On Friday, Civil Eats published an in-depth report on two Trump administration actions that are affecting some of the farmers using the H-2A guestworker program in intersecting ways.
First, farmers report that the U.S. Department of Agriculture (USDA) has paused payments within the Farm Labor Stabilization Program, a Biden-era effort intended to help farmers offset the cost of hiring H-2A workers while improving conditions for those workers.
At the same time, the dismantling of the U.S. Agency for International Development (USAID) has interrupted efforts to increase the recruitment of H-2A workers from northern Central America.
Some farmers are now facing labor challenges as a result of both actions.
This story grew out of the daily reporting we’re doing here at the Food Policy Tracker; we have been talking to farmers around the country who alerted us to the freeze and the cuts, and we followed up with a number of labor recruiters and former USAID officials. Get the full story here. (Link to this post.)
The post Don’t Miss: How a USDA Freeze and USAID Cuts Are Hitting H-2A Farms appeared first on Civil Eats.