POLICY
Immigration reform threatens California agriculture and leaves farmers with an uncertain future.
13 states launch new legal challenge to California egg law
Trump Again Demands a Wall as Lawmakers Chase Immigration Deal
Some Democratic lawmakers indicate they will shut the government down unless something is done to the Deferred Action for Childhood Arrivals (DACA).
Produce growers are searching for long-term solutions not just a short-term fix when it comes to agricultural labor. However, lawmakers and the farming community are mixed when it comes to those different solutions. The Ag Guest worker Act, introduced by Chairman Bob Goodlatte cleared the House Judiciary Committee in late October. It’s designed to replace the H-2A Program. That’s not the only piece of legislation floating around Congress. Lawmaker Lamar Smith introduced legislation called the Legal Workforce Act, which could mandate employers to use the e-verify system to check legal status of agricultural employees. It’s a tug-of-war battle to see which piece of legislation proposed at roughly the same time will work for farmers. AgDay national reporter Betsy Jibben talked with West Coast produce growers Neil Nagata with Nagata Bros. Farms in Oceanside, Ca., and Al Stehly with Rockwood Ranch in Escondido, Ca., about their challenges and thoughts on potential legislation. Betsy also talked with Tom Nassif, president and CEO of Western Growers as well. Listen to the full AgDay segment above.
Producers are one step closer to a new guest worker program designed to get more agricultural labor help to operations. The Ag. Guest Worker Bill barely clearing the House Judiciary committee by a vote of 17 to 16 on Wednesday. The bill is designed to replace the current H2A program.
Climate change is expected to reduce the growth and stature of big bluestem, a dominant prairie grass, by up to 60% over the next 75 years.
The North American Free Trade Agreement is in its 23rd year. But there are growing doubts that it will survive through its 24th.
San Francisco has become the first U.S. city to require grocers with 25 stores or more to report annually the use of antibiotics in the raw meat and poultry they sell.
Trump Farm-Bill Outline Emphasizes Work as a Food-Stamp Goal
The 2019 United Fresh Washington Conference will feature several new elements on its agenda.
Massachusetts Democratic Rep. Jim McGovern will give the keynote address at the Sept. 17 opening general session breakfast at the United Fresh Washington Conference.
The 236-191 vote today goes beyond Republicans’ pledge to reverse the president’s November orders shielding about 5 million people in the U.S. from deportation.
Britain’s farmers rely on foreign workers to pick strawberries and raise chickens. Brexit puts that model at risk.
If President Donald Trump’s hardline stance on illegal immigration leads to large-scale deportations, among those hurt could be the U.S. economy.
Across America’s orchards and crop fields, a shrinking supply of migrants has already driven pay up faster than in the broader workforce. President Donald Trump’s immigration policy may turbocharge that trend.
Helping sub-Saharan African farmers modernize the way they raise crops, and doing the same for the continent’s agricultural system as a whole, stands to benefit everyone.
Decline of immigrant labor has spurred agricultural automation.
Officials in Vermont are looking at how to adress farm labor in the state should immigration policies change under the Trump administration.
A California farmer says Donald Trump’s campaign vow to deport millions of immigrants who are in the country illegally pushed him into buying more equipment, cutting the number of workers he’ll need during the next harvest. Others in California’s farming industry say Trump’s tough campaign talk targeting immigrants in the country illegally, including a vast number of farmworkers, spurred them into action, too.
The presidential inauguration is a little more than a week away and most of the incoming cabinet has been selected. Confirmation hearing are underway; however, the next head of the USDA is still unclear.
A recycled proposal in President Trump’s fiscal year 2021 budget seeking to incorporate food box deliveries to food stamp recipients is drawing protests from U.S. retail interests.
Lester Brown has spent his career making shrewd projections about the food, water, and energy people need to survive, and pushing governments to respond.
If it becomes law, it would put California at the forefront nationally of farm labor pay and mark a victory in the fight to improve farmworkers’ rights in a decade’s old movement launched by Cesar Chavez.
This million investment is in addition to existing funding for programs like the Environmental Quality Initiatives Program (EQIP), Rural Energy for America Program (REAP) and the Conservation Reserve Program (CRP).
The death of meaningful U.S. immigration reform, done in by Washington partisanship and Republican presidential candidate Donald Trump’s incendiary comments on foreigners, is leaving crops withering in the field and the farm lobby with nowhere to turn as a labor shortage intensifies.
Mark Diederichs wiped a splatter of manure from his arm as four Hispanic workers guided the next 44 cows into stalls, swabbed each animal’s teats with neon-blue disinfectant and attached computer-controlled milking-machine units.
A woman who illegally helped immigrants work at dairy farms in Michigan’s Thumb region was sentenced Wednesday to two years and three months in federal prison.
California is taking its fight against global warming to the farm. The nation’s leading agricultural state is now targeting greenhouse gases produced by dairy cows and other livestock.