to consider a cap (again, on a year-round program) so long as it doesn’t impede agriculture.”
