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Rouge River Farms, a sweet corn grower in Florida, Georgia, Virginia and Ontario, has all of its U.S. operations certified by the Equitable Food Initiative.

Farm labor floats to the top of all fresh produce concerns, and thus any report that takes a comprehensive look at the issue is worth exploring.

Equitable Food Initiative has created a free responsible recruitment scorecard, available in English and Spanish.

Drawing broad bipartisan and industry support, House lawmakers on Oct. 30 introduced the Farm Workforce Modernization Act.

Beyond adding new companies to the program and a big influx of financial support, the Equitable Food Initiative has made a difference in 2019, the organization’s leaders believe.

Farmers who use the H-2A guest worker program are facing COVID-19-related delays in the processing and approval of those workers.

Democratic lawmakers, Farmworker Justice and the Environmental Working Group are pushing for new federal protections for farm and food workers in the next coronavirus stimulus legislation.

With two minimum wage increases in the past year for Ontario growers and another likely for next year, higher costs for labor have slowed any expansion ideas, some say.

Though the H-2A guest worker program has helped soften the crisis, farm labor remains a top issues for Santa Maria growers.

Salinas, Calif.-based D’Arrigo Bros. of California signed a new contract with the United Farm Workers union that will cover more than 1,500 farm workers, according to a news release.