Myers TikTok video on lost asparagus field garners millions of views

With a TikTok video that garnered more than 2.4 million views, 460,000 likes and 30,000 comments in two days, Shay Myers aired his frustrations with farm labor shortages and the H-2A guest worker program.

Filming in an otherwise empty asparagus field, Myers, general manager of Owyhee Produce, Nyssa, Ore., posted the video April 20 on Tik Tok and LinkedIn.

“There is going to be roughly 350,000 pounds of asparagus in this field that is going to go to waste,” Myers said in the video. “None of this beautiful crop is going to get harvested because we don’t have the labor to get it picked.”

Delays in delivery of H-2A workers meant the firm had no one available to pick the asparagus crop, and no local labor was available at $16 per hour.

Myers pointed to dysfunctional policies where thousands of undocumented migrants who cannot legally work in the U.S. are crossing the border.

“How can we hope to have a safe and secure food supply in this country when we can’t even get our crops picked?”

Michael Marsh, president of the National Council of Agricultural Employers, said there have been some issues with delays with H-2A workers this year.

“I’m not sure it’s more than we’ve had in prior years,” he said. “It’s a complex regulatory scheme with multiple agencies involved, so it is challenging to ensure that all processes will operate smoothly.”

Broader problem

Myers said labor shortages are happening across many industries, including restaurants and other parts of the food chain.

“Those of us who are here, who have worked through this entire pandemic, to feed you, no longer have the people to help us to do our jobs. These are the results,” Myers said in video, pointing to the vast unpicked asparagus field.

Myers said he does not have all the answers, but legislation like the Farmworker Modernization Act is a start.

“(People) have got to realize we can’t mechanize everything that we do,” he said in the video. “We’re investing as quickly and aggressively as we can in automation. But in the meantime, we still have to survive and have an income, and we still need the American people to have their food.”

Speaking with The Packer April 22, Myers said his frustrations aired in the video speak to bureaucracy and processes in the H-2A program that can delay delivery of workers. The H-2A program works and is valuable but it does have flaws, he said.

Recently, Myers said Owyhee Produce recently experienced delays with the U.S. Customs agency processing of workers.

“If anything goes wrong, if everything doesn’t go perfectly, you are in this situation like the one we’re in right now,” he said.

Myers stressed that the issue goes beyond the H-2A program.

“I want people to understand that it’s not just the H-2A issue, but we have a chronic labor shortage in this country right now,” he said. “It is devastating for not just farmers ... it is widespread.”

Myers said the comments his posts receive on TikTok can either be uplifting or very demeaning, while comments on LinkedIn are generally valuable commentary.

What the high number of views and shares on TikTok does demonstrate, he said, is the high level of interest and concern people have about food waste, labor and border issues.

In a subsequent TikTok video, Myers invited social media followers to come to the field on April 24 to pick up to 100 pounds of asparagus for their families.

“We are going to let them come in and pick away as long as we can manage the crowd and make sure they are not doing damage to the field.”