Shay Myers aired his frustrations with Farm Labor Shortages

[Budi]

This is the flip side of "people aren't filling jobs cuz they just want to collect stimy checks & sit on unemployment"
🤬🖕🏼

OR:
WHO HALTED FARM LABORERS AT THE BORDER? TRUMP!

APRIL, 2021

Farmer Shay Myers makes the case while giving credit where credit is due.

"With a TikTok video that garnered more than 2.4 million views, 460,000 likes and 30,000 comments in two days, Shay Myers aired his frustrations with farm labor shortages and the H-2A guest worker program.

Filming in an otherwise empty asparagus field, Myers, general manager of Owyhee Produce, Nyssa, Ore., posted the video April 20 on Tik Tok and LinkedIn."

Video at link: (I cannot copy it, anyone wanna try?)
https://www.thepacker.com/news/industry/myers-tiktok-video-lost-asparagus-field-garners-millions-views

**Here's the text:

“There is going to be roughly 350,000 pounds of asparagus in this field that is going to go to waste,” Myers said in the video. “None of this beautiful crop is going to get harvested because we don’t have the labor to get it picked.”

Delays in delivery of H-2A workers meant the firm had no one available to pick the asparagus crop, and no local labor was available at $16 per hour.

Myers pointed to dysfunctional policies where thousands of undocumented migrants who cannot legally work in the U.S. are crossing the border.

“How can we hope to have a safe and secure food supply in this country when we can’t even get our crops picked?”

Michael Marsh, president of the National Council of Agricultural Employers, :
“It’s a complex regulatory scheme with multiple agencies involved, so it is challenging to ensure that all processes will operate smoothly.”

Broader problem:

Myers said labor shortages are happening across many industries, including restaurants and other parts of the food chain.

“Those of us who are here, who have worked through this entire pandemic, to feed you, no longer have the people to help us to do our jobs. These are the results,” Myers said in video, pointing to the vast unpicked asparagus field.

Myers said he does not have all the answers, but legislation like the Farmworker Modernization Act is a start.

“(People) have got to realize we can’t mechanize everything that we do,” he said in the video. “We’re investing as quickly and aggressively as we can in automation.
But in the meantime, we still have to survive and have an income, and we still need the American people to have their food.”

Speaking with The Packer April 22, Myers said his frustrations aired in the video speak to bureaucracy and processes in the H-2A program that can delay delivery of workers. The H-2A program works and is valuable but it does have flaws, he said.

Recently, Myers said Owyhee Produce recently experienced delays with the U.S. Customs agency processing of workers.

“If anything goes wrong, if everything doesn’t go perfectly, you are in this situation like the one we’re in right now,” he said.

Myers stressed that the issue goes beyond the H-2A program.

“I want people to understand that it’s not just the H-2A issue, but we have a chronic labor shortage in this country right now,” he said. “It is devastating for not just farmers ... it is widespread.”

Myers said the comments his posts receive on TikTok can either be uplifting or very demeaning..

What the high number of views and shares on TikTok does demonstrate, he said, is the high level of interest and concern people have about food waste, labor and border issues.

In a subsequent TikTok video, Myers invited social media followers to come to the field on April 24 to pick up to 100 pounds of asparagus for their families.

“We are going to let them come in and pick away as long as we can manage the crowd and make sure they are not doing damage to the field.”

MORE....
https://www.thepacker.com/news/industry/myers-tiktok-video-lost-asparagus-field-garners-millions-views

[MagickMuffin]

1. Joe to the rescue

This is a very important topic. Our food sources and the manual labor it needs to harvest the crops is imperative for our survival. I guess the white folk don't want the jobs the Mexicans are willing to do.


But come on all you white supremacists get your raggedy old clothes and get ye to the fields to pick our produce. You definitely moaned about POC taking "your" jobs. Well, here's your chance to own us Libs by being productive. Come on Proud Boys, Booglooboys, III%ers, oath keepers. Help Wanted come and be productive for once.

[Budi]

3. "guess the white folk don't want the jobs the Mexicans are willing to do."

Didn't GW Bush make that statement?
Geez, he was perhaps taking a different direction with it at the time, but today's situation somehow gives GW's words a rather prophetic quality.
Who knew, huh?
😏

[Budi]

2. Farm Workforce Modernization Act, H.R. 1603/ D-CA Rep Lofgren - R-WA Rep Newhouse

March 2021, Representatives Zoe Lofgren (D-CA) and Dan Newhouse (R-WA) reintroduced the Farm Workforce Modernization Act, H.R. 1603, which creates a workforce solution for America’s agriculture industry by providing stability, predictability, and fairness to one of the most critical sectors of our nation’s economy.

The bill, which passed the House of Representatives with strong bipartisan support in the 116th Congress, aims to provide a compromise solution that makes meaningful reforms to the H-2A agricultural guestworker program and creates a first-of-its-kind, merit-based visa program specifically designed for the nation’s agricultural sector.

*Establishes a program for agricultural workers in the United States to earn legal status through continued agricultural employment and contribution to the U.S. agricultural economy.

*Reforms the H-2A program to provide more flexibility for employers, while ensuring critical protections for workers.

*Focuses on modifications to make the program more responsive and user-friendly for employers and provides access to the program for industries with year-round labor needs.

In the 116th Congress, the bill garnered support from over 300 agriculture organizations.

[stillcool]

4. well look at that!

maybe his solution is a vote away. Wonder if he knows.

[Budi]

5. He does & referred to it in one of his videos/posts.

He's def on board with the FM Act & what it provides, both for production of farm to table as well as opportunities for migrants staying in this country.

He sees the bigger picture as a circle of farm life, with everyone having a necessary place in the function of planting, to harvest, to feeding people.
He just wants the red-tape of migrant policy to end.

Thus, the newly born Farm Modernization Act has got to be up & fully running asap.
They need to completely gut the old policies holding up the show, 1st.

I've read that changing the Federal level policies are doable, but there are also STATE Level Migrant & Farm related policies that are problematic when trying to simplify old & new laws.

Tangled hot mess!