Search - The Packer

Mark Baker doesn’t mess around when it comes to teaching volunteer firefighters how to rescue someone trapped in a grain bin. Even when it’s a carefully controlled situation.

Growers and industry leaders are praising the Trump administration’s plan to overhaul the H-2A guest worker program, changing the way wages are determined and streamlining other parts.

UPDATED: The U.S. and Guatemala are pursuing a program to boost H-2A workers from that country, in an effort to stem what the Department of Homeland Security calls irregular migration patterns.

NEW YORK — Some of the state’s fresh produce industry leaders say the proposed New York Farm Laborer Fair Labor Practices Act will hurt the agricultural industry, but they are relieved for a bit of compromise.

Hundreds of mushroom industry growers, business leaders and researchers will gather in Orlando, Fla., Feb. 14-16 for the 25th North American Mushroom Conference.

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.

The 45th Annual Labor Relations Forum is set for Sept. 11-13 in Orlando, Fla.

The U.S. Department of Labor has signed a bi-lateral cooperative agreement with Guatemala to improve transparency, accountability, and worker safety in the H-2A visa program for agricultural workers from Guatemala.

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.