WASHINGTON, D.C. — Dairy farmers are the latest group to counter negative rhetoric on the campaign trail about immigrants and immigration.
“We cannot have national security without food security, and we cannot have food security without workers,” Gordon Speirs, a dairy farmer from Brillion, Wisconsin, and president of the Dairy Business Association (DBA), told AgWeb. “… Immigrant workers play a key role on dairies throughout the state. Without access to labor, some dairies would simply have to close.”
“Dairy farmers know their immigrant workers to be good, honest, and hardworking people,” added John Holevoet, director of government affairs for the DBA. “The campaign rhetoric so far has been hurtful and has made many workers unnecessarily apprehensive about their futures.”
“You take the Hispanic workforce away from agriculture, the price of food will go sky-high and you'll be looking at empty shelves,” dairy farmer Mike McMahon, from upstate New York, told CNN. “… I can tell you they're not taking jobs. They are filling holes. We need these people.”
Not just dairy farmers but the agriculture sector overall would take a huge hit were a mass-deportation approach to come to fruition.
“Apart from the toll such a plan would take on the deported immigrants, their families and the communities they’ve built, many Americans may not realize what it would do to one of the most basic components of their daily life: their diets,” Deena Shanker writes in Quartz.
She notes a Wall Street Journal report that labor shortages have brought about a 9.5 percent drop in American fruit and vegetable production. The result: a $3.1 billion annual loss.
Meanwhile, the American Farm Bureau Federation has predicted that “if agriculture were to lose access to all undocumented workers, agricultural output would fall by $30 to $60 billion … The immediate loss of this large a share of the general work force would cause economic chaos.”
“Immigrant workers are the lifeblood of American agriculture,” said Ali Noorani, executive director of the National Immigration Forum. “The draconian immigration policy promises coming from some candidates would wreak havoc on our country’s food industry, economy and our day-to-day lives.
“To keep more of our food made in America, we need immigration solutions that work for agriculture and for all of us.”
“We cannot have national security without food security, and we cannot have food security without workers,” Gordon Speirs, a dairy farmer from Brillion, Wisconsin, and president of the Dairy Business Association (DBA), told AgWeb. “… Immigrant workers play a key role on dairies throughout the state. Without access to labor, some dairies would simply have to close.”
“Dairy farmers know their immigrant workers to be good, honest, and hardworking people,” added John Holevoet, director of government affairs for the DBA. “The campaign rhetoric so far has been hurtful and has made many workers unnecessarily apprehensive about their futures.”
“You take the Hispanic workforce away from agriculture, the price of food will go sky-high and you'll be looking at empty shelves,” dairy farmer Mike McMahon, from upstate New York, told CNN. “… I can tell you they're not taking jobs. They are filling holes. We need these people.”
Not just dairy farmers but the agriculture sector overall would take a huge hit were a mass-deportation approach to come to fruition.
“Apart from the toll such a plan would take on the deported immigrants, their families and the communities they’ve built, many Americans may not realize what it would do to one of the most basic components of their daily life: their diets,” Deena Shanker writes in Quartz.
She notes a Wall Street Journal report that labor shortages have brought about a 9.5 percent drop in American fruit and vegetable production. The result: a $3.1 billion annual loss.
Meanwhile, the American Farm Bureau Federation has predicted that “if agriculture were to lose access to all undocumented workers, agricultural output would fall by $30 to $60 billion … The immediate loss of this large a share of the general work force would cause economic chaos.”
“Immigrant workers are the lifeblood of American agriculture,” said Ali Noorani, executive director of the National Immigration Forum. “The draconian immigration policy promises coming from some candidates would wreak havoc on our country’s food industry, economy and our day-to-day lives.
“To keep more of our food made in America, we need immigration solutions that work for agriculture and for all of us.”
