Florida farmers can thank Trump for the extreme labor scarcity

Nobody may’ve predicted that deporting your labor pressure would create a labor scarcity. Besides, in fact, everybody.

“There’s a lot of hoops you have to jump through to get certified—your housing, transportation,” mentioned Matt Parke, who runs operations at his household farm. Not solely do visa necessities improve prices and complexity of working issues but additionally “[a]fter the job’s done, they leave. So it’s expensive in a sense, but it’s a liable labor source,” he mentioned.

President Donald Trump delivers remarks at Taste First Growers and Packers in North Carolina in August 2020.

I’m unsure what he means by “liable.” Possibly he meant “reliable”? However even then, it might solely be dependable within the sense that staff present up when the visa permits. Seasonal visas don’t supply extra stability than the immigrants who used to stay round year-round, doing the exhausting work nobody else desires.

One other strawberry grower in Florida instructed NPR the crackdown is “killing farming. This is going to end us.” He can’t afford to rent many H-2A staff, so he’s slashing manufacturing to a couple of third of his normal output. And fewer provide means increased costs—and a gap for international growers to seize market share.

Parke admits the scarcity may imply decrease provide and better costs—due to course it does. Eradicate low cost labor, and prices go up. And with increased costs, international meals appears to be like extra enticing. Parke himself factors out that farmworkers in Mexico earn simply $5.20 a day, in comparison with greater than $100 within the U.S. Add tariffs, and imports can nonetheless undercut Florida strawberries.

Now the panic units in. 

“Anytime that there is a threat to not getting a safe, affordable and abundant food supply, it should be concerning to the American public,” Jeb Smith, president of the Florida Farm Bureau Federation, instructed NPR. “We do not want to be dependent on foreign countries for our food. That could be a very devastating reality.”

Don’t be shocked to be taught that 87% of the Florida Farm Bureau’s political donations within the 2024 election cycle went to Republicans, or that they’re massive followers of Republican Gov. Ron DeSantis. Oh, they usually love President Donald Trump. 

Mass deportations imply increased prices for farmers, increased costs on the grocery retailer, and, ultimately, international competitors undercutting U.S. growers. And when Republican-voting farms go bankrupt consequently, inform me once more—how does any of this make America nice?